… I walked in the door of Taylor and Francis to start my first day. Nothing too strenuous, just meeting with a girl in HR to discuss pay and benefits and then meeting the team I’d be working with, getting used to my desk, being given a computer log in and a big folder containing a huge chunk of information on the book production process.
That folder is still sitting just to the left of my computer screen. And I still flick through it looking for a little-used nugget of information from time to time. I’ve had 12 months here at Routledge Books. I’ve worked for the Humanities Production team and the Technical and Professional Production team. I have had direct involvement in the production of 32 finished books and I have 28 books currently in various stages of production (one still sitting on my desk waiting to be processed, another couple are at this very moment being printed, folded and bound at the printers).
From Shakespeare to Concrete Structures, I’ve worked on a huge variety of titles and with quite a few different people. B-format to A4. Authors who questioned every little thing and ones who didn’t. A proofreader who insisted on pointing out that MS word presents ellipsis in the wrong way. Editors who made last minute changes on titles already running late. And printers who really care about their books. Some titles run like a dream, some like a nightmare and most a mixture of both. I feel I’ve seen and learned a lot in the last year.
While studying and job hunting we went to any seminar or talk and read any article or blog we thought would help. I remember hearing repeated that there’s a time limit on your ‘First Role in Publishing’ – the basic idea being that you have one job for the first year or year and a half and then move on. Maybe things are very different in trade publishing. Maybe it’s just being in production instead of editorial rather than being an academic publishing thing. But I feel no inclination to whirl away – I have loads of books left to make and plenty left to learn!
So basically what I’m saying is, 32 books, two house moves, approximately 800 cups of work tea and one year on, I’m very happy that I ended up with a job in book production at one of the UK’s best academic publishers. Who knows what new challenges the year ahead will bring?
