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<\/strong>After I left sixth form I honestly thought university wasn\u2019t for me, never mind publishing. I loved ballet and went to a really good school in North Wales that is still going strong. I taught for them for four years (with a range of supporting jobs including chambermaiding, waitressing and retail) and then one day I had an epiphany. I felt my brain start whirring into gear, telling me I needed to go and study something. I really don\u2019t know what prompted it, other than my brain\u2019s own needs. I loved my ballet teaching, but I think I needed to see what life was like outside North Wales. Four years after leaving school I studied Dance and English at Roehampton University, and quickly realised I was much better at English so I majored in it. Then I started an Arts Review magazine with a group of friends and the idea of publishing sprang into my mind. After university, I tried sending out copies of the Arts Review with my CV and didn\u2019t get a single interview. I\u2019m not sure what I did wrong but I fell back into retail \u2014 and ended up as assistant buyer for the Liberty Bath House in Regent Street.<\/p>\n
How did working in retail help you get into publishing?<\/strong> What was your first role in publishing and how did you get the job?<\/strong> What would you say are the pros and cons of coming into publishing from another industry?<\/strong>
I\u2019m so glad that I did that retail buying job for three years. It taught me everything about finding new creative talent (that\u2019s what Liberty did), consumers, and the commerciality of the product. Because I didn\u2019t get an instant \u2018in\u2019 to publishing I think I quickly realised I wasn\u2019t the be-all and end-all because I had a first in English and had made a magazine. I think my experience there worked positively on my CV when I finally did get into publishing because I knew about buying-in products that people wanted to buy and how mark-ups and profit margins worked. Lots of elements of retail buying are transferable to publishing.<\/p>\n
I got my first job in publishing by walking in off the street and asking for it! I\u2019d moved to Brighton to do an MA in English at Sussex University (my fall-back career after publishing was academia) but I hated it. I\u2019d loved my busy, social, retail life and I couldn\u2019t bear the thought of being stuck in a library on my own for years on end. After eight weeks of my MA I enrolled myself in a business college and learned how to use Microsoft Office and type. I\u2019ll never forget living on the biscuits those college ladies provided me with \u2014 they were like my fairy godmothers! I went to a library (pre-internet) and looked up publishers in the area and the biggest one was Wayland in Hove. I walked in and asked them if they needed someone, and Steve White-Thomson, the then MD, offered me a job on the spot, for \u00a35 an hour. They\u2019d just bought MacDonald Young Books from Hemel Hempstead and needed someone to help unpack boxes. Hurrah! I was in and it wasn\u2019t long before I became a project editor.<\/p>\n
Pro:<\/strong> It gives you greater insight into the real world. Publishing can sometimes feel very rarified, where we make decisions based on instinct and virtually no commercial factors. At least back then, anyway. Nowadays everyone is expected to think more commercially so my stint in retail definitely gave me an advantage. Con:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think there are any. My career hasn\u2019t suffered because of it. Maybe the only downside was starting so late (28) so I had to move faster to get up the ladder. I had a helping hand when Hodder bought Wayland back in the \u201890s and I was catapulted to senior commissioning editor only a couple of years in the business.<\/p>\n