Diary of a Publishing Wannabe

Posted on November 28, 2008 in Uncategorized

The first weeks of my publishing course have whizzed past and I have decided – as I sit on a stationary Eurostar train stuck in the depths of the Channel Tunnel – that it is time to reflect on what I have learned about publishing so far.

1)       If you have entered the industry in the hope of finding Mr Right, forget it. I’ve seen more men (albeit rather startled and confused) in my gym’s changing room.

2)       The expression ‘pub date’ has more than one meaning.

3)       Nearly fifty years on from the trial, it is still impossible to read Lady Chatterley’s Lover on the tube without raising a few eyebrows (and even the odd monobrow).

In fairness to my rather wonderful lecturers, I have actually learned rather more than this. The   exciting thing about an MA in Publishing is that just as the industry changes from year to year; so does the syllabus in response.

The hot topics of the moment – happily discussed in campus cafés and raucously argued over in old literary pubs – include the introduction and future of ebooks, the issues surrounding Open Access, the efforts to curtail piracy and the ethical code of publishing.

This last subject, regarding what one should and shouldn’t publish, seems to be as controversial as ever, with the recent arson attack on a small London publishing house further stimulating the debate.

Publishers have a huge influence on society, making it crucially important that they are aware of just what effect their books might have, at the same time as ensuring they maintain the balance between upholding freedom of speech and satisfying their assorted stakeholders.

All publishers have responsibilities – to shareholders, authors, readers, employees, fellow citizens, etc. – but there is no universal consensus on how these responsibilities should be prioritised. In class, I rather shamelessly put pleasing shareholders at the top, whilst others suggested that environmental duties were more important. Either way, there seems to be a marked difference between personal and professional ethics and it will be interesting to see how our views change once we’re in the workplace.

The best thing about all these discussions is the surroundings in which they take place – London, the capital of publishing. Yes, the tube is truly terrible. Yes, the tourists are everywhere. And yes, there really is no escape from the clipboard-wielding ‘charity muggers’.

There is, however, the British Library, with its astonishing eight-story basement. There is the house of Samuel Johnson, the statue of Queen Anne, the old publishing houses of Bloomsbury Square, the archives of the St Bride Library, the stunning offices of Penguin on the Strand and even – if one stays very still and quiet – the rare sighting of the small but determined independent bookshop.

It has to be said, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. The library is just as suffocating, the textbooks just as expensive and I have yet to convince my boyfriend that my essay on the NBA has nothing to do with basketball. But despite all this, I actually do find the finer details of copyright really interesting, I love the mix of academic and practical work and, best of all, I have a great new bunch of friends who really do put the ‘pub’ into ‘publishing’.

There is one thing I need to add to my list of lessons learned, however:

4) If you spend the weekend in Brussels and hope that an early Eurostar will get you back in time for your Monday morning lectures, you’re being wildly optimistic.