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people who work for publishers:
is it good? does it pay really badly at first? is it really hard to get into? did you do internships? were they fun?
i'm really interested in publishing but i fear that its really competitive and i wouldnt have a chance of getting in, or that it wouldnt live up to my expectations or something.
Yes it does pay badly
and not just at first. You get paid badly and as you go up the ladder as you get paid relatively to how much you started on.
I love it though. I suggest if you love books you are guaranteed to like publishing. I ended up in Rights when I planned to go into Sales or Marketing/Publicity which is really interesting.
If you have a decent degree, are willing to do some work experience and are a competent worker you'll be fine.
I can PM you the address to send a CV and a cover letter to the admin department at my work if you like so you can apply for some work experience?
is it good?
i find that depends upon whether you have an interest in the subject you'll be publishing. that may not be relevant, depending on what department you went into...for example if you're in marketing its not so important. personally i do chemistry editorial and have no interest in chemistry, so i'm finding it a chore, but other than that its really easy, the people are nice, its quite a non-stressy environment.
does it pay really badly at first?
depends who you work for. i started on £17,000 on my first job out of uni. thats the lowest full time salary in my company. i was up to 17,500 within 6 months without being promoted.
is it really hard to get into?
no, there are vacancies all the time here and in other companies i know of. maybe london is harder...
did you do internships? were they fun?
no. i just started.
i work at john wiley & sons in chichester. although we may be wiley-blackwell soon cos we just bought their ASS.
It pays pretty badly
they say you are doing well if your salary matches your age, basically. There will be very few big salary drops.
I started off at the Royal College of Psychiatrists publications dept (I am a science graduate) on about 19k editing their journals and text books. Now I work for Macmillan, I've been here for 3 years and I'm on my 2nd promotion. I'm 27 years old and I'm on just over 28k as a layout design/production person.
It's more boring and repetetive than you think, and the people here are pretty dull/studious/sensible. I would love to go and work on a music magazine, but they tend to cherry pick people they want.
I still waitress for extra money and write music reviews for a website my friend works on for 10p a word. every little helps!
In hindsight i would not go into it. Very competetive, low wage, not that fun. I could have trained to do other things, be no more bored and be earning a fortune by now. not that I am bitter. haha
*salary jumps not drops
sorry
urgh, wiley hehe!
I do chemistry editorial too, but I'm a chemistry gratuate.
Anyhow, I think journals is probably easier to get into that books. Friends who work for penguin etc in fiction all started off on unpaid internships pretty much. I walked into a graduate traineeship which paid, though not much.
Fun? Dull and repetative like many jobs but I like using my brain and on the whole enjoy it. In addition I work a very civilised 35 hour week, giving me time to enjoy my (low) salary. So yes, it is unlikely you will get rich doing this.
It's fine for now, I'll probably try and change jobs slightly fairly soon, but to something equally, if not more, lowly paid.