I got my first publishing job somewhat by accident. In 1994, I applied for a bunch of administrative assistant positions at the local university. One of those positions happened to be an editorial assistant's position at the university press; they hired me, and I've worked here ever since.
Most of my coworkers started in the same way -- applied for and got an entry-level position, gradually moved into a less entry-level position. A few folks did an internship and were hired after their intern year; a couple folks had backgrounds in commerical publishing before they came here.
The university press world has some major differences from the commercial publishing world (for starters, most university presses would consider a paperback that sells 2,500 copies a resounding success), but a lot of the skills one learns at a university press would transfer to the commercial world; slush is slush, review copies are review copies, and ONIX is ONIX no matter what publisher you work for.
no subject
Most of my coworkers started in the same way -- applied for and got an entry-level position, gradually moved into a less entry-level position. A few folks did an internship and were hired after their intern year; a couple folks had backgrounds in commerical publishing before they came here.
The university press world has some major differences from the commercial publishing world (for starters, most university presses would consider a paperback that sells 2,500 copies a resounding success), but a lot of the skills one learns at a university press would transfer to the commercial world; slush is slush, review copies are review copies, and ONIX is ONIX no matter what publisher you work for.