Insight into Publishing Event at Hachette

 

 

 

 

 

On the 4 November, Veronica Morgan and I were lucky enough to be selected to attend the Insight into publishing event run by Hachette Careers. It was the second such event run by Hachette and both have been hugely successful. The events are designed, as the name suggests, to give people who are considering working the publishing industry more information and an idea about what working in the industry entails. Since the first event, 2 people who attended now have jobs at Hachette and more have undertaken work experience so attending the event is a huge opportunity for prospective publishers. From the point of view of an MA publishing student, it was great to see how much we have learned and to meet so many industry professionals.

 

After arriving at the beautiful building Hachette calls home and admiring the views from the 14^th floor, we sat down and opened our goody bags and our minds. The first panel was ‘The life of the Book’, chaired by Martin Neild. We heard from representatives from many different departments, including editorial, marketing, production, rights and sales which showed the attendees that publishing is not all about editorial. Every department deals with books and they are all exciting!

After the panel, we got a chance to network with the speakers at lunch. This is one thing that has been highlighted over and over again as I learn more about publishing – networking and personal relationships are very important in publishing. It is also an extremely friendly, open and passionate environment – so don’t be scared. After lunch, we heard from new and up and coming departments – digital and consumer insight. It was fascinating and exciting to hear how to the industry is evolving.

Next, there was a panel of recent employees who got their positions through various means, including work experience and our course. It was great to see people, just a few years ahead of us who are working in the industry and obviously enthusiastic about their jobs!

 

Lots of tweeting went on during the event and if you don’t have twitter already then it’s a great place to learn about the industry and keep up to date with publishing news. If you’re interested in reading more about the event, check out #InsightintoPublishing. The whole event was also live-tweeted by @jobsinbooks. If you still haven’t heard enough – keep your eye on Hachette careers, it would be a shame if they didn’t run the event again.