Penguin Classics editorial director Elda Rotor fielded questions from readers on reddit today, sharing advice for aspiring publishing professionals.
Here’s a particularly useful tip about finding a publishing job:
make sure you tell everyone you know your interest in book publishing, you’ll be surprised who hears about a job. See if a favorite professor or your college alumni network can help out with recommendations of people to meet. Have a resume ready always. If you can, try to get an internship. They are not mandatory but they help, mostly because of editors hearing from one another about good interns and when jobs become available the interview process sometimes goes quickly. It’s not mandatory to be in NY but if you can be here to set up informational interviews that should be time well spent. Some people prefer in-person interviews, others don’t mind having phone interviews.
Don’t forget to check Mediabistro’s publishing jobs for more opportunities as well.
On reddit, Rotor will keep answering questions today, including some insight into the classic horror literature that director Guillermo del Toro picked for the publisher.