So this week I am taking the opportunity of free student tickets to visit the London Book Fair.
We entered Earl's Court this morning and were completely overwhelmed. It was huge and full of stands from all kinds of publishers from all over the world. We decided to try and get to grips with it before the first talks. Instead we just wandered to the digital section and played on the phones and tablets while eating the free biscuits.
So the first talk I attended was on Open Access, obviously, and was called "Academic Publishers: Still Open for Business?". With three speakers, one from Elsevier, one from OUP STM and one from CUP HSS the talk gave a comprehensive overview of OA post Finch Report. Then each publisher highlighted how they were implementing OA before taking questions. The main things this talk highlighted were that people still don't understand CC licenses (something that comes up time after time at these events) and that the key to OA is sustainability. But it wasn't all doom and gloom as the overwhelming feeling of the speakers was that there is still a place for academic publishers and that OA could bring new opportunities, creating healthy competition as titles become easier to launch.
We entered Earl's Court this morning and were completely overwhelmed. It was huge and full of stands from all kinds of publishers from all over the world. We decided to try and get to grips with it before the first talks. Instead we just wandered to the digital section and played on the phones and tablets while eating the free biscuits.
So the first talk I attended was on Open Access, obviously, and was called "Academic Publishers: Still Open for Business?". With three speakers, one from Elsevier, one from OUP STM and one from CUP HSS the talk gave a comprehensive overview of OA post Finch Report. Then each publisher highlighted how they were implementing OA before taking questions. The main things this talk highlighted were that people still don't understand CC licenses (something that comes up time after time at these events) and that the key to OA is sustainability. But it wasn't all doom and gloom as the overwhelming feeling of the speakers was that there is still a place for academic publishers and that OA could bring new opportunities, creating healthy competition as titles become easier to launch.
In the afternoon I embarked on some career building seminars and attended the two SYP talks "How to Get into Publishing" and "How to Get Ahead in Publishing". Although the speakers ranged from Head of HR at Random house to someone who got involved with a start up company there were some key messages:
- do your research and show up to interviews prepared
- keep applications simple and relevant
- accuracy! how can you edit a book if you can't edit a CV?
- love books but understand the business behind them
- use social media to connect and get out there
- have extra-curricular experience
- be passionate, know what you want and go for it
With these tips in mind getting a job is still going to be hard (Random House get 250 applications for 1 position in some cases) but it's not impossible if you really want it. So I am now going to go home and really have a good look at the CV.
To finish the day we went to "Transmedia Storytelling for Publishers". This talk focused on what makes a good storyworld that can be developed and told using different media types. The key features are theme, genre, characters, events and timing. Get these right and you might have the next Harry Potter or DiscWorld universe. By taking a step back from the story you can look at the bigger picture and see where it can be developed into other books, films, games etc. But it's a tricky business and some things just aren't meant to be anything more than a single book. One important thing is to make sure you approach the project with a story-centric focus and don't let your platform preferences dictate the project.
So overall a good first day. I am heading back to the fair tomorrow as a volunteer so I still get to attend some talks but with access all areas (hopefully).
- do your research and show up to interviews prepared
- keep applications simple and relevant
- accuracy! how can you edit a book if you can't edit a CV?
- love books but understand the business behind them
- use social media to connect and get out there
- have extra-curricular experience
- be passionate, know what you want and go for it
With these tips in mind getting a job is still going to be hard (Random House get 250 applications for 1 position in some cases) but it's not impossible if you really want it. So I am now going to go home and really have a good look at the CV.
To finish the day we went to "Transmedia Storytelling for Publishers". This talk focused on what makes a good storyworld that can be developed and told using different media types. The key features are theme, genre, characters, events and timing. Get these right and you might have the next Harry Potter or DiscWorld universe. By taking a step back from the story you can look at the bigger picture and see where it can be developed into other books, films, games etc. But it's a tricky business and some things just aren't meant to be anything more than a single book. One important thing is to make sure you approach the project with a story-centric focus and don't let your platform preferences dictate the project.
So overall a good first day. I am heading back to the fair tomorrow as a volunteer so I still get to attend some talks but with access all areas (hopefully).
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