Megan: In my late teens and early twenties my career began in volunteering and internships for creative organisations and festivals. I did that for quite a few years before landing a paid role at Waterstones.
Alice: I went to a local state school then studied English Literature BA at Durham University. Over my summer holidays I worked at Seven Stories the Centre for Children’sBooks, and I got a real buzz from being in the book world. My first job after university was for 3 years with Waterstones. Bookselling gave me a thorough grounding in sales and the book trade and it’s a brilliant gateway to publishing. While working I did an internship with Bloodaxe Books, volunteered at Durham Book Festival and Oxford Literary Festival and took a short course at the Publishing Training Centre. However, I was not having any luck breaking into the publishing industry. So, I took a risk and quit my job and volunteered at Shakespeare and Company Festival in Paris. It was a risky strategy, but the experience gave me an edge at my next interview, and I managed to get my first publishing job at a brilliant independent poetry publishers called Carcanet Press in Manchester. Over 6 years I worked my way up to Marketing and Events Manager and had lots of poetry adventures, including as an assistant bibliotherapist at Sydney Writers Festival and on a mentorship at the Poetry Chicago Foundation. In 2016 my dream job came along at the Poetry Book Society, which was founded by TS Eliot to share the joy of poetry. I’ve delivered poetry presentations at Jaipur Lit Festival with the British Council, given poetry books to the Queen Mother of Bhutan and represented the UK at a Beijing Poetry Festival. It has been quite an incredible and sometimes surreal career journey so far!
2. What does a typical day in the life look like for a Manager (Alice) and Operations Assistant (Megan) at Poetry Book Society?
Megan: My role varies massively. On a ‘normal’ day I chip away at meaty sales statements, chase receipts from colleagues, but I also have a customer and client facing role where I communicate via email and phone calls. We have a huge online poetry shop which keeps us busy, but I make sure to have many cups of tea!
Alice: It’s an incredibly varied role and every day is different. We’re a small organisation so I span editorial and production to sales and marketing and events, which would be separate departments in a bigger publishing company. One day I can be working on Excel pivot tablesor typesetting our magazine in Indesign and the next attending the TS Eliot Prize award ceremony. It certainly keeps me on my toes!
3. What skills do you need to progress into a career like this? Is there anything students can be doing now to sharpen these skills?
Megan: Your customer service and overall people skills must be sharp! With such a varied role it’s important you can prioritise tasks and show excellent time management. Try fit some volunteering into your schedule. Remember, everyone will be speaking about their love for books, so think about what else you can bring to the table.
Alice: Try to combine your love of books with a strong commercial sense and awareness of the book trade. The industry requires you to have strong communication skills, attention to detail, enthusiasm, creativity and be sales savvy – it is not all poetry and Paris!
It is not all poetry and Paris!
4. For most people, a creative career is a risk. What advice would you give to students who are thinking about a creative career but are unsure where to start / what is accessible to them?
Megan: Unpaid labour is not right but it can be valuable to volunteer with organisations because you end up doing varied roles! I was lucky to live with my parents, but I did have a job. You could try volunteering with Books on Tyne or Juice Festival – both are in Newcastle! Volunteering is a great place to build your skills and your network.
Alice: I did lots of internships and volunteering on my days off whilst working fulltime in bookselling. There are more opportunities for paid internships than before, and we work with New Writing North’s First Edition Industry Placements to help facilitate this. Jobs in the arts can be precarious - it isn’t a career which will make you wealthy and there should be more transparency around this, but it is really rewarding in other ways. I’m a big advocate of seizing every funded opportunity you can find - whether that’s arts council mentorships, paid internships or British council fellowships - you can make exciting things happen on a shoestring and it’s all valuable experience.
5. What are the pros and cons to your job?
Megan: Pros: Sometimes I get paid to read poetry. I like that I am surrounded by creative and inspiring people. Cons: It is a challenge keeping up with deadlines and keeping on top of things when you have deadlines.
Alice: Pros: Seeing the joy that poetry books can bring to people, being part of such a lovely global poetry community, watching a poet perform their work and being blown away by it! Cons: Some weeks there are more spreadsheets than words, but that is the nature of keeping an arts organisation afloat!
6. Thinking long term, what does progression in your role look like?
Megan: In this industry, people tend to stay in the same job but move sideways or upwards. I do not want to up sticks and move, but careers in the arts does often mean moving. Luckily, my role developed without having to change jobs entirely.
Alice: In a tiny company like PBS there isn’t much upward progression, but we always learn new skills and expand the remit of our jobs! A creative career isn’t always a linear progression. A former colleague recently moved from publishing into the charity sector then back into publishing at a Big 5 Publisher – so sideways movements could lead to your dream job.
A creative career isn't always a linear progression
7. What can students expect to hear from you at the Creative Careers Day?
Megan: I want to share my journey into publishing, explain the skills you will need and cover some things which may not be what you expected!
Alice: I would like to share my story, and I hope that I might inspire people to do something similar. I want to show students that you might not get the first jobs you try for but with a bit of creative thinking and perseverance you’ll get where you want to be eventually.
PBS is running a FREE event with NCLA at the Culture Lab at 7pm on the 27th February with two poets, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Yomi Sode. Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ncla-poetry-book-society-spring-showcase-tickets-1221235932549
Students receive 10% off PBS Choice Membership using the code STUDENT at the checkout. Members enjoy a year of curated poetry book boxes and our lively quarterly poetry magazine, plus 25% off all book orders. Get your discounted membership online at https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/choice-membership