I am sick and tired of your negativity

Seriously. I am so bored with people telling me that publishers are laying off rather than hiring, that the industry’s struggling and trying to get a job there is like hopping on a sinking ship. Where’s the positive attitude people?! While the digital revolution is definitely hitting its stride and the industry is in a strange place, books will never go away. When have people ever stopped reading? Telling stories? That’s what it means to be human. Maybe (though I don’t want to think about it) books as we know them could become extinct, but that doesn’t mean they’ll dissapear. Just because they’re on a Kindle instead of a well worn paperback or bought from Amazon instead of the quaint local bookstore doesn’t mean publishing is dead. Things just need to change, that’s all.

And there are (yay!) plenty of big and small houses that are embracing this change and going with the flow rather than resisting. These are the companies that will come out on top. I want to be a part of that! So don’t tell me it’s next to impossible to get a job in publishing. While many companies are indeed experiencing a hiring freeze, I’m finding that’s not as much the case for entry-level positions. We’re cheap labor and are always needed. Maybe the competition’s a little bigger and a little more qualified because of layoffs, but that doesn’t mean I, or anyone else, should give up.

I started a discussion on the LinkedIn group Book Publishing Professionals about trying to get into publishing. There have been a surprising number of responses, most of them giving some variation of “good luck, you’ll need it”, or comments from people in the same boat as me. Many of them have been looking for twice as long as I have, sending out hundreds of applications but hearing nothing. Which is where this blog comes in! You absolutely cannot send out hundreds of applications and expect to hear anything back. I have gotten more interviews in the month since I started this “campaign” than I did in all the months combined after graduation. But I digress…

Stop the negativity! Embrace the changes in the industry, look ahead to all the cool things we can be doing and the creative and brilliant people out there who want to help. Books will never die, but the publishing recession will take longer to settle unless everyone starts thinking a little more positively.