You may have noticed that in last Monday's post, subtitled what I want to be when I grow up, I never actually specify what that is. This is because the exact role isn't in existence yet but I have a fuzzy idea of what it looks like!
This September I’m going to brave poverty and go back to University. I’ve been working in publishing nearly three years now and I have earned a wealth of experience and met an abundance of interesting characters; but now I’m going to take a detour and up skill.
As you may have guessed from this blog a lot of my interest is in digital publishing* – through my current position I have been able to view and interact with those who supply the services. Now I want to properly engage and fully understand those services so that I myself might one day be able to supply them. Mixed with my current experience and skill set in publishing this could make me a very attractive candidate for employment in the digital publishing arena or, should the path of life lead me in that direction, sustainable self-employment.
Book publishing is changing – it’s no longer just ‘book’ publishing – it’s branching out into a new medium (or a composition of old mediums). I certainly see a domain of publishing that will encompass interactive digital media (incidentally – that’s the name of my course). With the ever growing popularity of tablet devices, smart phones and the introduction of websites such as Pottermore it’s hard to deny that interactivity is becoming an essential part of the reading experience.
I don’t believe the traditional roles in publishing are becoming obsolete – good editors, proofreaders, sales and marketing teams and even typesetter and printers will still have fundamental functions. It is the new roles or the additional skills people in the traditional roles will be expected to have that are changing.
An editor will need to be able to prepare a text for digital, print and interactivity, as will a typesetter. Sales teams will have to communicate with online distributors as well as the physical bookstores for both the physical and digital content. Marketing teams will need to be well versed in the ever changing sphere of social media including the traditional means of publicity and may have to be versed in website development. If interactive reading becomes an important facet of the book then someone with programming skills would be massively beneficial.
A lot of the above applies today, yet the process is slow going - there is a certain insanity in trying to enforce current workflows onto digital projects, yet it happens. Outsourcing is a common solution and works very well, but having a highly skilled workforce will keep the communication on outsourced projects clear or will reduce the need to outsource at all.
Gauging exactly what the industry will look like in ten years is difficult – maybe it will be something like the video and music industries, maybe it will develop in a whole new way, maybe everybody will be turning back to the physical book. What ever the landscape I believe in being prepared!
*It’s so shiny and exciting!
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