Everyone I’ve encountered – after I told them in my hometown of Lancashire – were completely shocked when I expressed quite confidently that I wanted to work in the book publishing world. They would said something like “Y’know, Book Publishing? Eh, ain’t that what poshos down South do?” It was as though I’d told them I wanted to climb Mount Everest on a pogo stick; I didn’t want them to think I was a quitter, and perhaps I too had listened to too much of Miley Cyrus’ The Climb when I thought I’d do whatever I could to make it into the world of storytelling. After all, a childhood of bullying and being “different” meant I felt the safest when I was able to soak into each of the wonderful novelist’s books I would keep flicking through the pages off, sometimes past midnight.
I’ll wind it back to the early ‘90s, where I grew up in a small northern town called Accrington. Every Saturday morning, without fail, I’d channel my inner Matilda Wormwood from Roald Dahl’s Matilda, harking with a trolley from a book to take home as a child at the local library. Fun fact for you: it was the same library which was created in 1904 when industrialist and philanthropist American Andrew Carnegie offered the town £7,500 for the building of a new library. In short, if it wasn’t for Carnegie (who also the New York Carnegie hall is named after, in case you’re wondering!) I’d perhaps would not have had a love for books. It was in this library that I was lost into the world of books. The wonderful stories of Cathy MacPhail, Jeremy Strong, Derek Landy, Anthony Horowitz and Jill Murphy.
I first came across Creative Access when I was living in Beijing, believe it or not. I was overseas in the country where a course in Mandarin was offered to me on a scholarship and I leapt at the chance to take it. This meant that after I graduated with my BA (Hons) from English and American Literature at the University of Kent, I was able to secure a year in a totally different country.
Whilst on the study abroad year, I found myself wanting to really make sure I had a good chance of obtaining an entry-level job in book publishing. In fact, in my second semester I asked about interning at Penguin Books’ China branch so that I could get some experience under my belt. And phew, the dues paid off! After months of searching and exploring the vast breadth of China, I was ready to start in a book publishing company. I was only a week into working in an admin job at the Civil Service when I was signposted to an internship role, working in digital marketing at Pan Macmillan, one of the ‘Big 4’ publishers. I handed my notice after two weeks as bingo – after hundreds of applications and many interviews – I finally landed my first ever UK-based publishing role. Via the unpaid internship overseas, meaning it was just totally a long slog. I made it! I learned so much, and I felt nice to finally get my teeny tiny toe through the door. The internship was brilliant, as I had the most incredibly understanding HR team (thanks, Raakhi!) and learnt a lot about the entire publishing process through my managers Tom and Andy. I also was able to see that I didn’t want to work in digital marketing and landed an editorial role after.
After ten years of working in the book publishing (both trade and academic), I set off on my own path. I realised that I had learned as much as I could have, so have set up my own editorial and marketing/PR consultancy. I love being able to work with cool authors, as well as now having expanded into theatre and the creative arts industry generally.
My advice:
Keep going, interns! I was once you: in fact, I was the 800th Creative Access intern. It was a real joy to have had the Creative Access team part of my journey. I really hope you will flourish and see the creative path you were destined to take.
You can keep in touch with Hamza and follow their site hamzajahanzeb.co.uk:
