My First Week and 1/2 at the Columbia Publishing Course
I didn’t always know that my path would lie in publishing. For a long while, I assumed that I would be shuffled back into academia like every other good student with an obscure major (or in my case, two.) But the past year of pandemic, of isolation, and of reflection allowed my ample time to think about what I wanted from a career and where my passions are. I dug back through my experiences and found what has always been and always will be a foundational love of mine — books.
I applied to the Columbia Publishing Course (CPC) last year, hoping to gain some insight to an industry that I knew little about, simply that I wanted to get in. When I was accepted, it felt like a golden ticket. A stamp of approval saying “Yes, we believe in you. This could really be your future.”
Now I’m in the thick of the course, learning so much from incredible professionals. Some are veterans of the industry, founders of imprints and publishers near retirement. Others are newbies just like me, trying to find their way in a bustling industry of book-lovers. I have never felt so informed and so uninformed at the same time; the more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn.
Still, I can sit down and tell someone the life of a manuscript and how it will transform into a book. I understand the basics of rights licensing, contracts, and sales. I mostly understand the difference between marketing and publicity. I am recognizing the genres I want to work in, the age groups I want to cater to, the types of positions I’m interested in pursuing. I see how agencies operate and interact with editorial teams who interact with managing editorial teams who interact with just about everyone else. It’s equal parts thrilling and overwhelming to absorb so much knowledge at once and to sit in the presence of so much talent, wondering if I will ever rise to the success and fulfillment I am after.
In any case, I want to start this blog for a number of reasons:
- To document my time at CPC and onward, my lessons learned as I climb into the publishing industry one step at a time.
- To keep myself up to date on recent releases, campaigns, and goings-on in the publishing world and share my thoughts on them.
- Because I just love to talk about books!
I don’t know if anyone will read this or if it’s just for myself, but my hopes are high and my eyes are bright. I feel like I can see the future just a bit more clearly today.
Warmly,
Julia
