Carrie on working in marketing for an independent publisher

As an English major at UC Berkeley, Carrie felt like the expectation was that she would immediately continue on to get a PhD. But instead she decided she wanted to take some time off and consider a career in publishing. In this episode, we talk about how she explored the publishing field through internships, what the different roles are within the publishing space, and how different publishing companies function differently. Carrie now works as a marketing coordinator for children's books at an independent publisher, so we do a deep dive on what she does on a day-to-day basis, what it's like to market a product when your audience aren't the buyers, and what she's learned along the way.

Best for: English majors considering an alternative to pursuing a PhD straight after college; those hoping to learn more about the different roles within the publishing industry; gaining perspective on the intimidation factor when you first start your career

Contents:

1:00 - Introduction

3:33 - Finding jobs and internships in the publishing industry

8:22 - Interning in the publishing industry

9:40 - Deciding not to go straight through to graduate school

13:07 - Applying to publishing jobs and deciding where to work

15:59 - Day-to-day in marketing at a publishing company

19:32 - Different jobs within the publishing industry

22:36 - What's tough about marketing

24:13 - Working on children's books specifically

28:05 - Additional details on the day-to-day of marketing at a publishing company

30:51 - Marketing when your audience aren't the buyers

33:05 - Working as a marketing assistant vs. marketing coordinator

34:12 - Lessons learned