Rachel Kaufman of Mediabistro’s Media Jobs Daily recently wrote a post on the Facebook ads I ran this past August. While flattered that Mediabistro (Mediabistro bitches!) finds the story awesome enough to write about, I took issue with the general tone of the article. The title itself reads: “Woman Buys A Facebook Job Ad And Sort Of Gets Her Wish” and Kaufman writes, “But isn’t this story kind of like wanting to be a basketball star and ending up as a sportswriter or coach? Or wanting to be a chef and ending up doing PR campaigns for other chefs?” Maybe, I guess. But if Kaufman read even a little of my blog she would know that I no longer work at Jane Wesman PR. Plus, that is just like the media world to look down at a boutique firm because it’s not a big-corporate-conglomerate-that-puts-out-hundreds-of-books-and-makes-butt-tons-of-money-and-has-a-fancy-slash-prestigious-name.

Now, I can’t argue with what she says. My dream was to work for a big publisher, but only because I didn’t really know what else was out there for someone who wanted to go into publishing. In my limited (but enthusiastic) view, a job as an editorial assistant was the Be All and End All of publishing jobs. I hadn’t even considered book publicity until my Rodale buddy suggested it. Was I dissapointed I didn’t land a “sweet” gig at a fancy publishing house? Of course. Do I regret it? Not even a little bit.

In my cockiness, I’m pretty sure that if I spent a little longer looking I would have gotten my “dream job”. But after my interview at JWPR I realized that going outside the major houses would a) paysmore and b) give me better experience. Instead of being somebody’s “publicity assistant” I was actually a publicist. That being said, after three months I realized that I actually rock out more effectively on my own. And there was that little issue with enrolling in culinary school. So maybe the job I spent $150 getting wasn’t perfect for me, but I now have first-hand experience with book publicity, met some amazing people, work for myself, make more money and have clients that include major publishers, newspapers and authors.

So take that, Mediabistro.

Tagged as: facebook, freelance, interviews, mediabistro, publicity, publishers, resume