A Chat with Chelsea Graham of The Publishing Post | Big Green Experts

This week’s Big Green Expert is Chelsea Graham, founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Publishing Post - a free online magazine which represents people trying to break into the publishing industry. With features on how to kickstart your publishing career to new title reviews, The Publishing Post is one of the most accessible ways of finding out about the publishing industry.

1. Supporting publishing hopefuls is at the core of the Publishing Post; what future plans / projects lie ahead for further supporting this group of people?

I hope that The Post can continue to produce content that hopefuls find engaging and look forward to reading! The industry is huge, and we have barely scratched the surface in terms of relaying it to our readers. I know that if you are new to the industry networking can be really hard, I hope that the regular interviews we conduct at The Post help those who are only just starting to get to know people feel as though they can benefit from the knowledge and opinions of industry professionals! 

I also think support comes from feeling like part of a community and part of something that works to do good! The Post values every single person that works to produce it. I hope that in combination with projects like the Publishing Hopefuls Facebook group, The Post can help those that are trying to get into the industry feel as though they can always chat with someone else around them!

2. What connotations do you see around the title “publishing hopeful”? As a growing self-affixed label, does hopeful imply a lack of success and therefore something we should sway from?

I think the term ‘publishing hopeful’ derived mostly out of wanting to feel a sense of belonging. The period of transition from either being a graduate or from another career into the phase of applying for publishing jobs is daunting and previously was quite a lonely experience. 

I think when an industry is as competitive as publishing it is quite easy to let your self-esteem slip. If you are applying for six months, and 9 days out of 10 you receive a rejection or an email telling you that you didn’t have enough experience, you can imagine how after a while that starts to hurt! But, if you have hundreds of others also experiencing the same thing, it is a much better time.

I don’t think the term is thought to imply a lack of success, but instead a continued effort to be successful! 

3. How does magazine publishing differ from traditional book publishing?

Although magazine publishing works on a much shorter timeline than traditional publishing, working on a fortnightly cycle as opposed to one consisting of months, many of the processes and workflows are the same. 

Each article we produce is moved through from conception and development to editorial, and from there to production and then publication. We have different teams that act as the varying departments and have strict deadlines to meet. The skills that everyone at The Post demonstrates and uses to publish the magazine are transferable to the book publishing environment, which is important when gaining experience!

4. What was your experience like as a publishing student? Do you think people need to study publishing to get into the industry?

I absolutely loved my year as an MA Publishing student. I don’t think for a second that you need a degree in publishing to get into the industry, but I personally think it was the right choice for me. I think that studying publishing should be something you do if you want to gain a better insight into the industry and also to develop specific skills. As someone who also loves being within the academic world, the MA gave me an insight and a degree of confidence in my knowledge that I don’t feel I would have gained elsewhere. I loved everything that I did whilst on the course, from creating an e-book to writing a marketing campaign and commissioning my own book. 

5. You’ve spoken a lot about rejection quite openly, both on social media as well as in the Post. How important do you think it is to face rejection, and how would you suggest writers and creatives in particular deal with that?

I think we all face rejection at one point or another and it is important to learn how to accept it and move on. But I also do strongly believe that it is okay to be upset by rejection.  Every single person has been rejected for something at one point in their lives, and it isn’t nice! It would be a lie to pretend it isn’t hard and I think it is important to talk about that too!

6. The Post has had a strong following & team behind it from the beginning; to what do you owe the success of your magazine? And why do you think there was so much appeal?

I think that the success of the magazine comes not only from the dedication of every single person that is involved with its publication but is also a testament to how desperate publishing hopefuls are to learn about the industry. The magazine tries to provide a way to learn about topics that aren’t always covered within events or are just a little niche! 

When I first started to get involved in learning about the industry, I found it quite overwhelming and didn’t quite know where to begin with my learning! I hope The Post offers a condensed but also a wide snapshot of the industry every fortnight. We certainly don’t cover everything, but we try to be a basis. 

7. What are your aspirations for the Publishing Post and what form it takes in the future? Would you consider a print edition or monetising content?

I certainly don’t want to rule out print editions, I have a physical copy of our very first issue and it is beautiful!

When I first started the magazine, a few people already within the industry contacted me to ask very similar questions about the plan to have a subscription-based concept and at the time I didn’t really know the answer. Having now published over 220 articles across 10 issues, I know that I don’t want The Post to be paid-for content. 

The primary reason I set up The Post was the make the industry more inclusive; providing more opportunities to gain experience, producing a whole load of content that was freely available to everyone that wished to read it, and to level out the playing field. There are so many resources across the industry which are amazing, but if you cannot afford them, I think it is important that there is a resource you do have access to.

8. Sticking to projects can be difficult as a self-starter, whether as an indie publisher, printer, freelance creative, or founder of a magazine. How do you keep things fresh and avoid monotony? 

I love working on The Publishing Post! I work way more than I should, but I genuinely enjoy working on every part of the magazine. Constantly chatting with other people in a similar situation to me who also love books and working on the content is a really lovely way to spend my time! The teams that work across all of our articles are incredibly creative and have the best ideas to make sure we are always up to date with producing new and exciting content!

9. What outcomes / changes would you like to see occur in publishing after the pandemic?

I think initiatives like The Spare Zoom Project is great and I also think that virtual interviews are a really great way to make the industry more accessible in a number of ways. Getting to an interview can be expensive if the publisher does not cover the cost, physically getting to an office may be hard for those who have reduced mobility. I think that a virtual interview opens up a world of possibility and encourages a wider and more diverse set of applicants to apply for publishing jobs. I hope that the industry continues to offer virtual interviews where possible!

You can find Chelsea on Twitter . The Publishing Post is published fortnightly and sent straight to your inbox, subscribe here, find them on Twitter and Instagram.