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!