Welcome to the Society of Young Publishers

The SYP’s former Chair Jon Slack, and current committee member, Bhavit Mehta, have embarked on a new project by directing UK’s first ever South Asian literature festival, which will be running over 15 days from October 15th – 31st in London and across the UK.

The DSC South Asian Literature Festival will showcase a cast of well-known personalities from the worlds of literature, journalism and performing arts. The Festival, which will follow the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, has confirmed Channel 4′s longstanding broadcast journalist Jon Snow, prized writer Romesh Gunesekera, author and musician Amit Chaudhuri and from Pakistan’s troubled political dynasty, Fatima Bhutto, among others to feature in the two-week programme.

The Festival will imaginatively combine South Asian literature with various other disciplines and art forms, including journalism, dance, visual art and music to explore the social, political and cultural issues that are shaping today’s world.

The SYP are proud to support the Festival. Good luck Jon and Bhav!

They are building a team of volunteers to help out during the build-up to October, and over the busy Festival period. If you would like to find out more on this and other events taking place, visit http://www.southasianltfest.com.   

The worldwide publishing industry employs several million people in a variety of roles and publishers need efficient and successful methods for finding suitable recruits. How different publishers tackle this – and how individuals find suitable vacancies – is the subject of this research. Our findings will provide valuable information for all participants about the different methods used to manage the recruitment process; what works and where improvements can be made.

Please help us to build this picture by taking our short online survey – whether you are involved in the recruitment process or have experience of finding suitable vacancies for yourself.

Access the online survey. As a "thank you" we are offering Amazon vouchers to some participants.

We are also hoping to hold a couple of focus group meetings in Oxford and London. If you would like to take part, or if you have any comments that you would like to discuss about this research, please contact Pippa Smart, PSP Consulting, or visit our website.

Are you unemployed and from the UK Book Trade?  Then you might qualify for free help from the bookcareers.com job club. 

The job club has been ongoing since September 2009 and so far over 25 people have successfully returned to work within the industry.  Bookcareers.com use their specialist expertise in job hunting within the book industry to help support you during this difficult time.  To find out more information www.bookcareers.com/jobclub/initiative.html

To apply for a space please email jobclub@bookcareers.com

Did you go to the London Book Fair this year? Were you at the SYP session on 'How to Get Into Publishing'? If yes, you may remember me.

I was the the nervous looking woman on the panel, hands shaking as I tried to tweet, while I looked across the 160 people in the audience with abject terror. The brief was to talk about the research Skillset had completed in 2008 into the skills that publishers look for in new entrants.

I pulled out 9 tips that outlined the main skills and attributes that employers had said they look for when recruiting. Here's the list in brief or you can see a copy of the slides on the Skillset blog

1. Positive, can-do attitude
2. Research & study skills
3. Technical & digital understanding/capability
4. Good communication
5. High levels of literacy & numeracy
6. Organisational skills
7. Project management
8. Problem solving
9. Team working

As I mentioned in my blog post, I was struck by the level of engagement and attention from the audience, particularly by the thoughtful and challenging questions in the Q&A session at the end. You asked about how to break the cycle of needing work experience, but not being able to gain work experience without it; the struggle to survive while undertaking unpaid work experience, particularly in London; and the apparent age discrimination several people felt they had encountered. These were articulate questions full of passion, and I felt they demonstrate the commitment - and frustrations - people trying to get into the industry have.

Skillset undertakes an ongoing research programme which includes understanding what the skills issues are from an employer, employee and freelance perspective. Which is why I'm writing this blog. We have just launched the Skillset's Creative Media Workforce Survey: a major online survey that provides the most comprehensive profile of working life in the industry ever produced.

The survey will measure:

• Training needs and experiences
• Qualifications
• Working patterns
• Future plans
• Income
• Demographics

And Publishing is included for the very first time.

If you are an employee or freelancer working in publishing, please make sure your voice is heard. It takes only 15 minutes to complete the online survey.

You may already have seen this in the SYP newsletter and if you have already taken part, thank you.

For everyone else, please do it now! Forward on to your friends and colleagues. Make sure your skills needs are taken into account.
I'd love to be able to include the findings in next year's London Book Fair careers seminars (assuming the Committee invites me back!).

Suzanne Kavanagh is the Publishing Sector Manager for Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for Creative Media. She works with employers, individuals, trainers and educators to ensure the workforce has the right skills to keep the sector competitive. Have you got any questions? Contact Suzanne via @sashers or suzannek@skillset.org. More information and advice is available at: www.skillset.org/publishing.

The SYP is pleased to announce an exciting new six-month Mentoring Scheme that will begin in May 2010 and run for the next six months. The scheme is aimed at those SYP members who would benefit from having a ready source of industry advice and support in the early stages of their publishing career. Do you have a goal or objective which could be realised through productive support, discussion, encouragement or impartial advice from an experienced industry professional? If so we want to hear from you!

Applications are encouraged across a range of publishing areas in both academic and trade publishing, including within Sales, Marketing, Publicity and Production.

The mentoring scheme is inspired by Gordon Graham, founding editor of the publishing journal LOGOS and former CEO of Butterworths. Through this scheme, we wish to recognise Mr Graham’s outstanding contribution to international publishing fellowship.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is about one person helping another to achieve an important goal. It is a two way process which aims to be both objective and confidential in providing personal career advice.

What will the scheme provide?

- Access to a ready and impartial source of advice, encouragement and support.
- Mentors are ideally placed to provide a wide understanding of publishing issues and challenges.
- Advice on how to adapt quickly and to find an individual approach within the industry.
- A focus on skills and problem solving.

 About the scheme

- Limited initially to 20 places, mentors will be drawn from a wide sector background in both trade and academic publishing.
- The scheme will run for 6 months, until December 2010.
- Mentor and mentee will meet 3 times for a minimum of 2 hours each. This is subject to negotiation at the discretion of the mentor.
- The scheme will be confidential and career-focussed. Both parties must understand and agree to the scheme guidelines which will be supplied to successful applicants.

For more information about the SYP Mentoring Scheme, why not check out the blog?

How to apply

Access the form entry here. The closing date for applications is 24th May. Successful applicants will be notified shortly thereafter. Any queries can be directed to Jason Mitchell, Mentoring Scheme Co-ordinator, at SYPMentoring@gmail.com