#SYPontheRoad Bristol Edition: What happened next?

Posted on June 18, 2017 in Uncategorized

On Monday 12th June, a small crowd of members and non-members alike gathered in Bristol’s Tobacco Factory for our inaugual SYP and the Bookseller on the Road event. This is the first in a series of events aiming to showcase publishing in cities all over the UK and celebrate wide-spread talent and opportunities. We were joined by four fantastic speakers from different roles and job levels across different genres. You can read a little more about the event series and our first panels bios on our previous post here. Here’s a little of what we covered at the event:

Rebecca Tomlinson, Assistant Editor at Policy Press, told us about her journey into the industry following a journalism masters at Bristol UWE. She loved Bristol and was delighted to discover the healthy publishing industry in the city, finding her first role as Publishing Assistant at Policy on her university’s website. She has now been there 5 years, working her way up to Assistant Editor. She also spoke about the work experience they offer at Policy Press which you can learn about here: http://policypress.co.uk/volunteering

Although work experience was discussed as a valuable way to learn about the industry and the roles available, it was also stressed that you shouldn’t worry if this isn’t an option for you. Marc Gillett, Associate Director at IOP Publishing, spoke about his journey into publishing which, despite his role at a Scientific publisher, began with a History degree. Marc made it clear that you don’t have to work for free, if you can get work in an office for a few months you will pick up valuable, transferable skills. Marc moved to IOP in Bristol from a job in Oxford and spoke about how the atmosphere felt less competitive than the more well-known publishing landscapes of London and Oxford. There was much praise for IOP throughout the event so we would thoroughly recommend checking out their website (http://www.iop.org) and looking up our speakers on LinkedIn (see below).

LinkedIn featured heavily in the conversation, praised not only by Marc but also by Lyndsey Mayhew, Marketing and Publicity Manager at Crimson Publishing. She even commented that a member of the audience had connected with her in advance of the talk and she instantly recognised the woman at the event – and it provided an opening for a chat afterwards too. The platform is a great way to get your name known within the industry, and people will remember you, but it is also important to come out from behind the screen and go to any and all publishing events you can (like the SYP’s!) When talking about applications, Lyndsey stressed that whilst blogs aren’t everything, you must be able to demonstrate your writing and be visible. CVs can be cold – even if you’ve done 10 placements, it will be something unique or some demonstration of passion that will get her attention. She also recommended looking outside editorial, a sentiment echoed by the panel. It’s so competitive to get into but there are plenty of other great opportunities to work with content.

Our fourth panellist of the night was Steve Mcnaught, director of Arkbound publishing and StarUp CIC. He is editor of several Bristol-based publications, including Boundless and Vocalise magazines, so has a background in both book and magazine publishing. Arkbound is a publishing social enterprise that aims to support people from disadvantaged backgrounds get published. The organisation also provides a Publishing Excellence Programme for people looking to get into the industry, along with a literary award and annual competition which you can read more about here: http://arkbound.com/about

We closed the event with questions from the audience which covered everything from advice for those looking to move across from another industry, to what publishing will look like in 10 years – according to our panel: digital isn’t proving to be the take-over predicted (print sales actually on the rise), fake news will spur better research and editorial content, and there are big changes on the horizon for open access.

Keep up with the panellists:
Steve Mcnaught, Arkbound – LinkedIn
Rebecca Tomlinson, Policy Press – LinkedIn
Lyndsey Mayhew, Crimson – LinkedIn
Marc Gillett, IOP Publishing – LinkedIn