Case studies: Acquisition editor: Sarah Cullington

Sarah has a degree in classical literature and civilisation from the University of Birmingham. She works as an acquisition editor for Packt Publishing.

In my last year of university, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in publishing as I thought it would be ideal to combine my love of literature with a job. I spoke to my university careers service and started to research different publishing companies. Although I was planning to apply for work experience with some publishing companies, I was very lucky to get my job at Packt Publishing , a company that publishes technical books, just four months after I graduated.

I joined the company as an acquisition editor, which is fairly unusual for graduates to do, but Packt was a relatively small company at the time - it was founded in 2004 - and so was just looking for graduates with an interest in and enthusiasm for publishing.

The literature element of my degree was certainly an advantage to getting the job, but the key skill required to be an acquisition editor is research, which most degrees provide the opportunity for. Writing a dissertation alone takes a great deal of research.

An acquisition editor works on a number of book projects, at various stages of development, at any one time. On a daily basis, I can be researching new book ideas, developing book outlines with authors, editing chapters or writing title information sheets.

I most enjoy helping new authors to develop a book idea and outline and to really make it their own. It’s exciting to see a book idea turn into an actual outline; it makes the book seem much more real.

Packt has different levels of acquisition editor and, in three years, I have gone from level one to level three. This means that I take care of a larger number of book projects and have more responsibilities, such as training new staff members, updating guidelines and discussing new processes and strategies with the publisher. I also have an additional responsibility of improving editorial quality, which includes managing proofreading, which has helped me to develop more skills. I would eventually like to become a publisher myself where I would be able to manage a team of acquisition editors and develop the strategy of the team further.

One of the main challenges of being an acquisition editor is keeping on top of the market and trying to work out what will become popular before it actually does. There are so many great things about working in publishing, such as working with a variety of people, from authors to reviewers to the marketing team, and working in a relaxed, friendly environment where everyone shares my passion for good books and reading.

My advice to graduates interested in publishing is to browse through bookshops every now and then so that you have an idea of what is in the market, try to get work experience if possible - there are lots of great intern schemes out there - and, of course, keep reading.