“I’m Happiest Just Loving Books”: A Fordham English Alum Talks About Working in Publishing
Elka Roderick (FCRH ’21, GSAS’ 22) has been working as a publicity assistant for Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House) since shortly after finishing at Fordham, and she loves her work.
When Elka started her job search, she didn’t know that she would enjoy being a publicity assistant so much. She had initially thought that she wanted to be an editor. During a 6-week intensive publishing course at Columbia, though, she realized how many other options there were. “There are so many positions in publishing that are not editorial assistants!” Elka said. “That was the only job I knew of as an undergrad, but it’s such a singular part of the industry, and there are so many cool jobs in marketing, sales, design, and production—so many hands (not just editors’) contribute to making the book. I wish I had known that as an undergrad. There are so many avenues to explore that don’t involve line editing!”
Elka found her home in publicity. “I had realized that I didn’t want to be doing editorial work, but I also knew I didn’t want to be in marketing or sales. Actually, publicity combines everything that makes me like publishing.”
Elka’s day-to-day work involves a lot of contact with the authors themselves. She reports to three publicists who cover a variety of genres, including cookbooks, celebrity memoirs, novels, and political nonfiction. They work to create earned media campaigns for the books they’re assigned. “Marketing deals with social media; we deal with authors’ schedules after their book’s publication date. So basically, whether they do an in-person tour or a virtual tour, we organize bookstore events, podcasts, lectures, visits to different colleges—their whole media tour. We book the events, organize transportation, and manage their schedules.”
Elka also helps handle reviews. “When we get assigned a book, we then decide where we’re going to pitch it. We usually pitch to outlets where we have contacts like the New York Times, the New Yorker, Washington Post, and places like that. Then we do more targeted media specific to the book and the author. We basically just try to find as many different homes for it as possible.”
All parts of this job, Elka emphasized, depend on a solid understanding of how audience and genre work in a variety of contexts. She has found that reading widely while at Fordham prepared her to thrive in her current position. “People in publishing always say that book people are a certain kind of people. I think that being at Fordham instilled in me a serious love of literature and a sense of respect for books. The core curriculum, particularly, forces you to take classes you would never think to take. In publishing, you often get assigned a book that you have no interest in reading. You have to be able to pick up a book, find the beauty in it, and realize it has a certain audience. Fordham’s really good at giving you experience with a diverse range of genres.”
Her experience in English classes at Fordham also made her a natural fit for the publishing industry. “Learning how to talk about books is so important in publishing because all you talk about all day is why a book is good, or why it should be directed toward a certain outlet, or why someone would read it. I think that being able to articulately talk about literature is very useful— in any job! But particularly in publishing, of course.”
For those who are interested in applying for jobs in publishing, Elka urged patience. “I started applying to publishing jobs the spring before I graduated and— crickets. Absolutely nothing. Not even a ‘thanks for applying,’” she said, laughing. “Sometimes it takes a long time to get the job you really want. It’s normal to have to pivot and come back… sometimes it will take a year of working somewhere else while you apply for the positions you want.”
As frustrating as the waiting can be, Elka encouraged applicants to keep trying. “When you’re in your undergrad, people are starting applications so early, and you start seeing postings about jobs. It can be really discouraging to see other people have things fall into their laps. Extending your own personal timeline is very important. These things happen in the weirdest ways, but it will happen! And, of course, they always say that, and it gets really annoying, but it’s also true. It will happen, even if it takes a while.”
When Elka was unsuccessful in her first round of applications, she applied to Columbia Journalism School’s publishing course, which she found very helpful in finding her way into the publishing industry. “Honestly, I don’t think I would have gotten this job if I hadn’t taken that course,” she told me. “It’s a huge networking opportunity, and you learn all sorts of tricks of the trade that help with the application process.” She noted, though, that it’s not the only way to get a job in publishing. “It’s expensive, it’s a time commitment, and it’s definitely a very privileged route to get to follow. I think a lot of the content can probably be gotten from all of the many books and podcasts about publishing that are out there. But if you do have the means (and they have a lot of scholarships, too), it’s a very streamlined process. It’s especially good for networking.”
For those interested in applying to publishing jobs, Elka recommended keeping an eye on websites like Publisher’s Weekly and Publisher’s Lunch, which post job boards and book deals, and signing up for newsletters like Lit Hub Daily.
Elka also mentioned that experience selling books is invaluable going into the publishing industry. “I really wished that I had book-selling experience when I was applying for this job. A summer job at Barnes & Noble or your local indie bookstore can count for a lot! Working in a bookstore—or anything that is ultimately about selling books, like volunteering or just talking to sellers—will give you so much knowledge of how the industry works... you don’t need much experience to get hired in the typical bookstore, but you gain so much experience that’s highly transferrable [to the publishing industry].”
Elka also wishes that she had read more recent books before applying to work in publishing. “I spent so much time reading books for school, which were old, that I hadn’t really read a new writer in ages when I started applying for these jobs. And then I realized that I hadn’t read anything this house had published in the last ten years! So I did a lot of scramble-reading while I was applying, reading all the new bestsellers of that year. That’s something that it’s easy to forget about in college when you’re reading for school. So my advice: read contemporary, new books that are coming out and are a part of the conversation so that when you get to an interview, you have new authors that you’re excited about. That’s what publishing is really about.”
While Elka is realistic about the low pay in the publishing industry—“That’s the consequence of a fun job: it doesn’t pay very well!” she said—she also has found a lot of hope for the industry in how much her colleagues love books. “I was worried that working in publishing was going to feel very removed from the act of enjoying reading, and that’s been a surprise. There’s been so much on the news recently about Penguin Random House and mergers, and obviously, there are a lot of problems in publishing, and people are absolutely right to say it’s a very broken system. But I will say that everyone reads our books. Everyone I work with loves our books. People are so excited to just talk about them with each other. There’s a very well-tended passion for the books that people are working on. They share them in the office and bring a copy to your desk if they have a book they think you’ll like. So there’s a very human element, too, that feels very exciting to be around.”
This job has also helped Elka to value all of the many roles needed to bring new books into the world. “A lot of people think working in publishing is a backdoor to getting published—and I think it’s also totally fine to want to publish other peoples’ work! I’ve struggled with this, too: should I be a writer? I really love writing! But I think that I’m happiest just loving books. Sometimes it’s fine to be an audience and to help things come to life. It’s not settling. It’s completely different work.”
