Monday, June 16, 2008

Author Solutions Career Open House This Week

My eighteen-year habit of reading the newspaper classifieds each week has paid off again. Yesterday's Indianapolis Star carried an advertisement for Indiana-based self-publisher Author Solutions' career fair. The open house will be this Thursday, June 19, at the Courtyard Marriott Carmel (10290 N. Meridian), from 4 to 8pm.

"Open house" is something of a misnomer because it's not happening at their offices (one in Bloomington and a smaller office here in Indianapolis--rumored to be in the Keystone at the Crossing area, although there is no mention of it on the website). So although you won't get a feel for the office environment, you'll still get to meet some people. The primary job they mention in the ad is Publishing Consultant, which sounds like a cross between inside sales and acquisitions. The ad says this job has "realistic potential" for a 70K/year income, plus great benefits and an amazing dollar-for-dollar 401K match (I think I'm getting a quarter per dollar on my investments here--and that's a step up from what it was before we were bought).

If you plan to go, take your resume, dress like you're going to a job interview, and eschew the promised "refreshments." You don't want to look like the only reason you're there is the free food.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Lori, it is a far cry from an acqusitions job in publishing as you could imagine. It is a high volume, call center. The Vice President of Sales preaches a "bag 'em and skin 'em approach to acquiring "authors".
They have to have these career open houses to find people willing to work there. Also they pay employees referrals to get friends to work there.
GOOD salespeople will struggle to make 35K~40K at AuthorHouse/iUniverse/Wordclay/Inkubook...

Lori Cates Hand said...

Oh, wow, this is important information to know. I rather suspected it when I read some of the job descriptions in more detail. But wow. Thanks for sharing.