A Day in the Life of an … Educational Publishing Executive

Posted on December 22, 2008 in Uncategorized

Tell me a bit about Leckie & Leckie and your career there to date.

Leckie & Leckie is Scotland’s leading educational publisher and will be 20 years old next year! We publish revision books and course materials aimed specifically at the Scottish secondary schools market.

I joined the company in May 2007 as the Publishing Assistant one week after graduating from the MLitt Publishing course at Stirling University. It is a relatively small company (11 full time employees), and so was a fantastic place to begin a publishing career. During my first 6 months I worked with the publishing, marketing and production departments, and was involved in almost every aspect of the publishing business.

Earlier this year, I was promoted to the position of Publishing Executive, which is a purely editorial role, and since then have been heavily involved in commissioning titles and working with authors to deliver manuscripts.

What does your average working day as a publishing executive involve?

There’s not really such a thing as an average working day for me! At the moment we are developing a new series so I have daily meetings with the Publisher and Publishing Director about the content, commissioning, author briefs, page layout, design and marketing of these titles.

Currently I am managing about 15 frontlist titles in various stages of development so there is often a query from an author to investigate, feedback on sample material to be given, a peer review to organise or a late manuscript from an author to track down. I also look after covers, so there might be some cover copy or a cover brief to write, as well as any day-to-day author issues that need to be taken care of.

Why educational publishing? Would you recommend this particular sector?

It wasn’t really a conscious decision or career choice to be honest; like many things in life, it just happened. Once I started at Leckie & Leckie however, I realised that it is quite an interesting and exciting area of publishing to work in. Also, it is a hugely more stable industry than say, fiction publishing, as there is relatively low risk for frontlist titles.

Without sounding too nerdy, the content itself is really interesting. I have learnt a huge amount about subjects that weren’t even around when I was at school, and it’s frightening to realise how much I used to know that I have now completely forgotten. The entire Higher Maths course, for example!

Educational publishing doesn’t perhaps have as glamorous an image as say, fiction publishing. For those starting their publishing careers, is there much of a social side, lunching with authors, etc?

Commissioning editors (and their equivalents) in all fields of publishing get free lunches! The only difference is that the authors in my case are teachers and examiners rather than celebrities or big name fiction writers. That doesn’t mean that lunching with them is less enjoyable though – on the contrary!

You’re right though, there is definitely a perception that fiction publishing is more glamorous than educational or academic publishing, but the glamour factor is a relatively small percentage of anybody’s role and so shouldn’t really form the basis for a career choice. Publishing in general is quite a social industry, and in my experience, there are always parties and social events to attend.

As content becomes more digitalised there must be a growing expectation to add extras such as CD ROMs as well as posters, teachers guides, etc. How necessary is this in order to keep ahead of the competition?

Digitisation is obviously a huge issue for all publishers at present, but educational publishers are traditionally quite slow to produce such resources. This is because schools rarely have the funds to purchase digital products, and so they tend to have quite a low uptake.

There is also a lack of uniformity of platform across schools, which makes it very difficult to produce a one-size-fits-all digital product. We are, however, very keen to expand our presence in this area, and the group have recently published a number of home revision digital products.

The interesting thing about educational publishing is that the product is not marketed directly at the end user. From your experience, who would you say has the most influence over textbook content?

Actually, we do market to students – along with teachers and parents. We find that students are very proactive when it comes to revision, especially at Higher level (the rough equivalent of A level), and so not to target them as customers would be a huge mistake.

As for the question about influence, you’re asking at the right time! The government has a huge influence on the educational publishing market because they have the power to change the curriculum. For example, in Scotland there is a widespread curriculum reform at present, and educational publishers are racing to produce resources to address the new curriculum.

In England, the government have just abolished the SATs; which has affected all educational publishers in that market as all of their backlist resources for the SATs are now obsolete.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

What I enjoy most about my job is working with people. The team at Leckie & Leckie is small and perfectly formed! Every person is great at their job, but more importantly, we all get on well with one another and like each other as people, which makes working together all the more enjoyable. It’s also fantastic to work with authors who really care about what they do, and who are passionate about their subject.

And your least favourite part?

Honestly, I can’t think of a least favourite part of my job.

Finally, what advice would you give to somebody wanting to get into the publishing industry?

Be enthusiastic! And take any opportunity that is offered to you. If you can get any relevant experience at all it will help you in the long run. There are so many people working in publishing who began their careers on temporary contracts or even doing work experience within a company and now have really good permanent positions. Finally, be prepared to start at the bottom and accept the notorious low wage you will earn there.

Interview with Fiona McGlade, Publishing Executive at Leckie & Leckie.