Publishing careers

Departments - Marketing and publicity

Marketers in publishing face some unusual challenges. For one thing, they have two very different markets – booksellers and the end consumer. A publisher of a new fiction book may therefore start off by promoting it to the trade, through trade magazine ads, etc. and then, months later, promote it through point of sale material in bookshops (if the campaign to the bookshops was successful!) and poster ads at railway stations.

Marketers will also be involved in producing book blurbs, catalogues, website copy and other online promotional tools. Some high profile authors have recently been successfully promoted through social networking sites, while some books have their own dedicated 'mini-sites'.

Entry level jobs do come up in marketing (normally for marketing assistants) and here, it's as important to demonstrate an interest in marketing as in publishing. A marketing or business-related degree is sometimes an advantage, as is a CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) qualification, but often there is no such requirement.

Publicity is related to marketing, but focuses on such things as events (including book launches, signings, etc.) and editorial coverage in the trade or national press. This could mean getting your author interviewed in a magazine that's likely to be popular with his or her readers or getting your book reviewed by the literary editor of a national newspaper. The process can be hit and miss, with no guarantees. This is unlike marketing, since you are not paying for advertising space, but are trying to persuade journalists that your book is more worthy of column inches than all the others. A thick skin is therefore essential if you want to work in this field! This work is often outsourced to PR agencies (who may have better, pre-existing relationships with the journalists you want to contact), who also sometimes recruit for entry level positions.

> Next: Departments - Rights