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Publishing.

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
anyone got any experience of this? how to get into it? things to try?

i'm looking mainly at book and magazine publishing, but would consider anything as a way in. i just really have no idea.

that's bad, isn't it?

so yeah, if you can help me out, feel free to share.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't know about this first-hand, but my brother graduated with a BA English Literature with Creative Writing in 2003 and has just got his first work experience placement at a large national Magazine (until now he's been working at Curry's and on a constant job-hunt, unfortunately) so I have so say it seems like it's pretty difficult to get your foot on the ladder, especially in terms of paid work.

    What he did was create a portfolio thingy (articulate!) encompassing his writing experience and talent, and his passion for automobiles :rolleyes: which were the magazines he identified as those he wanted to work on. He sent a CV and covering letter to all the related magazines and companies possible, explaining how passionate (and qualified) he was, how eager to learn, and how he'd developed a portfolio of relevant pieces of work. The two (out of about twenty) that offered him an informal chat/interview looked at this portfolio and one of then got back to him, offering him a 6 month work-experience (read: unpaid) placement. It's in London, it's not exactly glamorous and it's a lot of hard work (according to him) so he's had to be very pliable and willing to adapt to where they'll take him. He's known as a Temporary Editorial Assistant (I don't know if this kind of thing is even interesting to you) and he basically deals with unsolicited mail, reading some manuscripts and a lot of general admin work. Not ideal by a long stretch, but he's happy to have made even a little headway.

    Anyway, I'm probs being no help, because I reckon you'll have considered all this before...but it seems that work experience or voluntary placements (either for a stretch of time intensively, or one day a week) are the most common way to get into it [magazine journalism anyway]. I think it probs involves a lot of tea/coffee making, photocopying etc...and you could probably get this job in a normal office for £££ of course. It just seems to be invaluable experience.

    Sorry this is so unstructured, was just typing stuff as it came into my head :D Hope someone else replies with something sensible :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    oooh, thanks for that.

    i've been looking into it, and have found a few graduate training places to apply for - they're all with small book publishing companies, which is right up my street, so am crossing my fingers. have also applied for a tonnage of related jobs, mostly with local papers and websites. it's gotta be a start.

    have also been talking to my dad (who used to be in charge of recruitment for his company) and my mum (who used to work for a publisher) and they're helping me out too. it's not what you know ;)

    anyway, yeah. jobhunting is a nightmare. am temping atm, and have been looking for work since april. but, it's the summer holidays, and all the students have stolen any job possible, so hopefully come autumn there will be a lot more to go around. i'm hoping, anyway.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You're very welcome, had a bit of random knowledge about it so why not pass it on :D

    Course perseverance is key, seems like you're chasing up lots of different possibilities so one of them is bound to come through! Good luck :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hi Kaffrin
    Yeah, Briggi's absolutely right. I started off in magazine journalism before I came here and the only reason I got my first job was because I had a tonne of work experience on my CV. Unfortunately, it's so competitive that you have to be prepared to work for nothing for a while - which can be very difficult. If you're a student, try to use your holidays on placements (but they get booked up VERY early, so apply months in advance). Write to all the book publishers and magazines that appeal to you with your CV and always say something personal about the company/ mag and why you think they're great (they love that!)
    Post-grad course can also be useful - especially for journalism - but again expensive.
    Finally, we run excellent work experience placements at TheSite - if you can get down to london to do it? Here's the link explaining more about it - if you fancy it email me three feature ideas and your CV and we'll see what we can do (PusyKatty just came and did two weeks and was fantastic!)

    Hope that helps - if you need any more help then drop me a PM/ email.

    Good luck
    ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    argh. would love to do a bit of work experience, but can't afford to stay in london. grrr. i'm having this problem with all the companies i've found who openly offer it.

    next step, i guess, is to write to all the companies in yorkshire asking if they'll take me for a few weeks.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yep, that's a great idea. Go to your local library and ask for a book called Willett's (I think!) - it's a huge directory of all the publiching companies for books/ mags in the UK - or get a copy of the Guardian's Media Guide which has a similar thing ona smaller scale.
    Good luck
    :)
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