February 2023
In this month’s newsletter:
Announcements → PAGES, PIPCAST
Meet the Mentors → Ana Maria Jimenez-Moreno
Resource of the Month → Feeding the Elephant + GW Publishing CareerBuilder Book Club
Monthly Musings → How can one best present UP experience in applications to non-UP positions?
Job Board → Brown University Digital Publishing
Pawfessional Advice
Who We Are
PIP is a free mentorship program that helps prepare early career applicants (those moving into or out of entry-level jobs) for the work of applying to, interviewing for, and navigating negotiations of new positions in scholarly publishing.
Check out our open inbox program, podcast, newsletter archive, blog, pay database, and book club. We’re always looking to collaborate and expand, if you have ideas get in contact with the admins by emailing pathsinpub@gmail.com.
Announcements:
PAGES
Our next PAGES meeting is Thursday, February 23 at noon ET. We’ll be reading A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun, written and illustrated by Kate Gavino. We also still have room for a co-leader of the discussion and a reviewer of this title for H-Net's Feeding the Elephant. Please let us know if you're interested and we'll make the arrangements!
Please be sure to register here to join us for the conversation!
PIPCAST Podcast
The PIPCAST Podcast is here! Join Allegra and Rachael every other Thursday as we talk about key aspects of scholarly publishing, from jobs to ways the work functions. We’ll often be joined by outstanding guests from around scholarly publishing and in our inaugural episode, we introduce PIP and our core programs. In our second episode (coming this Thursday), we offer interview tips for everyone on the job hunt!
Meet the Mentors
Ana Maria Jimenez-Moreno is the literary and cultural acquisitions editor at the Ohio State University Press. She was at the University of Georgia Press and the University of Notre Dame Press.
Ask Ana a question through our Open Inbox program!
PIP Resource of the Month
The Apprenticeship Model in Publishing
Feeding the Elephant is one of our favorite industry resources and the recent post by Alison Syring (acquisitions editor at the University of Illinois Press) on “The Apprenticeship Model in Publishing” is a great reminder for many of us to consider how we train up in scholarly publishing.
A favorite quote from this hugely quotable post: “On-the-job training may look much like it does now, only more intentional. It would involve support not only from one senior staff mentor, but also from early and mid-career folks at an apprentice’s own press and within the AUPresses community, from whom one could learn different perspectives. It may involve both one-on-one and group discussions, both intentional and chance meetings, both rigid agendas and open questions. In short, we need to intentionally set up learning opportunities with a variety of people, but also leave the door open for opportunities we don’t even see coming.” Mentorship? Yes, please!
GW Publishing Book Club
The GW Publishing CareerBuilder Book Club is preparing for their next meeting. If you’re interested, be sure to sign up for more info.
Next up, the club will discuss Impermanent Blackness: The Making and Unmaking of Interracial Literary Culture in Modern America, by Korey Garibaldi, published by Princeton University Press. This new book revisits the almost-forgotten American interracial literary culture that advanced racial pluralism in the decades before the 1960s.
Please RSVP here to join the discussion in person, on Thursday. April 6, at 4:00 pm EST, on the Foggy Bottom campus, with author Korey Garibaldi and MPS in Publishing student John Fisher, who worked on the book as a freelance editor. If you are not already a member of the Publishing Book Club, you may sign up here. It is free and open to all in the publishing, library, and scholarly communication communities. Publishing Book Club members will get an invite to the zoom meeting; RSVP above for the in person event only.
Monthly Musings
Every month we highlight a question submitted to PIP and one of our mentor’s answers. This month’s question was pulled from our webinar with AUPresses on Resumes and Cover letters!
Question: How can one best present UP experience in applications to non-UP positions?
Answer: If you’re looking to transition from UP-publishing to trade publishing, you shouldn’t need to change much! Trade publishing operates much in the same way as UP publishing– they’ve just got more money to throw at things than university presses.
The further from publishing you’re looking, however, you may want to consider changing some terms to make your experience clear to those without knowledge of publishing lingo.
“Monographs” might be changed to “projects” or “titles.” “ARCs” and “BLADs” might become “marketing collateral.” Asking a trusted friend outside of publishing to look at your resume can help ensure your publishing skills translate.
Job Board
Job of the month:
Brown University Library is seeking an assistant editor for the Brown University Digital Publications. This looks like a very cool job for an early career person interested in digital work – and it’s hybrid eligible! The salary range is $57,000-95,000 and we’re here to help support you if you need mentorship on your application materials!
Pawfessional Advice of the Meownth
Don’t let conditions get you down. Some days, weeks, or months are better or worse than others but you always have support (even if it’s just here at PIP!) to try something different. Even a cat-astrophe can be an opportunity.