With enthusiasm, a passion for books and (some) knowledge of the publishing industry you could land your ideal role in publishing.

Increasingly, publishers are making efforts to attract diverse job applicants from a variety of backgrounds and new ways in are opening up for the next generation of book publishers even at the big names, such as Penguin Random House.

At this online event you’ll be hear from three publishing professionals who’ll tell you all about what a career in publishing looks like, and how you too can get a foot in the door:

Donna Greaves, Agency Assistant at Jo Unwin Literary Agency
Donna Greaves has been an agency assistant at Jo Unwin Literary Agency since 2017. She trained and worked as a speech and language therapist for six years, before changing careers aged thirty. She is working towards acquiring her own list of clients across fiction and non-fiction and is interested in the stories of what makes us who we are.

Hannah Bond, Publishing Executive at Bookouture
Hannah studied English at university, and had several jobs before getting into publishing, including administrative positions and working as a chef. She began her career in publishing at Orion, then moved to Hodder & Stoughton, where she worked with authors such as David Nicholls, Erin Kelly, Mike Gayle and Sabine Durrant. She joined Bookouture, a digital-first publisher of commercial fiction, in May 2019 and works on the editorial team. 

Marie-Louise Patton, Communications Assistant at Faber & Faber
Marie-Louise Patton (M-L) gained a BA joint honours degree in English Literature, Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Strathclyde in 2017 and an MA in Publishing Media from Oxford Brookes University in 2019. She joined Faber & Faber as Communications Assistant in August 2019. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @marielouisespp.

Chris Peribor, Content Manager at Pearson
Chris studied a BA in History at Durham 2003-6, then a MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes 2007-8. At the end of 2008, he joined Boardworks, a small digital educational publisher, as an Editorial Assistant. Whilst there, he worked on Secondary School resources across a wide range of subjects for both the UK and the US. In 2012, Chris joined Pearson as a Project Editor, working on direct to learner products for UK schools, including revision guides and The Maths Factor. He moved to the International Curriculum team in 2015 as a Commissioning Editor working on International GCSE and International A Level resources for global markets. Since January, he has been Content Manager, leading this team.

Come with your questions and find out if publishing might be for you!

What’s in it for me?
– Hear from successful publishing professionals about contemporary job and internship opportunities in publishing
– Learn how the industry has been changing and modernising
– Pick up insights into a typical working day
– Ask our panel questions & get top tips and insights that can help you land a job in publishing

Who’s it for?
All students with an interest in careers in digital or print publishing

This session will be taking place as a webinar.
To participate, please go to the Careers24/7 Blackboard organisation (http://bit.ly/UoRCareers247) and click on ‘Webinars’. Here you’ll see a list of upcoming sessions. A few minutes before the session is due to start, click on the title of the session to enter the room. You will not need to use a camera or microphone, but please ensure you have headphones or speaker so you can hear the audio. Here’s a short video explaining how this works and what the webinar tool looks like.

*This online event can count for 1.5 hours of your RED Award training and development hours. Find out more about the RED Award at reading.ac.uk/REDAward