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If you could temp work experience in any book publishers which would you choose?

Poll

Favourite Publishing Group

I'll come back to this thread and post my own answers later as I am busy atm, but if you got the chance to do two weeks of work experience at any book publishing firm who would you choose?

Random House Publishing
Picador
Bloomsbury
Penguin Books
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Heinemann
Scholastic
Other

This is based on the company's reputation, it's total yearly output of books, the quality/type of books published, how distinguished it's list of writers is etc..

For those who have worked in/are working in the publishing industry what tips would you give someone who is on a work experience programme or doing an internship? :smile:

I've posted this in the Books forum because I am looking for specific advice rather than a general careers advice.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

jamieee

i think this is a career i might like to go into, but ive still got 3 years of uni, so a long way off yet.

OP are you currently doidg work experience? how did u get placement etc?

sorry i know im going off your original topic,just interested

Reply 2

Kater Murr

It's gotta be Penguin, hasn't it? For modern literature though, a publisher you didn't include - Vintage.

Penguin for me too.

Out of that list I'd go for Penguin or Random House, because they're two of the leading publishers world-wide and there are more things to be learnt at a large publishing house than at a tiny one - unless I happened to be specifically interested in gaining work experience at a smaller publishing house or one which specialises in children's books or academic books, in which case I'd go for Bloomsbury, Scholastic or OUP/CUP respectively.
Two weeks is a very short time, though.

Reply 5

brimstone

I'd say Penguin, as (apart from Bloomsbury and Harry Potter) it's the only one from which I can name books they've published.

Reply 6

Reblet

I've done some work experience at Penguin so loyalty and the fact that they are one of the top publishers in the world make me vote them :biggrin:

haha.

Also did work experience at Scholastic, but it's not quite the same :rolleyes:

Reply 7

billyboymccoy

What kinda jobs are people interested in at publishers?? I've never really thought about it .

Reply 8

hobnob

billyboymccoy

What kinda jobs are people interested in at publishers?? I've never really thought about it .

Most people want to work as editors as far as I know.

Reply 9

Kink

I had work experience at Random House!
It was great, modern and busy!

Reply 10

Milady de Winter

Murr

It's gotta be Penguin, hasn't it? For modern literature though, a publisher you didn't include - Vintage.

Vintage is an imprint of Random House, so I assume you would actually work for RH, but be assigned to Vintage?

Reply 11

affinity89

Virago Press

That would be amazing...

Reply 12

Kink

Is there actually any publishers in the midlands? If anyone knows, please tell!

Reply 13

Reblet

There's a branch of Scholastic in Leamington but all the decent placements are in London to be honest...

Reply 14

Piano Thing

I did a week's work experience at Bloomsbury a couple of years ago, and I would not advise that anyone else went there. I got shoved in the publicity department for the whole week, despite asking several times to see/speak to the in house editors (my only real interest). All I did was photocopy book covers and attempt to palm these leaflets off on people - and I hate trying to sell people things they don't ask for. The only cool thing that happened all week was that I had to sign a Harry Potter secrecy contract, and I found out the released month of Deathly Hallows - but of course this wouldn't happen any more.

I think Vintage would be a good one, like Murr said.

Reply 15

bright-eyes

But surely working for a small company would give a person more responsibility than for a larger, more expansive company? Random House take ages to respond to emails and I was wondering if perhaps a smaller, less well known company might suit me better-as I could see how the publishing sector works from the ground up rather than just be stuck making tea for staff, by working in maybe a larger, more regional company?

@PianoThing: Was the work experience at Bloomsbury that bad? Was thinking of applying there.

Piano Thing
I did a week's work experience at Bloomsbury a couple of years ago, and I would not advise that anyone else went there.

Reply 16

Reblet

My friend has a summer job at a small independant publishers and although she doesn't really have that much responsibility she does get to see all aspects of publishing.

Reply 17

hobnob

Well, personally I'd prefer a bigger publisher, simply because they're doing things on a bigger scale and their decisions can affect the whole business in a way a smaller publisher's decisions never could. This may sound a bit shallow, but I reckon I'd just find that a bit more exciting than pottering around with the publication of obscure titles which few people are going to buy, let alone read. :dontknow:

Also, if I was doing work experience at a publishing house, one of the key things I'd be interested in would be seeing how it's structured and how well structure works in practice (i.e. how different departments cooperate etc), so bigger publishing houses would be more interesting to look at for that, because obviously a clear efficient structure is more important there than at a small publishing house where nearly everybody does nearly everything.