As a new monthly feature, we will be posting “Partners’ Corner,” a place where the principals of Market Partners International can share their observations of the publishing industry for the month.
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We’ve been doing a lot of searches at MPI this year, and having read more resumes and met more publishing people than most of you might meet in a whole career, we’ve been noticing something new: In the good old days, most trade publishing people stayed in the department where they started so their career advanced upward, but rarely could you make a switch from sales to editorial or rights to marketing. But those barriers seem to have fallen somewhat and a recent look at current resumes reveals some surprising career tracks.
Take, for instance, these real examples: From Promotions Coordinator to Senior Editor at a Teen Magazine to senior roles in the Publicity Department; From Editor to Associate Publisher to Editorial Director of Digital Publishing to Publishing Director at an internet start-up; from Editor to Agent to VP of Business Development to Publisher; from Foreign Rights to Domestic Rights to National Accounts Manager to Director of Sales to Director of Client Services; from Editor to Licensing Manager to Packager to Editorial Director.
Then there are the seismic shifts, from music to books; from book publishing to national nonprofits; from books to magazines and vice versa; from digital startups to books and vice versa.
None of these may seem radical, but they do point to a definite change. Employers now embrace a resume that has variety, which could mean different companies, job descriptions, or even – increasingly – industries. Digital initiatives transcend departments, requiring skills and knowledge regardless of one’s primary responsibility. Editors, encouraged to create original content, must understand the world of licensing in order to exploit the potential of their creations. Even sales, once the clear domain of people on the ground and in the field, is now redefined as ebooks go automatically to platforms in the sky.
