What makes a great publisher | Gordon Graham interview

Gordon Graham, to whom the SYP Mentoring Scheme is dedicated, has recently been interviewed on the subject of his career and what makes a great publisher.

http://thebibliofile.ca/legendary-gordon-graham-talks-about-his-career-and-what-makes-a-great-publisher

Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year to all SYP Mentors and Students.

As the 2010 Mentoring Scheme is now officially at an end, I will shortly be in touch with everybody involved to collect your feedback from the SYP Mentoring Scheme. Thank you all for your sterling input into the initiative.

Meet the mentor | Geoff Duffield

Geoff Duffield is a valued sales and marketing mentor who, along with Iain MacGregor, has contributed significantly to the SYP mentoring scheme over the past two years. Geoff, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Pan Macmillan, has been mentoring an entrepeneurial student whose goal is to establish their own independent publishing company (academic, although with the main emphasis on trade) which acts as a platform to facilitate self-publishing authors to print-on-demand and ebook services.

Geoff has provided the student with mentoring guidance, advice and encouragement face-to-face on two occasions, as well as communicating by phone and email.

I have nothing other than tremendous gratitude and appreciation for Geoff's sterling input.

How to get into publishing

The following presentation was provided by Suzanne Kavanagh of skillset who spoke at the same event as me at the London Book Fair in April: http://www.slideshare.net/sashers/suzanne-kavanagh-skillset-lbf10-syp-how-to-get-into-publishing

This presentation may be helpful from a mentoring perspective: for the information of current or potential mentoring students aiming to get in to publishing; or for mentors to look at exactly which generic skills are required by publishing employers (useful for working with students on their specific goals).

Meet the mentor | Helen Conford

Helen Conford began working at Penguin Books in 2001, becoming a commissioning editor in 2003. She is now an Editorial Director at two Penguin imprints, Allen Lane and Particular Books (which launched its first list in July 2009). She was shortlisted for the Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008.

I am very grateful to Helen for mentoring a SYP student whose goal is to move from newspaper journalism to book publishing, specifically commerical fiction and non-fiction. (Helen has been assisting this person with her CV, interview technique and the specific role of an editor.)

Thank you, Helen!

Meet the mentor | Iain MacGregor

Iain MacGregor has been a tremendous contributor to the SYP Mentoring Scheme over the past 2 years. Currently Publishing Director for the Collins imprint of HarperCollins, Iain was previously Associate Publisher at Mainstream in Edinburgh when I initially invited him to participate as a SYP mentor.

Iain has had extensive experience at Publisher level, with positions as Publishing Director at Cassell, Associate Publisher at Chrysalis Book Group and Publishing Director at Sanctuary Publishing. I consider any SYP mentoring student to be very fortunate to be under his tutelage -- Iain is very highly regarded in his field, an enthusiastic ambassador for the industry and displays a keen [taskmaster] interest in his students.

Iain is currently mentoring a SYP student whose goal is to make the transition from recent Literature graduate to marketing assistant in trade publishing. Iain has established an internship for the student in editorial, marketing and PR, which is currently ongoing, as well as guiding her in the direction of respected sources of industry news/information to further her development.

Thank you, Iain.

Meet the mentor | Rachel Lynch

I am sincerely grateful to Rachel Lynch, MD of Ashgate Publishing, for her sterling input into the SYP mentoring scheme. The student's mentoring goal is to complete a work experience placement with an academic publisher, with a view to full-time employment.

Rachel has guided the student on interview technique, recommended specific smaller publishers to approach, and advised her on promoting herself to independent publishers (whilst encouraging her to sound out local bookshops for work in the meantime). The student has recently completed an internship at HarperCollins, and had a number of interviews.

Thank you, Rachel!