Northern Fiction Alliance and literary agency join forces to 'demystify' publishing

A conference will be held in Manchester next month “demystifying” publishing and giving advice on landing a role in the industry.

Organised by Comma Press, the Northern Fiction Alliance and The bks Agency, the ‘Get a Job in Publishing’ conference takes place on 27th April. Held at Manchester Metropolitan University’s business school, it will feature in-depth talks, guides to career paths by industry experts and workshops on writing CVs and interview techniques.

Special guest speakers include Hilary Murray Hill, c.e.o. of Hachette’s Children's Group, who will be talking through editorial careers in children's publishing, Sara Hunt of indie publisher Saraband, who will talk through editorial careers in fiction, and Katie Brown, commissioning editor for fiction at Trapeze, who will lead a session on book publicity.

Zoe Turner, publicity and outreach officer for Comma Press said: "It's fitting for Comma and the Northern Fiction Alliance to be collaborating with the bks Agency to bring 'Get a Job in Publishing' up to Manchester. Our hope for and our work towards a publishing industry that exists outside of London can only start by opening that industry up and showing its inner mechanisms to those aspiring in the north, so that they have more of an opportunity to become the future of publishing that we want to see evolve." 

Tickets for the conference, supported by the Publishers’ Association and Manchester Metropolitan University, are £50 and available from Eventbrite.