This blog post is one of a series of Q&As with staff working at Liverpool University Press. We hope through these blog posts that prospective employees and those interested in joining the publishing industry can find out more about LUP and the career paths our staff have taken along the way.
Here we speak with Clare Litt, Senior Commissioning Editor (Classics & Medieval Studies) at Liverpool University Press.
What did you do before this job and how did you get your current role at LUP?
I started out working as a bookseller in 1996 for an independent mail order bookselling and publishing company, that specialised in history. After a couple of years answering the phone, sending faxes (!) and compiling orders, I graduated into the sales and marketing side of things, which led me to my next job, being a publicity manager for a London publisher. I stayed in marketing and publicity for a while, before eventually becoming an editor in 2004. I gained a wide range of editorial experience over the next 14 years, which led to me getting my current role as Commissioning Editor at LUP in 2018.
What career or job did you imagine for yourself when you were at school?
Not publishing! I was keen on the idea of working as a Clerk of Commons at the Houses of Parliament for a while. But I didn’t have a very fixed idea of what I wanted to do.
What does your job entail? What does a typical day look like?
My job is a cross between a recruitment agent and a project manager. I find and recruit authors, researching who is doing what in the subject areas I work in, and what gaps there are in the existing literature. I manage book proposals and finished book manuscripts that come in, steering them through the peer review process, working with authors at all career stages.
A typical day for me involves reading and replying to lots of emails, and a mix of reading and making notes on a proposal document to provide feedback for an author, researching who would be suitable to act as peer reviewers for a particular proposal or manuscript, then contacting those people to ask them, and researching a topic, either by through going through an academic conference programme, or looking at what else has been published, or other assorted searches. I might also have a meeting with a prospective author on Zoom, or an editorial team meeting with my colleagues where we discuss strategy and general developments in the academic publishing industry. I also attend academic conferences where I meet people face to face and try to persuade them to publish with us!
What skills did you bring to the job? Where did you learn these?
The ability to read a lot, absorb a lot of information and pick out what the key points are. I was an avid reader from an early age. My degree definitely helped with this (Classics, which involves summarising huge amounts of literature). It is important as a Commissioning Editor to enjoy talking to and interacting with people. All of my jobs have involved this, plus this is something that I genuinely love doing. Lastly, literacy skills (especially important in academic publishing), which a humanities degree provides.
What is your favourite part of your job?
Working with early career scholars to publish their first book – nothing beats being able to provide joyful moments of acceptance and then publication – and to then see their careers progress thanks to having their work published. Also the satisfaction of being involved in a book’s conception, development, and eventual release into the world.
What advice or tips would you give for anyone interested in joining the publishing world?
Be flexible on where you start out; publishing has junior roles in all areas (marketing, sales, production and editorial). When starting out the main thing is to get experience in the industry; people can and do move sideways into different areas.
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