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Commissioning editor for medical textbooks: Elizabeth

This Case Study belongs to Commissioning editor.

Elizabeth works as a commissioning editor in the medical division of Wiley-Blackwell, an academic publishing company. She graduated with a degree in French followed by an MLitt in Publishing Studies.

I started work as an editorial assistant at Taylor & Francis in June 2004. In November 2005, I moved to Blackwell Publishing to work as a development editor on the psychology list. I then moved over to the medical division to work as a commissioning editor on medical student textbooks in March 2008.

The fact I had a masters in publishing was probably more relevant to getting my first job than the subject of my undergraduate degree. However, as part of this job involved working as an assistant to the language learning editors, French was relevant and useful. Publishing skills are equally, if not more, important than the subject of your academic background.

Getting my first job wasn’t easy, but I expected it to be challenging after hearing how competitive it is to get an entry-level post in a publishing house. In view of this, I actually started applying for jobs before my masters finished. In the end, I didn’t even do the work placement which was part of my course because I had been offered a job as an editorial assistant.

My main role is to generate ideas for new projects and find the authors to write these, as well as to assess any unsolicited book ideas. I spend a large proportion of my time doing internet market research - principally of medical school curricula and training programmes for doctors - and compiling market research reports. I present new book proposals at our publishing meeting and regularly meet with existing and new authors around the country. I also liaise with marketing colleagues regarding blurbs for books and attend subject conferences. Other tasks include budgeting and competitor analysis.

I particularly enjoy the academic content of the job and the opportunities to be creative. Other positive aspects are relationship building - in my case with academics and students - and occasional travel.

On the negative side, sometimes there can be too much travel in the summer months, as this is conference season in academic publishing. The job is fairly pressurised with frequent deadlines and annual commissioning targets to meet.

My tips for other graduates trying to get into jobs related to editorial commissioning would be to get some office-based work experience throughout your time at university. Most publishers look for this at entry level, as our work is very much office based. If you can get some experience with a publisher so much the better. Consider carefully which aspect of publishing you would like to work in and be well prepared to justify your choice at interview - it is true that editorial work is ‘over-subscribed’. In an interview be ready to emphasise specific examples of previous jobs which have required you to be incredibly well-organised, juggle several tasks and/or have good communication skills.

Case Study sourced by Wendy Reed of AGCAS, 22 June 2009.