Non-Traditional Pathways to Publishing
When people envision a publishing career after college, they usually imagine an open path straight to one of the Big Five publishers. What they don’t imagine is a labyrinth of branching trails and diverging paths. There are so many paths that one could take on their journey to work in publishing; some are more conventional and widely known, and others take a little more imagination and research. Thankfully, I did some of the research for you and wrote this blog post about a few of the more creative and non-traditional pathways to publishing that are worth exploring.
Let’s start by looking beyond the typical publishing roles, finding ways to build experience before you get your first opportunity, and the added benefits of freelancing/ volunteering. Now, this is not a guide on how to break into publishing, but an invitation to take a peek at those lesser-known paths within the publishing industry. Who knows, they may be an alternative gateway to your dream job or a path to a new, less conventional dream.
Expand your Job Hunt Outside of Traditional Publishing Roles
This creator on Instagram, @phobeslifeindata, posted a video about a few different jobs within the book industry that are not publishing-centered jobs, like jobs within the marketing, publicity, and editorial departments at the Big Five. These are niche jobs that might not be as well-known as the career routes that we learn about in college and on social media, but they can be your step in the right direction and help you gain some new, unique skills. Here are a few that you might not have heard about before below.
Indexer: Do you like research and organizing information, especially in editorial roles? An indexer creates the alphabetical index at the back of nonfiction books, helping readers locate topics and information.
Book Data Analyst: Do you want to go into sales or marketing? Do you like spotting trends? This role uses sales, readership, and market data to identify trends, forecast demand, and help publishers make strategic decisions about acquisitions and marketing. Book Trading and Merchandising is also a close cousin and great marketing role.
Metadata Specialist: Are you an aspiring digital marketer who loves SEO and keywords for discoverability? This job writes and manages the descriptive information such as categories, codes, and book descriptions that helps readers discover book outlines and in library catalogs.
Book Coach: Are you a future literary agent who loves mentoring authors? Book coaches guide authors through writing, revision, and publishing processes.
Publishing Attorney: Interested in copyright, contracts, and intellectual property? This job handles contracts, copyright, licensing, etc for authors, agents, and publishers.
Literacy Coordinator: Do you love publicity and community outreach? This job helps design literacy programs, book initiatives, or reading outreach for schools, nonprofits, libraries, and community organizers.
Sensitivity Readers: Have you always wanted to work with cultures and lived experiences, especially within the editorial department? This role reviews manuscripts for authentic and respectful representation of cultures, identities, disabilities, and lived experience before publication.
Many of these roles combine skills from fields like marketing, design, data analytics, education, law, or communications. This makes them great entry points for people whose backgrounds extend beyond English or creative writing. However, discovering new career paths is only the first step. The next challenge is proving your interest and building experience before someone gives you the opportunity.
Build Experience—and Public Proof of Your Passion
You do not have to wait for your big publishing job or internships to start working towards building experience. You can create book or publishing-related content (i.e., Bookstagram, Booktok, or Book Blogs). I had a coffee chat with a now-Associate Publicist at Penguin Random House who jumpstarted her publishing career with a Bookstagram and Booktube account. It was a great way for her to interact with other readers, pick up on trends, and understand the community while showing her passion for books. You can create faceless content, make fun reels, write about book politics, or anything else that you want. These are a few skills that you can pick up and showcase through your content.
If you want to go into marketing or PR, then you can create book content that discusses cool PR package ideas for a new release, make book trends/challenges to see how they engage readers, and work with book influencers.
If you like sales, you could create a podcast or blog where you try to sell your audience on reading a certain book or explain why you think a specific book will be a bestseller.
If you like production/design, you could redesign the covers of classics or your favorite books. I have even seen people crochet book covers and decorate cookies with characters. You could also create a Pinterest and create cute book-related drawings or boards.
If you are an aspiring editor, you can share impactful quotes from books that set the tone of the story, look into how the plot was developed, or even research and share how the book writing process typically goes at different publishing houses.
This is a way to create a living portfolio that shows employers you are passionate about books, instead of telling them. Every review, analysis, podcast episode, cover redesign, or trend breakdown becomes evidence of your curiosity and skills. You might even learn that you like analyzing trends more than the process of writing/editing a book. Also, if you don’t have certain skills, then this will help you build them. But creating content or a digital archive of your interest isn’t the only new pathway to gain experience. Freelancing and volunteering can be a great, untapped resource that will add weight to your experience and resume.
Freelance or Find Volunteer Opportunities
Always keep an eye out for volunteer or freelancing opportunities. Your experience doesn't have to come from a publisher to be valuable to one. Volunteer opportunities are a great way to get experience and to try and figure out what part of working in publishing you like. Local, smaller publishing houses or literary magazines are a great place to get started. You will more than likely wear a bunch of different hats and gain a lot of new experience. Here are a few opportunities that you could try your hand at:
You could work with smaller, independent presses to evaluate manuscript submissions and write feedback reports.
You can be a beta reader for an upcoming author.
Build a portfolio by creating a mock professional editorial style guide or a mock marketing campaign to promote an incoming book or drive interest for an older book and share that portfolio on a freelancing website like Reedsy.
Volunteer with YPA, of course :)
Schedule coffee chats with literary or magazine departments and see where there is a need that you could fill as a freelancer/ volunteer.
Build off of your current skills and job, even if they are not in publishing.
There are many different routes that you can take on your career journey. Every skill that you have is valuable. Sometimes a publishing career does not have to begin in a publishing house. Sometimes, it begins with a volunteer position, Bookstagram, a freelance marketing project, or a coffee chat that introduces you to a completely new path. There’s no perfect formula or predetermined path that you must go down to get your dream job. It’s about exploring until you find the corner of the book world where your skills and curiosity overlap. Your dream job might not be the one that you are currently chasing, but through a hidden, unconventional trail that you never knew existed.
Pro-Tip: Keep a journal as you come in contact with people from cool jobs and make note of their career trajectories.
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Iyoniah Teague is the Blog Manager at Young Publishers Association. She also works as an Administrative Assistant in the non-profit industry. She loves to spend her time reading small-town romances with magic or suspense, making new recipes at home, and advocating for social justice.
