Interview with Anna Gell: Publicist at Oxford University Press

Posted on August 14, 2018 in Oxford

Publicity may be one of the lesser known parts of publishing (compared to Editorial and Marketing for example), however this department are the key behind having books featured in newspapers, on radio, and TV, among other media. Having your titles compete with hundreds of other wonderful books for the ever-decreasing slots in the book pages of the media can be challenging, so I sat down with Anna Gell, Publicist at Oxford University Press, to find out more about what she does.

What is your role at OUP?

I work as a Publicist and look after publicity for non-fiction titles across a range of subjects: history, philosophy, religion, current affairs, arts, you name it.

What does a typical day look like?

Publicity is all about media coverage (reviews, interviews, feature pieces etc.) and events (bookshop talks, book festivals, etc.). I pitch authors and their books to reviewers, journalists, bookshops, event managers, and others, telling them what’s notable about the book.  So there is a lot of emailing and pitching on a daily basis. I’d say it’s about 90% of my average working day, the rest being coffee and cake. It is very rewarding and satisfying to see this hard work pay off when you start getting media coverage, accompany authors to interviews and attend events.

What do you enjoy the most about your role?

I really enjoy working on non-fiction and my favourite thing is the variety of books that I get to work on. I also get to meet some incredible people–authors, journalists, events organisers– and learn something new every day.

What are you currently reading?

I’m currently juggling between The Road by Cormac McCarthy and On the Road by Jack Kerouac. These are very different “road trip” experiences!  I picked these up in a second-hand bookshop during my last year’s road trip and these have been on my TBR for a while. I also listen to audiobooks quite a lot on the way to work. I’ve just finished America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo.  It’s a very fresh take on the immigrant experience of a Filipino family in the US. I really enjoyed it, even though a mix of 3 or 4 languages and abundance of cultural references, particularly food, was challenging at times. There is a lot of food in this book!

For someone looking to work in publicity, what would you recommend?

For me doing work experience really helped and made a difference. I got a temporary job in publicity shortly after that, which then became a permanent job. It’s a great opportunity to get a glimpse into the publishing world and talk to people in the industry. There are many opportunities for work experience, internships, training days etc. out there. SYP, of course, is a great resource and help for anyone starting out in publishing. Specific to publicity, knowledge of key media both general and specific to the kind of books you want to work on is very important, so read the news, papers, follow “books people” on twitter, sign up for Bookseller newsletters etc.

With thanks to Anna for taking part in this interview. Follow her on Twitter: @_annagell