Welcome to the very first POP Profile post! I'm not gonna lie, I'm very excited about this! In these posts, I'll be pestering lots of lovely publishing folk into sharing little snippets of information about their jobs. If you want to work in children's book publishing, then these posts are for you! And, hey, even if you don't want to work in children's book publishing, you will love having a read. The industry is filled to the brim with wonderful, talented, interesting people, and I hope you'll enjoy finding out more about them.
First up is the rather marvellous Louise Grosart . . .
How did you get into children’s book publishing?
I have always loved books, especially children’s books, and I was in my last year at university when it dawned on me that I could work in publishing. It only took two minutes of research to work out how competitive the industry is, but even that didn’t put me off. I applied left, right and centre for work experience, hearing nothing until the following October, when Random House Children’s Books offered me a two week placement in the editorial department. It was the best two weeks of my life and I knew it was the job for me. I made sure I did the best job I could on everything I was given, asked lots of questions, talked to all the editors and found out all I could about working in editorial. After the work experience I had to get a normal job (as a bowls tours organizer) but I kept in touch with the editors I’d worked with at RHCB. Six months later they called me to say a PA role had come up in the department and asked if I would like to apply. The skills I’d honed whilst organizing tours were very transferable to the PA job role, and after going through the interview process I ended up getting the job! I could not have been happier and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Since then I have worked my way up the editorial ranks to editor in the picture book team.
How would you spend a typical day at work?
I check my emails first thing and make a list of all the urgent things to get done. Then I will brief books, check layouts, go to meetings about the books I am working on. We work quite far ahead in the picture book team, so the books I am working on now will be coming out Spring/Summer next year. At the moment we are all in book fair lock-down, getting everything ready for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
What top two things do you love about your job?
Working with authors and helping to create beautiful books!
Which stories and/or illustration styles are catching your eye right now?
I’m looking for stories that are quirky and have something different about them – perhaps they’re classic stories told from a different angle or something new, fresh and exciting. The same goes for illustration styles – we’re looking for lots of different things – an illustrator of one book may or may not be perfect for other projects we’re working on. The style has to work for all our sales teams too.
Have you ever seen a book and thought I wish I’d published that?
I love Quentin Blake, Oliver Jeffers, Jill Murphy, Ed Vere and Simon Rickerty – so anything by them!
If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to work in publishing, what would it be?
Really think about what area of publishing you’d like to work in – a lot of people who are new to publishing think that they would be happy working on any type of books, but when it comes down to it, where would you most like to be? Also make sure you read everything big in that genre and look in all the bookshops to see how the shops are displaying these books; look at the covers and ask yourself what makes them part of the genre and what’s different about the ones you like. If you are fortunate enough to get a work experience placement then make sure you research the publisher you’re going to, and if you can find them, check the Twitter of the people you will be working with. That will give you an idea of what they are working on at the moment.
The best thing you can do is get a foot in the door and see how the publishing business works. I started as a PA and learned things about the company that I would not have learned if I had started as an editorial assistant.
If you could give one piece of advice to an author and/or illustrator looking to get published, what would it be?
Be yourself – and don’t follow the trends. Be as quirky, silly and interesting as you can and that will shine through in your work and everything you do.
Describe yourself in five words
Positive, curious, conscientious, loyal and friendly.
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