Alumni - Verity Powell, BA Publishing Media
The undergraduate programme at Oxford Brookes was an excellent start to my career in publishing. During the course I especially enjoyed the Production module and was able to follow this up through work experience at A&C Black. By the time my degree had finished I had made the decision to work in Production, and on my leaver form I wrote that I would like to work in the Production Department at Penguin, which I ultimately did end up doing, but before that …
In the May just before handing in my dissertation I started my first publishing job working as a Production Editor at Oxford Journals. This was a great opportunity to put into practice many of the things I’d learnt during my degree about scheduling, print buying and freight management.
After OUP I moved to a small publishing company in London, which allowed me to learn about colour management and gain experience of printing in the Far East. Armed with my new skills I moved to a Production Controller position at Hachette Children's Books. I worked on their children's picture books and young adult fiction list. During my time at Hachette the market interest in Special Sales and Books Plus really took off, and I worked closely with the Sales team to develop products ranging from high-end, limited edition print runs to cheaper box sets for Asda and The Book People.
After three years at Hachette I was ready for a new challenge, and moved to Penguin/DK as a Senior Production Controller on their Special Sales list, primarily focusing on the US market. Working at Penguin/DK was an amazing time for me; I was able to travel to New York and worked on big brand products including Lego, Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics.
I recently decided to move back to Oxford, and am currently working for Imago Publishing Services, which I joined at the beginning of 2015 as Production and Sales Manager. I manage a small team and we work on a diverse range of books from bibles, to pop-ups and soft toys to board games and collector’s editions. I have also guest lectured on Anglia Ruskin's Publishing Master’s Programme.
Posted on 05 May 2015 around 3pm