Alumni - Hannah Todd, BA Publishing Media and English Language
I had known that I wanted to go into the book industry, but I was never sure which area. When I came across the Oxford Brookes undergraduate publishing course, it excited me much more than any other journalism/English literature degree that I had seen before. It was specific to an industry I wanted to enter, and the interview sealed the deal: the lecturers were all so welcoming and friendly.
During the three years at Oxford Brookes I was introduced to areas of the industry I had never previously had to think about (besides the obvious areas of editorial, design and creative writing): including business, finance and people management. For my final project, I set up Hello Me, it’s You a collaborative project that has culminated in the creation of a YA book, advocating mental health issues, and giving voices to young people on their own mental health related experiences. The book is published on 10 October 2016.
It was with the help of my lecturers and major project supervisor (the incredible Beverley Tarquini) that I was able to establish this project. They gave me the knowledge and the confidence to see it through to completion. It was more than the content of lectures and projects though; for example, during the course I visited distribution warehouses in the Netherlands on our field trip to Amsterdam, and the amazing networking on the programme enabled me to meet many industry professionals. It was through these connections that I got my part-time job at an editorial company, where I worked for two years while working on my degree. This in turn led to me securing an internship at a literary agency. Later, it was through a partnership between Brookes and Santander that I was able to secure my final internship at Bookouture, the digital publisher.
I am now working as a publishing assistant at Bookouture and since I secured the place, I have been featured on industry panels at writing events, worked on so many incredible books and learned a huge amount about the digital side of publishing. I would not have had any of these experiences if I had decided to go for one of those other degrees, so thank you Brookes!
Hello Me, it’s You was highlighted by The Bookseller:
http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/startup-week-hello-me-its-you-328497
Posted on 15 Sep 2016 around 7am