August Publishing Roundup | 5 Essential Articles

September is here! It’s been another busy month in publishing. Whilst we may not be thinking about Christmas just yet, the world of publishing is busy getting ready for the winter market, as well as always developing new job roles and changing all the time. To let you catch your breath, I’ve complied 5 online articles that offer a snapshot of the publishing news from this month. Enjoy!

1. Skills Gaps in the Publishing Industry | bookmachine.org 

This is a two-parter: two interviews identifying what skills are currently craved in publishing. The interviews, the first with Relations Executive Seonaid MacLeod (The Publisher’s Association) and the second with Resourcing Manager Stephanie Hall (HarperCollins), should be essential reading fodder for any publishing hopeful. Insights into publishing from industry professionals are incredibly valuable, but these articles go that one step further by offering newcomers an idea of what skills to develop to meet the needs of an continually flourishing business. The ladies tackle questions like “How easy do you think it is for publishing professionals to gain new skills and change roles?”and “What do you think are the best ways to gain new expertise?”. Want the answers? Click the link!

2. Everything You Need to Know About Publishing Industry Etiquette | writersedit.com

As a publisher, it can be very important to understand the writer’s perspective. Conversely, writers need to be clued up about publishing etiquette. This article is a great meet in the middle, useful for writers looking to get published and also for publishers-in-training, many of whom are learning about client management. This article, by Hannah Macauley-Gierhart, supplies us with 7 top tips for publishing success and impeccable client/business relationships, interspersed with nuggets of advice from leading houses such as Penguin Random House. Essential reading for anyone looking to go into account management or similar.

Image from: writersedit.com

3. Rise of the Engagement Editor | mediashift.org

It can be difficult when you first step out into the industry to get your head around the sheer number of job roles and responsibilities publishing encompasses. An article from Media Shift caught my eye this month all about a role I’d never heard of before – the engagement editor. All about coordinating a business’s digital strategies, the engagement editor is in charge of all things to do with user interfaces and community interactions. A great read if you’re just learning about the mind boggling amount of job roles on offer for publishing hopefuls and if you’re interested in the future of digital media and it’s audience.

4. How Does Networking Help? | thebookseller.com

Networking – you may already have heard people talking about how important it can be for your career. But how exactly should we go about it, and how can we actively make it work for us? Written by fellow English graduate (now the chair of the Society of Young Publishers) Anna Cunnane, this article foregrounds the importance of letting others in the industry know how well they think they can work with you. In her words, networking “will help to build a network of people that can vouch for you and tip you off when the next job is coming up, and to consistently prove yourself to be engaged and likeable by showing up to networking events” and she leaves us with some tips to help us make an impact. Awesome!

5. The State of US Illustrated Books | publishingperspectives.com

Image from: publishingperspectives.com

This article comes as a four-part series on the illustrated book publishing climate in the US (read them all here, here, here and here). This news is nothing groundbreaking and perhaps not useful for everyone (or in fact anyone haha!)– but I just love illustrated books (I even own the Wes Anderson filmography book, above). If this is an area that interests you too, this is a pretty comprehensive guide to what is going on right at this moment. The series, released all throughout August, touches on the digital world, e-illustration-Books, and how the consumer may have changed as well as its general current state. Lots of interesting things going on in this area, that’s for sure!

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Which article did you find most useful/interesting? And did you find anything interesting out this month that I would be stupid to miss? Let me know!

4 Bits Of Essential Publishing Reading for July

Want a quick round up of Publishing as it happens? Well … you’ve come to the right place

My Internet Mornings have suddenly become rituals of research as opposed to anything more relaxed and leisurely (though I still make time for that in the evenings every now and again) – and my favourite topic to look up? Publishing of course! (with the occasional dip into literature and design)

Here are my top four articles to get a feel of what everyone’s talking about in publishing this month – and a lot of it is pretty revolutionary. Everyone got their breakfast beverage of choice? Then, without further ado, let’s get started on today’s list!

1. On Being a Woman in Publishing

Gender equality is a hot topic in publishing right now, and I found this very relevant article doing the rounds on Twitter. Written by Erin L. Cox on the Publishing Perspectives blog where she works as a Business Development Director, it is about what it was/is/can be like being a woman in the industry. What I first of all noticed when reading this article is how good publishing can be for women and, at one point, Cox dubs the industry “gender-blind” (pretty amazing!). She does go on to ask: “why aren’t more women taking on these management jobs?” but concludes that she never once saw her gender as a challenge to be overcome and, after all, “only 51%” of women in managerial roles is still a great number (we can’t complain too much with just over half can we?). Cox keeps her article light and positive, ending on how believing in your abilities can go a long way.

2. Menial Publishing Jobs are Destroying Our Future

Another article with a slight gender twist comes from thebookseller.com and regular contributor Emma Barnes. This post is great to read from start to finish and, whilst it’s tone is not a happy one, it is an article of empowerment. Barnes’ articles focuses on the menial tasks associated with junior or entry-level publishing roles and how this shouldn’t really be the a rite of passage or a job we should feel satisfied with doing day in, day out. It can be difficult not to feel ungrateful when you feel yourself disliking a job you worked really hard to get in an apparently very tough job market (so they keep telling us), but Barnes tells us that it’s okay to expect and want more from our early careers than filling in spreadsheets in what’s meant to be a creative industry. I do believe that Barnes’ mindset is essential for publishing newcomers like myself so our goals are not put on hold. Instead, we should be reaching those roles that will better effect not only ourselves and our careers, but the companies we work within too. Finally, Barnes suggests improved in-house training and making junior roles more valuable, which I think is the best idea I’ve heard all day. A must read if you’re stuck in a bit of a career rut.

3. Charlotte Agenda: an amazing online startup

I love ingenious startups, entrepreneurship and innovative, trailblazing ideas. The world behind the scenes of these new ventures is particularly interesting to me and so this article on streetfightmag.com caught my eye. An interview with publisher Ted Williams, founder of the Charlotte Agenda blog, the feature explores the challenges facing startups to stand out from the crowd and achieve sustainability. The Charlotte Agenda itself is a pretty awesome alternative blog for the local area of Charlotte, North Carolina, focusing on unique events and developments for the area. What makes CA so special is Williams’ use of branding and marketing in the publishing sphere, from telling the stories the people want to read to working together with advertisers and local businesses. If you’re interested in traffic, branding and business plans of starting your own venture, this is a great article to get your teeth into.

 4. Three Strategies to Improve Diversity in Publishing

The diversity of authors, publishers, themes and content is another topic that is being much discussed at the moment. This article, by publisher of Limehouse Books Bobby Nayyar, holds his three essential tips for increasing diversity in the publishing workplace. Nayyar’s strategies are simple yet appear quite effective and do give you hope for the future of publishing. Most importantly, he recognises that in order for the industry to move forward, some radical changes need to be made – which is all rather exciting indeed.

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Is This The End of Apps?

http://ind.pn/1oWFGbp

Interesting article from the Independent online today – are apps on their way out? The article points out the fickle world of social gaming and how, whilst a lot of us may have up to 30 apps on our device, we only really use and settle on the odd few.

The article also considers the squeeze on independent games and app developers and how the dominance of app developers (like Facebook) may be one of the factors for the fall in purchasing or downloading apps.

How many apps to you use? How frequently do you use them? Do you agree with the article?

I’m inclined to think similarly to the writer here. I hardly use the apps I downloaded when I bought my iPhone 2 years ago. Maps, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube are among my most used – but I don’t tend to use any others! I think apps will always be around in a limited number, but I do think that the app economy boom is coming to an end.

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“Put the iPhone down” | Why Social Media Should Transcend the Online World

‘Creativity doesn’t emerge from staring at your digital device. “Put the iPhone down,” said Jeremy Cowart. Look out the window and pay attention to the moment’ –

Amber Rae, writer @ www.fastcompany.com

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Many people see the bad in social media. I asked the question recently: What does social media mean to you? I tweeted this thought as well as putting it to Facebook and got some wildly varying answers! My first attempt at appealing to Facebook yielded mostly negative responses and a focus on social media for personal use. I didn’t specify what kind or for what purpose they visualised social media as having and I left the question very open. But the responses were all fairly narrow! I was a tad disappointed that some people saw social media mostly as a tool for egocentrism and general moaning. However, it doesn’t necessarily shock me that this is the immediate response for most people, nor do I blame them for thinking this way! Facebook is, before most things, for personal use and we all have that one ‘friend’ who does nothing but self-indulge and moan! But it doesn’t have to be seen that way – because we don’t have to use it that way.

In her article, Amber Rae gives us 8 ways to unleash our inner creativity, and, whilst it is important these days to be creative online, why we need to be aware of the bigger picture and the world in which we are ultimately trying to participate in. The aim of our social media should always be to forge a deeper connection with the world around us, not to be glued to our screens. I do find myself checking Twitter every morning over breakfast and in front of my computer screen most nights, but I mustn’t do this at the expense of real-world experiences or opportunities.

There definitely is a bit of a cautionary tale to be told about social media and our world as seen through the ‘digital device’. Photographer Luke voiced his concerns in his response: ‘Don’t spend any money on likes or get too caught up on how many likes you get as likes don’t earn you any money, but if getting likes is getting you more money then keep up an engaging social media presence but not at the expense of your work, time or money’. I loved this and I think this perfectly embodies Amber Rae’s point. Whatever we are able to achieve on social media cannot replace what we can do to make an impact on real issues and will only ever scrape the surface of our aspirations. It is only a starting point, but a very helpful one at that. 

Thinking of social media from a business or, even more accessibly, a community point of view, for me, offers a much more positive outlook than the one most of us currently have. The function and identity of social media is ever-changing and is, I believe, becoming more positively influential in the ‘outside world’, that is, the world beyond the computer screen. Not only this, but I have seen elements of the world actively being changed due to the goings-on of social media. Charity and community work has been made possible through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. For instance, sibling vloggers Hank and John Green have achieved outstanding charity work, sponsored real-life football club AFC Wimbledon, started annual convention VidCon and set up accessible education channels on YouTube all through their work online. Comparatively, I was chosen for work experience because of how I promote myself on Twitter.

Ultimately, social media is what we make it and it can enable us to create brilliant, lasting projects, find and collaborate with people in our field. I love how it can help us achieve these things and I like to think that the more we do to make social media meaningful the more people will begin to use it meaningfully.

Read Amber Rae’s article here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3025996/dialed/8-ways-to-unlock-your-inner-creativity

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Reach Further | Facebook, Photography and Following

When your best post and your proudest shot has reached none of your followers. None. Is Facebook an adequate enough marketing platform for aspiring photographers? What else can we do? Is there more to life than your online audience? I am fascinated by this topic! I discuss the pressures of making it in digital photography and how to make the most of our networking without the worry.

Another dissatisfied photographer took to Facebook today, hinting towards the disparity between her amount of likes and the overall “reach” of her post. Puzzlingly, whilst her post received over thirty likes, her reach, Facebook informed her, was zero. Confused? So are we! From what I understand, reach is characterised by the number of friends and friends of friends who have seen your post appear on their timeline but did not engage with the post, i.e. like or comment. Why aren’t people seeing our stuff? Is it a glitch, or something more sinister?

I’ve already talked about the arguable cheekiness (or insert stronger word here if you feel hard done by!) of Facebook and the complex opt-in system for following and receiving notifications. Similarly, the conflicting nature of reach is baffling and irritating everywhere it pops up – specifically, always on our business pages under every post. It feels like Facebook is trying to be useful here. It’s giving us what it calls “insights”, graphs and pages of stats to help monitor which posts are getting the most views, what content produces the most engagement and generates the most follows. But … it’s actually a bit confusing, especially when you’re unsure why your reach differs so much for no apparent reason.

I do think that whilst Facebook gives us all the information, it doesn’t give us any solutions to improve our audience – apart from of course the ever-present option to ‘boost’ our posts for a sum. This is what many start-up photographers are struggling with when trying to reach new people organically.

Yet! This is not the end nor the extent of what Facebook, or other social mediums, can do for us. In essence, no matter how we are restricted, I believe we will always find a way to make the medium work for us, so long as we are working proactively. Facebook is great, and I have highlighted a lot of its benefits to photographers in my previous post. Yet, photographers are a driven bunch and, instead of relying on a fixed, ready-made platform, they can – and have! – take social media into their own hands. It all starts with getting out there.

Design Aglow have recently featured a very interesting article, 25 Ways to Build a Local Following – none of which include Facebook. The points are centred around becoming immersed into your local community and encourage and promote face-to-face networking and building up your contacts by working on projects with other businesses. Social media is a wonderful place to start for networking – but it’s how we use it to benefit us in the real world that makes our projects thrive and our connections matter.

So many photographers are still disheartened by how social media can often restrict us in terms of reach. We work our hardest to produce work that we are often very proud of; we would love it to be viewed by potential clients and these likes and views often give us confidence in ourselves and can make us feel accredited as good photographers (though I think they are all fab already). I know some start to think – I’m getting no views therefore I must be a terrible photographer. It’s funny, but also very understandable, how other people can make us feel like our photography work is valid but often the photographer’s heart is put into their work – and it’s a bit of a blow seeing that little zero at the bottom of your image.

But, the article on Design Aglow, as well as some other comments and discussions online, has made me stop and think about this. My sister, owner of Sung Blue Photography, and I were talking last night about it. The reach on a post of hers was stuck on zero but already had 7 likes several minutes into posting – she was a bit puzzled as to what reach really meant and, more importantly, were potential clients actually going to see this? The likes on the post steadily increased throughout the night, but her reach stayed nonexistent. To me, this was conflicting information. If people are seeing it to like it, surely this counts as reach?

No matter what Facebook says, then, people are finding you. You are succeeding, and, if you keep pushing, you will achieve all of your goals for the future. I firmly believe this. You put the hard work in, you’ll soon realise it’s easier than you think, and you get results out. It’s not just about being friendly with your clients or editing your pictures the most efficiently. It’s about your presence in the real, professional world. Get your work out there, online, through social media. Connect with people to create more work. Showcase your work using Facebook albums (love those). It’s all possible, social media makes it a little bit easier, even if you feel set back at times. There are limitations we know, but there are ways and means around it if we don’t focus on these drawbacks and make our own opportunities.

So, I’ve got a few tips about which features of social media can really benefit photographers:

5 Tips To Hone Your Online Marketing (or, how Reach doesn’t matter) 

1. Contact local businesses and work together. Social media is great for finding and speaking to people. If you work in wedding photography, contact other suppliers and arrange a styled shoot – florists, table decorators, dress and suit suppliers. Great images for your portfolio and contacts for referrals in the future. Win, win! If you are working elsewhere in photography, this can still apply. Find a local business who wants some head shots taken, or professional pictures of their premises. You can use them on your social media page to attract new clients and will ensure you keep approaching your work proactively.

2. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Pictures are attention grabbing and show off the most important aspect of your photography business – your work! If what you produce is easily accessible on your Facebook page or Twitter, people won’t have to click off very far in order to sample your work. Your future clients love to have everything at their fingertips. Be proud to showcase your work (on a regular basis too!) – people want to see your photographs!

3. Tweet photography bloggers who are looking for photographs “real weddings” to feature. Drop them a direct message, what’s the worst that can happen? Having your work featured on a legitimate blog can make you feel like a “proper” photographer even if you are well on the way to success, it can just give you that extra confidence boost. Established blogs have a fairly large following and will often link to your blog or Facebook page to get you more exposure and business!  Go for it!

4. Join in with #weddinghour on Twitter. This occurs every Wednesday from 9pm-10pm and is for everyone related to weddings, including photographers. Use the hashtag and Tweet away all your wedding photography related questions, requests for collaborations or opinions from your clients or contemporaries. Have fun and remember to network! Check out @weddinghour and get stuck in.

5. Work with your online photographer friends. Strike up conversations on Facebook, meet up and shoot with each other! This is how I came into contact with another photographer and my sister got some spin-off work as a second shooter. They are now good friends and frequent co-workers. Result! Join relevant Facebook photography groups to find like-minded professionals to connect with. My favourite is Young/Aspiring Photographers. It’s a closed group, so ask to join. They are a lovely friendly bunch who are dedicated to their work and offer great advice and support. Don’t worry, you don’t necessarily have to be young or a particular demographic – you just have to love photography.

You probably have had some of these ideas and acted on them, too. But, if you haven’t, go for it! Social media makes it so easy for us to make connections from the comfort of our own sofas or home-offices – but then we have to ensure we follow that up with involvement, dedication and hard graft. Facebook’s new and confusing features are meant to be aiding this cause but I think it needs to redefine what reach really means and how it helps us in our professional lives.

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