SYP LDN speaks to Clays Account Controller Beth Mathers

Posted on June 4, 2021 in London

At SYP London, we want to demystify some lesser known Publishing roles. Recently, we got the opportunity to speak to Clays Account Controller Bethany Mathers all about her role within the Customer Service Department of Clays Ltd.

Hello! My name is Bethany and I currently work as an Account Controller within the Customer Service Department of Clays Ltd. Clays prints books for a range of publishers, from trade to academic as well as independent and self-publishers. We can offer a range of book products from standard B format paperbacks to special edition hardbacks with sprayed edges. In my role, I am the publisher’s representative within the business, and I’m here to help advise on projects, orders and answer any questions relating to the book production for my contacts.

How did your career begin?

I first came to work at Clays after I finished my university degree where I studied English Literature. I have always loved books and reading so I jumped at the chance to work at Clays whilst I continued my studies and completed a Masters Degree. I started within the Planning department, where I was responsible for taking our customer orders, and using them to generate our work instructions for the factory to produce the books. While doing this role, I  was able to gain an understanding of basic knowledge of book making which is helpful in my current role.

What departments does a printer have and what do these departments do?

There are other departments within Clays who help in the book production process. To give you an idea of the various teams: we have the materials team who allocate the required materials per job, we have the prepress team who ensure that we are using the correct data and getting this imposed ready to be printed, and we also have the production control team who schedule each operation to enable the factory to produce components for the required delivery dates.

When the order gets into the factory, we have the manufacturing teams – these include webroom who print the text, colour who print and finish the covers, bindery who joins the components together to create the finished books. We also have a digital production team who print the shorter run work. There is a pre-retail team who perform various tasks including adding stickers, inserting signed tips and collating slipcase sets.

Once books are produced, our distribution teams arrange the deliveries to customer warehouses. Clays can also arrange distribution to deliver direct to various bulk warehouses/shipping ports. This helps the publishers get their books to popular/frequent destinations quicker by skipping the transport to the warehouse stage.

What do you do on a day to day basis? 

My day to day involves communicating with internal teams here and with customers. An example would be communicating queries we have raised from checking the data and order. This could be information in the data not matching to the order, or errors with the data itself such as incorrect spine widths. Some of my customers often produce multiple special sales sets. These could be shrinkwrap packs or box sets. Another big part of my day involves organising the various tasks required for these special sales projects. This involves raising costs with our estimating team and organising schedules – which involves book manufacture, slipcase production and the collation – for each set.

Within my role, I also visit my contacts at their office. It useful to see their systems and the orders from their side, as well having the chance to discuss projects/manufacturing queries in person. Publishers do also come to Clays for factory tours, book signings or author visits. It is a real pleasure to see how excited the authors are when they can see their work being bound in the factory. It is also helpful for the publishers to see the processes in action. I have certainly found looking at the machines and the manufacturing processes useful by gaining a greater understanding of how things work, which in turn is helpful for explaining the technical details back to my contacts.

What training do you have for your role? What skills are required?

As well as good communication and organisation skills, I would say that to be an Account Controller at Clays you need to be enthusiastic, have good analytical skills and be able to work both independently to manage your own day to day, as well as within a team to support others in the department. Our systems are quite unique so when I first joined learning how to use them was a big part of my training. As I developed and moved roles, I then had to learn about specific customers and how to deliver the level of service they expect.

What are Clays doing to produce more environmentally friendly books?

Clays has a big part to play in the publishing industry and we continue to adapt. I know from speaking to my customers that the environment is very important. We want to help with this where we can and are taking on requests/suggestions from our customer to looking into alternative and more environmentally friendly packing, materials and finishes for the book. For example, we are exploring recycled laminate as this is a key finish used on multiple titles.

Beth is an Account Controller who has been with Clays since 2016. She currently looks after various publisher’s including Hachette Children’s.