Want to Be a Marketing Assistant/Coordinator?

Coincidentally, I ran across two different postings today for marketing assistants at publishing companies. The first is at EMC Publishing, our parent company in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Educational publisher seeks Marketing Communications Coordinator. This person will be responsible for working with the Marketing Communications Manager to coordinate the implementation of the EMC Publishing marketing plan through the design, copywriting, production, mailing, and tracking of all marketing projects through multiple channels. Assist the Marketing Communications Manager with special projects as assigned. Duties include:

• Develop, execute, and evaluate direct mail marketing materials (including catalogs, brochures, flyers, and letters) for new and backlist titles that generate sales leads and product orders, and support the sales representatives.
• Collaborate with all internal teams involved in the product development process to determine the conceptual and copy direction of branding and advertising initiatives.
• Develop online web content for emcschool.com including new product copy, promotional pages, and event announcements
• Write and conceptualize emarketing campaigns including emails, web site landing pages, and social media platforms.
• Proofread and fact-check product information in all EMC marketing materials.

Bachelor's degree required in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or related degree. Must have at least two years of marketing communications experience with a demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and effectively primarily in written form. Must have knowledge of mailings, project management, and promotions. Must have very good knowledge of technology to include computers and software programs such as MS Office. Requires exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail to coordinate phases of projects with others under tight deadlines. Apply here.

The second marketing job is at Wiley in Indianapolis:

Provides general administrative support to marketing department, including processing bills and monitoring promotion expenses, special sales events [workshops, author tours, conventions, and book fairs], and advertising schedules. Assists in the implementation of marketing plans, including coordination of author promotion initiatives, preparation and distribution of sales tools, including sales sheets, product kits, and competitive information. Provides back-up copywriting [space ads and sales letters], proofreading, and basic design support.

Requirements: 1 year of marketing or publishing experience. Proficiency on MS applications. Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment. Excellent communication skills required. Apply here.

These two jobs are at slightly different levels and have different entry requirements. I found these two postings informative (not to mention encouraging, from an economic standpoint) and thought you might, too.

Twitter Job Search Guide Publicity Wins!

If you're following me on Twitter (and you should be!), you're probably sick to death of my tweets about The Twitter Job Search Guide. But I swear it's not calculated and shameless self-promotion. I truly adore this book and am so very excited that it's now available in stores.

The book is packed with novel and vital tips for maximizing Twitter for your career purposes. Pick it up, turn to any page, and I guarantee that you will learn something.

A week or so ago, the authors did an interview for the Associated Press that has received wide distribution and iterations of it are turning up all over (for example, here on the ABC News site). That has helped push the Amazon rank to a respectable spot for a new book and is spawning new exposure every day.

The authors are spearheading an energetic and innovative PR campaign, beginning with a book launch party in New York on Monday. We've never really tried that for any of our other books, mainly because the subject of careers is not usually thought of as glam. But throw in the hottest social networking trend and suddenly, things get interesting.

But here's where it takes a turn for the surreal. Original gossip girl Liz Smith just happens to live in an apartment above the restaurant where the launch party is taking place. And today, she gave it a very nice preview in her online column. This is where I got a little woozy. Finally, finally, we've got a book going viral. I am so excited to see what happens next!

Indiana Historical Society Holiday Author Fair: A Whole Lotta Awesome!

A while back I mentioned my intention to drop into the Indiana Historical Society's Holiday Author Fair, in which 80+ local authors were on hand to autograph copies of their works. Could an event be more tailor-made for me, who lives in the past and subsists on books? The event was Saturday and it lived up to all my expectations.


Immediately upon arrival I was asked whether I would like to join the society. As a matter of fact, I did want to. I want to support history in Indiana; but I also want to learn more about the historical society's press, which seems like a dream employer to me.


The next stroke of good luck was running into my longtime friend Gayle (yes, just like Oprah, I have a friend named Gayle), whom I hadn't seen in some time. We did our catching up as we weaved among the many authors, asking about their inspirations and their publishing experience.



It was an interesting mix of the self-published and those with the backing of major publishers. Our first mandatory stop, of course, was to meet Terry Border, author of the quirky Bent Objects. We'd already corresponded via Twitter, so he knew I was coming. We enjoyed hearing about his creative process later during his presentation. He's a former commercial photographer and baker who went from the mundane to doing what he really loves: Making funny scenes with everyday objects and taking photos of them. I predict big things for him.



We also visited with Larry Sweazy, the Noblesville author of The Rattlesnake Season with Penguin. He's got a four-book deal, so he's working on the next installment. (He then chided me for not keeping this blog updated lately. Duly noted.) Next to him was another fellow Macmillan/Pearson alum, Chris Katsaropoulos, who told me he is serializing his entire novel, Fragile, over Twitter to promote it. Wow.

We enjoyed chatting with Scott Sanders about his Arcadia-published book devoted to the history of Burger Chef. Cool! I also had a nice discussion with Andrew Stoner about his book, Notorious 92, chronicling the most heinous murders in each of Indiana's 92 counties.

It was also great to finally meet Julie Young in person after having some online interactions with her last year. She's the author of an Arcadia book Historic Irvington, and A Belief in Providence, about Mother Guerin, Indiana's only saint. Turns out, Julie is writing a video script for my company and invited me to be her Facebook friend.

Last but not least, I had a private audience with Philip Gulley, author of I Love You, Miss Huddleston (and quite a collection of other highly successful books with Harper). I'm sure he wondered at some of my questions, but I was sizing up his book's appropriateness as a gift. He convinced me. I bought it.

Looking back, I enjoyed that the event wasn't overrun with people. But now I hope they had enough book buyers to make it worth their while. I know I came away some $200 lighter in the pocket.

JIST Book Gets Library Journal Review

Nothing dulls the pain of having to return from a beach resort vacation to the frigid Midwest like a big publicity coup. I was excited to learn just now that one of my books got a coveted review in the latest edition of Library Journal. You can read it in its entirety here (scroll down to the third review). But the money quote is this:

Covering all the basics, this work is recommended for job seekers, including those who have been laid off, and is especially appropriate for professionals and management-level workers.

Many thanks to Diana Lekus of the Queens Library for her excellent insights!

It's been quite a while since we got a Library Journal review. It will be interesting to see whether this will translate into increased sales. This really is an excellent book and the authors (father-daughter duo Richard and Terri Deems) have a distinguished history of helping people get jobs and deal with the emotional aspects of losing a job. Plus, they are so very nice! I'm thrilled to see them get this recognition.

Story of Hope: Marian Uses Online Social Media to Land an Awesome Job

I met Marian Schembari through Twitter last week. She discovered my blog and was excited to find someone else who has been writing about getting a job in publishing. So she followed me on Twitter, I followed her back, and we ended up chatting over e-mail. I checked out her blog and was mightily impressed: Here was someone who had used online networking sites in an innovative way to break into the publishing industry—at a time when, let's face it, jobs are hard to come by.

So I asked her to tell her story here. Check it out and get inspired!

I really wanted to get into publishing. Like, a lot. Never mind that the industry is slowly dying, the economy sucks, I had zero experience and the pay is (and always will be) crap. No, I'm a book lover, and in my naïve - but enthusiastic - mindset, I thought that was all I needed.

So I spent the three months after my May graduation carefully editing my resume, crafting the perfect cover letter, and applying for every single job at every single publisher in New York. I stalked mediabistro and bookjobs, made a ton of contacts and... well, that was pretty much it. I had one interview in 3 months.

I got bored of that real fast. Even though I was working all day every day, I just felt like I was waiting... So I took out a ton of books (of course) from the local library on finding a job, marketing yourself and personal branding. I designed a website with my resume, references and writing samples. Then, with Facebook's enormously helpful targeting options, I was able to post an ad on the profiles of people at places like HarperCollins, Random House, Penguin, Rodale, Macmillan, etc.

And I got responses! At least one person from every publisher I focused on emailed to say they passed on my resume, wanted to meet, or even just to say they liked my idea. The encouragement was fantastic, and within a week I had four interviews and a freelance gig.

Of course, advertising yourself to get a job is a little weird, I have to admit. It's one of those stories you hear about people wearing their resume on a t-shirt or taking cookies to an interview. No one wants to be that person.

Except I was that person. And an article written about my search on the HarperStudio blog resulted in a lot of lovely and encouraging comments (many of which said they weren't hiring. Figures). Only two people were cynical, not much liking my use of wording, but the ad generated much more positive feedback than negative, so I'm over it.

After the novelty of the ads wore off, though, I knew I needed something different to get people's attention. So I started a blog, chronicling my search and talking a little about publishing and where it's headed. Then I (reluctantly) signed up for Twitter, which 1 week later landed me a sweet interview at Penguin.

One month later and I'm employed. Long story short, a woman at Rodale saw my ad, emailed me and thought I should consider book publicity. She passed my resume on to an old employer who ran a book PR firm. One thing led to another and I'm now in my third week as associate publicist.

I couldn't be happier now that I'm officially "in" publishing. I also know I'm enormously lucky. The thing is, I don't actually know one person who's gotten a job the old-fashioned way. Sorry HR, but it's true. Plus, it makes for an interesting story. My campaign made me consider a career I had never considered and now I'm loving it. All in all a pretty successful endeavor.

Post-Launch Euphoria

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you've been hearing tweets and squawks from me about our big trade launch meeting today. Well, it's over now and I am taking a second to catch my breath.

I instituted the tradition of biannual launch meetings at JIST 7 or so years ago. It's a chance to get everyone around one table and talk about the new books that will be coming out the following season. I do my sales job on the salespeople and try to get them as pumped about the books as I am. We critique the working covers. We bounce marketing ideas off one another. It's a good thing--but somewhat stressful in the run up to it.

The day after a launch, I have to start thinking what I'm going to present at the next launch. First I plan the revisions--new editions of our best-selling books. I have to time the releases to coincide with stock depletion and optimal market conditions (it's best to avoid times of the year when people aren't thinking much about their careers, like summer and Christmas).

Next I look at existing series and see whether there's room for another book in the series. Since our topic area is so narrow, I've already maxed out most of the slots, though, so this gets harder each year.

The icing, then, are the totally new books on edgier topics. I've got three of them on this list. (I'm going to wait a few more weeks before I get too specific about them here, though.) These are the ones that are the biggest risk because they don't have a sales history behind them. They could stick and become mainstays. Or they could sell 2,000 copies and fade away.

Meanwhile, my boss is going through the same process for her reference list, which we also sell into trade.

There are myriad details to attend to before these ideas can be presented as books: contracts, paperwork, competitive research, sales research, outlines, author schedules, cover designs, catalog copy...just a lot to do. Finally we get it all nailed down and ready to present at the launch (and usually without more than a few days to spare).

After doing these presentations for so many years, I'm no longer nervous about them. But I'm still an introvert, and it still zaps my energy to be "on" for three hours like that. So right now I'm feeling quite a sense of relief--until tomorrow, when the whole process begins again. And that's not to mention the fact that now that I have signed all these books, I have to make sure that they get done!

Blog (and Cook) Your Way to a New Career

Kansas City career coach Meg Montford (who not too many years ago joined me for a dinner of "Hot Brown" sandwiches at Louisville's Brown Hotel while we were at a conference) today blogs about a new movie that will inspire career changers. The movie is Julie & Julia, based on Julie Powell's book of the same name.

Meg shares how the movie shows Julie stuck in a miserable career. Then she gets the inspiration to cook every one of the more than 500 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking--and blogging about it--in just one year. Of course, her husband thinks she's nuts. But followers flock and before long Julie has found a new career as a writer. Meg believes you'll find some career inspiration from this delightful-looking movie.

I have to confess that I read Julie's book when it was still in galley form (I picked it up at Book Expo). And it turned me on to the magic of blogging. Seeing what it did for her, I resolved to start my own blog. And although I don't anticipate it being made into a Hollywood production anytime soon, it was still a good decision that has opened doors and made great connections for me. Best of all, it's gotten me into the discipline of writing regularly instead of always fixing other people's work. Both are noble occupations, but they take different skill sets. Keeping both sharp has been a blessing.

You'll note that publishers Little, Brown and Knopf have taken advantage of the movie's release with special editions of both Julie and Julia's books with covers that call attention to their connections to the movie. They will get a new sales boost as a result.

Of course, I want to see the movie. But I used up my "one theatre movie per year without the kid" allowance this weekend on Johnny Depp (and I do not regret it). I might have to wait for the DVD.

JIST Is on Facebook

I'm happy to report that JIST Publishing is now on Facebook. Our awesome publicist, Selena Dehne, has set up a page for us and is updating it with all sorts of useful information on careers, our authors, and our books. Look us up and become a fan!

Getting Your Book Proposal Noticed

A while back I mentioned the amazing Help A Reporter Out mailing list, which connects reporters with subject-matter experts to help them write their stories. We continue to monitor it daily in hopes of finding places for our authors to be quoted. But occasionally, it yields a place for me to be quoted.

Case in point, the April BookHitch.com newsletter. I volunteered my advice on what I look for when I screen and evaluate book proposals. That advice, plus tons of spot-on information from other editors, is available by subscribing to the free newsletter (sign up here).

If you are thinking of sending me (or anyone else) a book proposal, I suggest that you read this first!

The Wild: An Indie Bookseller I Love

Yesterday I got an e-mail that looked like a tear-jerker: "RIP Little Lady." "OMG," I thought. "Somebody's little girl has died." Dutifully, I opened the message, which came from the independent children's bookstore in our small town of Noblesville, The Wild.

As it turns out, the deceased was a hissing cockroach named Louise (and yes, that is her, "lying in state," at left) who lived at the store with her partner...wait for it...Thelma. Hard to get too choked up over a roach.

The Wild is more of a happening than just a mere store. It's situated on Noblesville's historic square, one of my favorite places to hang out anyway. But the quaint and narrow space is crammed with kids' books and games and toys as well, making it a destination in and of itself. Add to that the constant stream of special events (my daughter has gone there to meet snakes and pigs, for example) and you've got a store that has won my heart and will always get my business (except today, because I have a B&N gift card to spend).

Amazon Stirs Controversy--Again

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have a soft spot for Amazon: low returns and a future-thinking business model (compared to the brick-and-mortars, at least). But today they have apparently crossed the line. Are they really effectively censoring books and favoring heterosexual porn over homosexual literature? Read Kasia Krozser's open letter to them here. Twitter has been so abuzz with the various protests over this move that I saw my first "Fail Whale" today.

Last week they had independent authors in an uproar over their policy to arbitrarily start deleting any book reviews in which the writer also mentioned their own book title. Book marketing expert John Kremer called Amazon "incredibly stupid, stupid, stupid." I had to agree. How else do you establish a reviewer's credentials than to name them as the author of a related book?

And before that, Joe Wikert told CEO Jeff Bezos to turn off the Dirty Dancing VHS and open up the Kindle to content from other providers.

I don't like where this is all headed. Amazon needs some image triage--stat!

Dooce Is on the Loose

Dooce is Heather Armstrong, best known as the first blogger to be fired for blogging. But hey, it turned out pretty good for her: Her personal blog is so popular that now it supports her whole family. And now she's out on the road on the last leg of her book tour to promote her blog-based book, It Sucked and Then I Cried. The catch? She's seven months pregnant and hurtling toward immobility.

Heather is controversial--no doubt about it. She's got a legion of haters who have polluted her book's Amazon page with tags like "read blog for free," "people exploiting their children for money," and "get over yourself." But I love Heather because she is honest, hilarious, and brave. I am going to buy this book because I, too, had a less-than-blissful post-partum emotional experience. I never threw a milk jug at my husband's head, but don't think I didn't think about it.

As to the comments that the book is nothing more than a rehash of the blog, that's okay with me because I have only recently discovered her. I have some catching up to do, and I don't want to sit in front of my computer to do it. Besides, whatever happened to supporting artists who entertain and enlighten us? If we continue to expect to get all our content for free, eventually it won't be there.

Also, look for Heather on Oprah today. She wasn't in the studio, but she did join the conversation via Skype. The book already made the NYT best-seller list. Today's appearance won't hurt its ranking a bit.

JIST Featured in Publishers Weekly This Week

A week or so ago, Publishers Weekly contacted us about doing a feature story on our company. The result is this very good article, published today.

Everyone's looking for a bright spot in publishing these days, and they thought we might be it. And yes, our trade sales have been doing very well since the beginning of the year because people need our books more than ever. But the article only nods to the elephant in the room: Trade is really only a relatively minor part of our business. Our school and workforce development customers are suffering badly and passing that along to us. Nobody here feels as if we're in the catbird seat, at least not yet.

Marketing Communications Writer Needed

We're looking for a marketing copywriter with two years of experience (will consider exceptional entry-level candidates). Check out the job posting on Monster. If you're interested, please apply directly through Monster.

Watch for Laurence on CBS Evening News Tonight

A few weeks ago Laurence Shatkin was interviewed by a CBS Evening News correspondent about how the stimulus plan will affect the job market. We just got the word that the interview might air tonight. So be sure to watch for it!

Listen to Laurence Shatkin on NPR

Yesterday Laurence was a guest on NPR's All Things Considered program, speaking about how the new stimulus plan will affect the job market. It's kind of surreal when someone you know personally is out there conversing with the omnipresent and uber-calming Jacki Lyden. I think he fit right in and did an awesome job. You can hear the three-minute interview here.

Jacki ended the interview with a question about how the job market is going for people who write books about finding jobs. Laurence admitted that it's a pretty good time to be a career book author, which he called one of the ironies of his very particular niche.

Tony Dungy Signing His New Book Today

It's been all over the local media that recently retired Colts coach Tony Dungy will be signing his new book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, at two Indianapolis venues today--at Borders from 3 to 5pm and at Sam's Club from 7 to 9pm. The book is already doing quite well--it's ranked #16 on Amazon now, and has been as high as #9.

You can see a complete list of his scheduled signings here. The publisher, Tyndale House, appears to be targeting his fan base: here and in Tampa, where he formerly coached (and probably because he just happened to be down there for the Super Bowl, anyway). There are also some dates in the New York area.

Tyndale also used a bit or strategy with the release date. It wasn't scheduled to be released until February 17; but when he announced his retirement, they decided to step it up and piggyback onto the publicity that he's continuing to get from that.

The TV news reporter did a live shot outside Borders, nearly 12 hours before his scheduled appearance. She said people would be limited to just three copies of the book each. Imagine how many books he's going to sell today!

Holiday Sales, Industry Optimism, and Laurence on TV

Tomorrow I crawl back to work after a nice extended break for the holidays--but just for three days. Then we're going to Disney World. We're tagging along with Jason as he attends the Pearson winter sales meeting there.

A few things have caught my notice this week:

• Barnes & Noble's 50% off sale: Looks like thousands of books in all categories, calendars, and more at 50% off. The winners here are the consumers and the publishers. B&N will be making just 5% off of anything they sell at this discount.
• Motley Fool gives the publishing industry the thumbs up: Despite the steady increase in doomsday predictions for books, these investing experts say that it will be a long time before the world gives up on Gutenberg's content-delivery method.
• Amazon reports best Christmas ever: Sure, not everything they sold was books, but it's still a good sign to me.
• Laurence Shatkin on CBS News: Yesterday morning we awoke to see JIST author and friend Laurence Shatkin appearing on a CBS News report on recession-proof jobs. His book, 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs, got a mention--and they even showed the cover.

And best of all, local editor Suzy had her quadruplets on Christmas Eve! I guess I can tell her a thing or two about having a baby on that date, but I know not one thing about having four!

Hey, Look: I'm a Marketing Expert!

Check out the latest issue of Book Business magazine, in which I am quoted in this article full of tips for a successful book-marketing campaign launch using both high-tech and traditional methods. I'm thrilled to be quoted alongside marketing pros from National Geographic Books and Doubleday.

This feels a little surreal and ironic, because I've never officially been in a marketing role. But working at a small company and feeling ultimate responsibility for all of the books on my list, I've learned a lot by osmosis. Plus, I read a lot of blogs written by smart marketers.

Thanks to Mark Long for pointing me toward the article. I did the interview quite a while back and didn't know when to expect it. And happy upcoming birthday to the article's writer, Amanda Baltazar (which I know because Plaxo told me so!).

Author Freaks Out over His Book Cover

I just ran across a thoroughly enjoyable blog post from Kenneth Whyte, editor-in-chief of Maclean's, Canada's only national weekly public affairs magazine. He is the author of the soon-to-be-released The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst. During the editing process, his editor at Random House's Counterpoint imprint showed him a few cover options and asked for his input. He gave it, and the editor should then have been able to proceed with getting the cover produced.

But Whyte, who knows how much a cover can affect magazine sales, couldn't let it rest. In his post he details how he increasingly got so far under his editor's skin that she decided to feign an e-mail outage to avoid further contact with him. I like, though, that he is able to make fun of himself in the post.

Have I seen this happen? You bet. Of course, author input is great. But when it starts to interfere with the production schedule and cost a lot of money in redone designs, somebody has to draw the line.

And as for the "atrocity" of a cover that the publisher decided to go with? I don't see anything wrong with it. Of course, you want a picture of Hearst on the cover. And in this one, he looks like he's sitting on a throne with kingly bearing. The black-and-white and the antiquated font fit nicely on a book about a newspaper baron from the late 1800s. It's simple, it's elegant, it fits. What do you think about it?