A cover letter is one of the first things a recruiter will see when looking at your application. While succinct, it should convey your passion for the role, any relevant experience and why you would be a great fit. Cover letters can be formatted in several ways, depending on your preferences and the role itself. In this blog, we will look at tips that can be useful when writing one for a job in publishing
Tips for writing your cover letter:
- Do your research
- Use numerical data
- Demonstrate your passion
- Knowledge of the industry
- Format properly
- Consider how you might successfully use AI
Research
With any application, the key is research; research the company, the specific team you will be working with, the responsibilities of the role itself, and the imprint you wish to work for.
In a cover letter, you can highlight the compatibility of your tastes and experience to your future colleagues. For an editorial assistant role, for example, you could show your enthusiasm to work either under or alongside an editor who has published work you admire, or who has recently collaborated with an author you love.
Knowing the imprint is vital, too – you will want to know its competitors, its position in the market and its areas of growth and improvement. This is information you can find through The Bookseller, via the publishing house’s website or through any other online resources you can find. In a cover letter for a publishing job, you will want to highlight your familiarity with the specific role and team, which will set you in good standing for interviews, too.
Numerical Data
Lots of recruiters will use various technologies to sift through applications. While your success can be highlighted in lots of different ways, one that is digestible for both recruiters and digital tools is numerical data. For example, if you are applying for a digital marketing role, you may use metrics to highlight how you have grown a brand’s presence.
For a sales role, you could use data to demonstrate your high performance. Even in administrative roles, you can use hard statistics to show how you have optimised processes and produced higher output. Using numerical data is a sure way of quantifying your merits in a way that is easily accessible. While you should not use this technique too much throughout a cover letter, one example of this, depending on the role, will absolutely make you stand out.
Passion
While this sounds obvious, the right tone of voice has a big impact on how your cover letter is received. Remember, while you are only sending one application, a recruiter is seeing many more. Especially with entry-level roles, it is important to emphasise more than your love of books, your love of the publishing industry. This can be conveyed through your experience, tone and formatting of the cover letter. While you should avoid hyperbolic language, showing enthusiasm for working in that specific company, division, imprint or team highlights your eligibility for the role. In this sense, you are emphasising what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you, and how your passion translates into a tangible asset for them.
For help with this, you can use the job description as a guide, demonstrating you have the required skills while also showing an engaging personality. Think of this cover letter as a recruiter’s first impression of you, so you want to get across the most important things first.
Knowledge of the industry
As entry-level roles become more competitive, publishers now expect prospective employees to have a comprehensive understanding of the industry. This means knowledge of industry events, the commercial market, the latest trends and the production process. Many employees now have a master’s degree in publishing to help them with this process, but experience can be gained in lots of accessible ways, which you can read about here.
In a cover letter, you should not list your knowledge of the industry; rather, refer to it in relation to the job description. For example, for a marketing role, you could mention an interesting industry event you attended that sparked you to think of untapped marketing opportunities within the industry. Or, you could discuss previous work experience opportunities that allowed you to engage and learn about market trends in an in-depth way. These are all great ways to signpost your knowledge of the industry and show your passion for publishing.
Format
A cover letter can be formatted differently depending on the role. Having said this, there are a few key points to tick off. This includes putting your contact details at the top of the page so you are easily contactable, making sure there are no spelling mistakes and keeping to one side of A4. A cover letter should be concise, and a recruiter skimming this alongside your CV should get a strong sense of your eligibility for the specific responsibilities of the role.
For a creative position, you may wish to put more emphasis on the design of your cover letter, perhaps tailoring it to a recent title by the publishing house you are submitting to, or to one of its marketing campaigns that you admire. If you are creating an eye-catching cover letter, consider adding a splash of professional colour, which there are templates for on various platforms, including Microsoft Word and Canva. Overall, you want the cover letter to look smart, be well tailored to the role and accessible to recruiters.
How to successfully use AI
While using AI to write an application is frowned upon, you can use it to check your cover letter against the job description, ensuring you are mirroring enough keywords, there are no spelling mistakes, and your cover letter strikes the right tone. Recruiters are looking for personality, so don’t lift whole sentence changes from your AI engine of choice. Similarly, some recruiters may use AI to sift through applications. You can therefore use it to ensure that your template – whether for a cover letter or CV – is AI compatible.
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