Transferrable Skills for Publishing

A three day course covering the essential transferable skills you will need in Editorial, Marketing, PR, Rights, Production and Sales.

Designed to build confidence at interview, with interview tasks and in a first job, work experience or internship. The course covers pitching and presenting books, numeracy and negotiation for publishers and an introduction to metadata. This course is suitable for anyone looking to get their first job in publishing.

Aimed at candidates from all backgrounds, with no prior experience, this course will provide a head start in understanding publishing and the skill-sets which lead to success.

Day 1 – Pitching and Persuasion

No matter which role you have in publishing you will need to sell an idea, whether that’s editorial to an author, sales to a retailer or production to a creative team, day one will arm you with some tips and techniques.

Designed assuming no prior knowledge and to dispel fears, the first session is about becoming comfortable with public speaking and building confidence.

We will then learn how to tailor the pitch for a book for different audiences. Writing back cover and marketing copy to persuade readers.

The day ends with a workshop – where you will learn how a publisher pitches to an author.

Day 2 Numbers and Negotiation

Everyone in publishing needs to know how the industry makes money and understand where they can add value.

Starting with an introduction to buying books through agents we’ll look at some practical and useful negotiation techniques.

Then we’ll look at how books are costed and how publishers forecast sales and revenue, working out discounts, margins and exchange rates and how marketing and publicity campaign are budgeted.

The day ends with an overview of publishing as a business.

Day 3 Metadata, CVs and Interview Skills

Metadata is vital to the discoverability of books in and everyone in a publishing house has a responsibility for it.

We will show you why metadata matters in Editorial, Marketing, Production, Sales and Publicity. Introduce the systems used to define books, BIC, BISAC and Thema codes.

We will think about readers online journeys, how keywords help us reach the right readers and how to write great copy for use online. We will end the session by looking at a complete set of metadata for a book.

The final afternoon will focus on writing targeted and well presented CVs and covering letters as well as some tips and workshops on interview preparation. Aimed at showcasing candidates’ talent and enthusiasm as well as the skills learnt on this course, attendees will leave feeling confident, knowledgeable and ready to apply for roles in publishing.

There are sponsored places available, please contact us at info@getintobookpublishing.co.uk for more information.