Summersdale

Work Experience with Summersdale

Summersdale is an award-winning publisher with an extensive output of printed books as well as digital audiobooks and eBooks. We have run a popular work experience programme since 1995. Each year about a dozen graduates and undergraduates gain valuable experience of the publishing industry in our offices. Most go on to salaried jobs in publishing afterwards. Although we are a small company, many of our full time staff over the years have started out doing work experience with us.

We offer work experience vacancies in various areas. To apply for a placement, please contact (via e-mail) the manager of the department that interests you, including your CV and the date you would prefer to start.

Editorial/rights Jennifer Barclay

Design/typesetting Rob Smith

Publicity Elly Donovan

Sales Nicky Douglas

Audiobooks/eBooks Ben Ottridge


FAQs:

How long is the placement for?
Three months. This is long enough to become competent at the job and knowledgeable about the industry. The first few weeks might be a bit scary, picking up the phone and hoping you don’t accidentally blow up someone’s computer. After that you get familiar with the books, the authors, the staff, our business associates and the publishing processes. You get involved in publishing decisions. Should the book use this or that photo on the cover? What price? Hardback or paperback? Three months is enough time to see a book project go through editing and design and it’s enough time to add a whole page of skills and experience to your CV.

Do I get paid?
No. Summersdale is a small publishing house, independently owned with no large financial backing. We simply don’t have the budget to pay for any more than our core staff.

What, not even travel or lunch expenses?
Sorry, no!

What are the office hours?
9am to 5.30pm, with an hour for lunch, which you can take at any time between noon and 3pm provided you have agreed this with your colleagues. Work experience placements are full time.

Is there a dress code?
No. We don’t interact much with the public, so dress tends to be casual. It’s only if you have a meeting with an author or a customer that you’ll have to get the iron out.

Do I get to do more than making coffee?
Absolutely. We treat all work experience people as full members of staff. Someone will work with you from the start. The jobs tend to be more administrative at the start of the placement, e.g. dealing with manuscript submissions, database updating, mailings etc. As you gain competence and prove your abilities to us, the jobs given to you will become more challenging and interesting. It’s up to you to demonstrate your confidence and capabilities, and we’ll respond by giving you projects to work on that you can really get your teeth into. Work experience people in the past have contributed to books, blurbs and sales materials, worked on websites and carried out research. People get out of the experience what they put in.

I want to be a publisher, but I’m not sure which aspect of publishing suits me best. Should I work in one department for three months or do a bit of everything?
Many people specialise in one particular department for the three months. This is best if you know what you want to do with your career. You may be certain that a career as an editor or a publicist is for you. If you haven’t yet decided, or only have a vague idea that publishing sounds like a fun career but don’t yet know much about the options within it, then we can (subject to space) allow you to move within the company to work in more than one department.

Can I take time off to attend job interviews?
Yes, certainly, as long as you give us notice and don’t let them affect your work. You can also have days off if necessary, but remember that we can write a great job reference for you if we are impressed with your attendance and your attitude, so it’s up to you to make the most of the placement.

Where will I live?
Chichester is on the south coast between Southampton and Brighton. It’s too far to commute from London because the train service takes nearly two hours. So you’ll need local accommodation. It’s usually quite easy to find a room to rent for around £75 per week upwards. If you’re having trouble finding somewhere then let us know because sometimes we can help find you a temporary room.

Is there parking available at the office?
We do have a private car park behind the building, but all of the spaces are usually already allocated.

What kinds of books do you publish?
Please familiarise yourself with our publishing programme before applying. We publish mainly in the following genres:
Travel Writing
Humour
Gift
Self Help
General Non-fiction
True Crime

Will I have heard of any of them?
Maybe you will have used a copy of our Student Grub or Dude, Where’s My Career? while at university. If you’ve taken a gap year you might have read one of the travel books such as Riding the Magic Carpet or The Backpacker. You might even have had to defend yourself against material from our Little Book of Chat-up Lines. Recent books featured in the media include The Man Who Swam The Amazon, Tout Sweet, 50 Things You Can Do Today to Manage Migraines and F in Exams.

Are all of your books sold as eBooks?
Yes. In fact, we can sell eBook titles that are not available in physical print form. Ebooks are an opportunity to add value to the book, such as replacing black and white images with colour ones, and adding extra information about the author and related titles.

Will you help me find a job at the end of the placement?
We can give you advice and write you a reference. You can use your computer facilities to apply for jobs and you can take time out to attend interviews. We have directories listing every publisher, plus we subscribe to The Bookseller, which has job adverts inside every week.

When can I start?
Send us your CV and a cover letter, and if we feel you’re suited for work experience here we’ll let you know availability and invite you to our offices for a chat.


‘I really enjoyed this experience, and it has been hugely beneficial to me. When I went to interviews I was told in no uncertain terms that without this experience on my CV, I would have been indistinguishable from the hundreds of other graduates who apply. The company who employed me said it was the reason they called me for an interview! It gave me a huge amount of confidence in my interviews and made me feel like I really knew what I was talking about in terms of editorial/publishing questions. The experience was excellent in terms of gaining a broad knowledge of how a publishing company operates on a day-to-day basis.’
Rebecca Brennan, graduate of University of Warwick