Book Publishing Careers

The big five (see list below) are highly competitive and you are unlikely to have success unless you have previous experience or know someone.  The big five dominate the market in terms of revenue.  This page breaks down the details:  https://wordsrated.com/the-big-five-publishers-statistics/

  • Penguin Random House.
  • Hachette.
  • HarperCollins.
  • Macmillan.
  • Simon & Schuster.

Everyone wants the editorial side so if you are willing to look at other departments, you may have more success. Some people have success getting in this way and later switching to editorial. http://www.bookjobs.com/major-to-department-guide  has a good list of departments with descriptions.

Rumors are that the big five hire full-time employees out of the publishing courses. These publishing courses are expensive and come with no guarantees.  One popular option, the Denver Publishing Insititute (DPI), a 4-week course, is $5000 plus a required $500 meal plan. If you live in the residence hall, add another $1725. Dickinson has 10 alumni listed on LinkedIn who have attended DPI and three from the Columbia Publishing Course.

https://journalism.columbia.edu/cpc

https://liberalarts.du.edu/publishing

Literary agencies are the cousins to publishers and people cross over all the time. There are many literary agencies and internships may be less competitive.

Publishing industry is predominantly white and female, and people are noticing, and wanting to hear from more diverse voices, which is encouraging for candidates who come from diverse backgrounds. Here’s a podcast which explores this issue:  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/31/podcasts/the-daily/the-sunday-read-inside-the-push-to-diversify-the-book-business.html

Useful websites:

http://www.bookjobs.com/ has a site specifically for internships.

https://www.mediabistro.com/  “Careers for Graphic Designers, Copywriters, Social Media Managers, Proofreaders and More.”  Use for free content only. Beware of in-app purchases that may not be worth the 14.99/month charge or $149 for writing a resume.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/home/index.html  “PW” is the bible of the book industry.  Keep up to date with the publishing industry, book reviews, news articles,

https://reedsy.com/  Freelance work in the industry.

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