Alumni - Aimée Walker - Cambridge Publishing Scholarship.

Aimée Walker was awarded the Cambridge Publishing Scholarship in 2008. She writes about her experience on the Master's in Publishing  at Oxford Brookes. To find out how to enter for this year's scholarship, please visit our scholarships page here.

The Master's in Publishing here at Oxford Brookes was definitely the best way for me to kick-start my career in publishing. Thanks to the course, which has provided me with a sound basis of understanding of the publishing industry, I now feel confident to start my career. Besides the obvious benefits of the skills and knowledge we acquire through the modules, the course provides us with ample opportunity for networking with members of the industry.

Highlights of the course for me are definitely the book fairs, the links with industry, the ‘working in publishing day', the group projects and the people - the 80 students on the course and the tutors are fantastic, and everyone gets on extremely well. To explain a bit more, I have been to the Frankfurt, Bologna and London book fairs. At Frankfurt and Bologna our tutors organized meetings for us with publishers and we were able to understand more about the roles of a variety of professionals from different publishing companies. I was very lucky to do work experience at the London Book Fair with New Zealand publisher Milly, Molly Books. Acting as chief note-taker I was able to sit in on all of the rights meetings between Milly, Molly Books and publishers from around the world. The ‘working in publishing day' took place in March where a room was filled with publishing companies and students having small group meetings or rather ‘speed-dating' sessions, each lasting fifteen minutes. I attended eight appointments with a variety of publishers and, rather than being in an interview scenario, we were able to put visiting publishers on the spot and ask the questions.

Thanks to Oxford Brookes Publishing Department's excellent industry links there are plenty of opportunities for us to do work experience. New placements are regularly put up on the Brookes website. I worked as an editorial assistant for Collins Education one day a week for six months. This complemented the course very well and enabled me to put the editorial skills I was learning into practice, including proofreading and copy-editing.

Since I was awarded the scholarship from Cambridge University Press I was invited to visit and spend the day with the Managing Director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Andrew Gilfillan. I was really impressed by the philosophy of the Press and the friendly atmosphere and, subsequently, I would welcome the opportunity to work with them in the future.

Altogether this year has been a really worthwhile and fulfilling experience and I would recommend the Oxford Brookes Master's course to anyone keen to enter the publishing world.

Posted on 26 May 2009 around 7am