Monday, March 24, 2008

Rejecter: NY Publishing Job Market Is Dead Right Now

My favorite snarky agent's assistant, The Rejecter, shed a little light this weekend on the state of the publishing job market in New York City: "The job market is completely dead right now." I can't really speculate on why that is, but maybe it's just a reflection of the job market in general, which is in trouble.

She also says something extremely interesting: that a lot of people get their start as a low-level assistant to an agent. They do their time for a year or two, and then the agent helps them find a job as an editor. Why? Because the agent may someday have a book to pitch to their former assistant, so the gratitude for the help will surely make the editor more willing to listen.

A commenter on the post says he or she is also having a tough time finding a publishing job and is considering getting a second internship because "apparently one wasn't enough."

Food for thought on this Monday morning!

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