Tuesday 16 October 2012

My Work Experience - Publishing

So I am currently sat at my desk at my work experience placement taking a break (ahem) from doing a bit of events promotion, so I thought I would write a quick post about my time here.


I am working at a small independent publishing house, called Comma Press, located in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. This particular publishing house specialises in publishing collections and anthologies of short stories. I've known for a couple of years that working in publishing is something I wanted to do after I left university, but had little knowledge of the industry. After looking around and applying for a handful of internships in London, I decided to try contacting independent publishers back up north.

I mailed around, with a concise covering letter and my CV attached, explaining what I wanted to gain from a work experience placement with each publisher. Comma were extremely friendly and helpful and arranged a start date for me.

I have been working here since the beginning of September, mainly helping with events promotion (using social networking - Twitter, Facebook etc) and sending out email invitations.
I have also been proof-reading material for upcoming publications. This may sound dull, but it is my favourite part of the job! 

I am overjoyed to be a part of Comma, as they have been extremely accommodating and flexible. I currently work here one day a week.

Tips when looking for work experience:
  • If/when emailing a company you want to work for be clear and concise. No waffling (a bit rich coming from me, I know). State your case and availability.
  • Have a decent CV ready to send out - I highly doubt my CV is anywhere near as good as it should be, but it has all the necessities on there. Also explain in your email why a placement at the particular company would be beneficial to you - tailor each email to each particular company - make it personal and professional.
  • Be flexible - I know this can sometimes be tough, but the company has no obligation to offer you any placement, so if possible, work when is best for the company. I am extremely lucky that my current placement is very flexible and take into account the fact I am a third year student, and therefore cannot work as often as I would like.
  • Be persistent. I emailed a different publishing house in February looking for work experience, however, they were booked up until the end of July. Instead of accepting this, I emailed again in June and got myself a few days work experience in November.
I hope this has been interesting/informative (if not I have a couple of beauty posts due later this week so keep an eye out for them!)

Thanks for reading x

4 comments:

  1. Great tips, it sounds like you are gaining some really valuable experience and having fun too! Keep up the good work xxx

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  2. An interesting post, it sounds like great experience - I completed a publishing internship at Simon and Schuster and loved it.

    Proof-reading was one of my favourite things to do too, I found it exciting knowing I was part of the process before general publication and could get sneak peaks of future bestsellers!

    Best of luck for the rest of your placement,

    Stacey x

    www.staceymdove.blogspot.co.uk

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