April 1, 2025, by Jackie Thompson

My route into a career in publishing

By Lucy Clark, graduate

I graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2022 with a degree in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) and absolutely no idea of what career I wanted to pursue. It was only when I moved back home after university and dedicated some real time to thinking about my interests (literature, history, languages and culture), strengths and skills that I discovered publishing as a potential career path.

Where to start

The first step I took in pursuing a career in publishing was research, and lots of it. I looked into different publishing companies and literary agencies, different roles within them, internships, publishing blogs and attended University of Nottingham Career events. There is a huge range of entry-level roles in publishing, including editorial, marketing, publicity, sales, operations, audio, design, rights, production and contracts.

I also contacted the University of Nottingham Careers team, who were extremely helpful with advice about the industry as well as job applications. This research helped me understand the types of roles I was interested in, while the career sessions gave me the confidence to apply for roles when I had no publishing experience.

Through LinkedIn, I also reached out to Nottingham alumni working in the industry for advice, and it was through one of these conversations that someone suggested gaining experience through volunteering for The Publishing Post, an online magazine for publishing hopefuls.

I began volunteering as a features writer and later also took on the role of website editor. This was a great way to gain publishing experience as there are a variety of roles at the magazine – website editors, proofreaders, social media and features writers in more than 30 teams – and I hadn’t found any success in applying for paid internships at publishing houses as they are extremely competitive.

Applying for jobs

I was working in a café at the time I was applying for jobs, so while I was gaining transferable skills and volunteering for The Publishing Post, I still spent a full year and a half applying for jobs before I was successful in landing my first role. It’s so important to not feel disheartened (easier said than done) if your job search is long and you don’t have much success, as publishing is a competitive industry.

The route I eventually took to land my first role in publishing was through a specialist publishing recruitment agency, Inspired Selection, which I would really recommend as publishing recruiters have a wide variety of roles.

My first role was Sales Support Executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Gale, which is an academic publisher specialising in digital resources. This was a great entry-level opportunity, and my role involved assisting the sales team with administrative support, drafting licence agreements, processing orders and working with customers to resolve queries.

This was a year-long contract, but I was fortunate that as my contract was coming to an end, another role became available in the same team, and so I recently started my new role as Inside Sales Executive for Eastern Europe. The skills and knowledge I gained in my first role are extremely helpful in my current role, but I am now working with customers directly to find business opportunities and sell our products to the Eastern European market.

Things to remember

1 Do your research – you’ll discover there are roles in trade and academic publishing as well as literary agencies.

2 Find what interests you – think about what excites you and what your strengths are, and look for roles that align with that.

3 Keep an open mind – lots of roles require similar skills, so especially for entry-level roles, apply to a range of roles as the skills you’ll gain will be transferable to different roles in publishing.

4 Take any opportunity to gain experience – do you live near a bookshop? Apply for a part-time job or volunteer. Enjoy writing or editing? Volunteer for one of the University of Nottingham magazines, such as Impact or Her Campus Nottingham. Or volunteer for The Publishing Post. Be sure to explore all options to gain any experience, as it may not be that easy to get into a paid internship programme.

5 Look for jobs in a range of places – some great places to look for publishing jobs are The Bookseller, Guardian Jobs, follow publishers on LinkedIn and work with specialist publishing recruiters.

If you’re not sure what you want to do, talk to one of our advisers by booking an appointment on MyCareer. We have an A to Z of careers that UoN graduates move into, and we can help with all aspects of the recruitment process.

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