Production

Production takes the manuscript and creates the final product: the book itself.

We have our suppliers with whom we organise the typesetting and printing and binding. We ensure that everything, especially our jackets and covers are printed to a high quality, and arrange all the extra finishes such as foiling and blocking. We also buy all the different types of papers for our wide range of books.

Production actually costs the books and makes sure we keep to the budgets. We also act like policeman, ensuring people keep to the schedules. We work with all company departments, liaising particularly closely with Editorial for scheduling manuscripts and page proofs; Design for getting jackets and covers proofed; and Sales to achieve the all-important bound copy date.

It’s always great getting the book hot off the press from the printer. And as far as all the work we put in, every book really does tell a story.

Tom Webster, Production Controller

I came to printing and publishing through my father, who worked for a large Spanish printer. Spending time in his office I became familiar with some of the processes and terminology, as well as learning to speak fluent Spanish.
Through him I got my first job, as Production Assistant in a small educational Publisher. I decided to take a course in Production at the London College of Printing. On completion I became Production Assistant at Little, Brown, and was then promoted to Production controller, responsible for the whole of the paperback list.
What do I love about my job? Well a few things. As well as working with a wide and diverse range of people, I really love helping to develop new and exciting solutions that streamline the way Production works. Little, Brown Production has near enough lead the way developing electronic purchase orders and direct delivery templates with certain printers, and I have been in the thick of this. It has been a great achievement.
Oh and I love the sense of accomplishment at getting a rush project delivered on or even ahead of schedule.

Contracts

The Contracts department drafts, checks and negotiates our head contracts with authors. We work closely with editors to ensure that the paperwork exchanged reflects what everyone agreed. We also draft sub-licence contracts, deal with amendments, with reversions at the end of a book’s life, and with filing and indexing contracts on our database. We also work closely with our Legal Director if and when any issues arise.

Diane Spivey, Rights and Contracts Director

After a year working in a bookshop, my first job in publishing was as an Export Sales Assistant. I swiftly moved departments to become a Contracts Assistant – an excellent training-ground for anyone wanting to work in Editorial or Rights, as well as being a good career path in its own right. I cut my teeth on selling large print and digest rights, and gradually worked my way up to Rights Manager and then Director. I’ve worked in this capacity for several publishers, joining Little, Brown in 2004. What do I love about my job? I enjoy the selling process, meeting new potential customers for our books, and I get immense satisfaction from negotiating good deals for our authors.  I am also the sort of person who likes to get the detail right, which is a good attribute for anyone working within licensing and contracts.

Design

The cover is a book’s first point of contact with the reader and it is the Design department’s primary role to make that introduction as persuasive as possible. To assist in this task the department is supported by a Studio Manager who looks after the day-to-day running of this very busy team. Our award winning, in-house Design team design the covers themselves and also commission freelance illustrators, photographers, designers and picture researchers to support this process. Our design work is carried out using a range of the very best desktop publishing programmes and every designer in the department will have studied a graphic or typographic qualification to degree level. They are a highly motivated and creative team with a wide and thorough understanding of cover design, from both a technical and a ‘market place’ perspective. All are able to communicate and discuss ideas and creative concepts with other designers, editors, sales and marketing colleagues as well as with authors and agents.

Peter Cotton, Group Art Director

I have worked in a publishing house for most of my working life. I have a degree in typographic design and upon leaving college I worked in two different Design companies. I moved into publishing almost thirty years ago, starting as an Assistant Art Director and I am currently Group Art Director of Little, Brown Book Group. I love my job and its end product, books. When I see people reading our books on a bus, on the train, or even out on a park bench, I still get a thrill in the knowledge that I helped them to make that choice.

Editorial

Caroline Hogg, Desk Editor

I first came to Little, Brown on a work-experience placement in 2002. Although the endless envelope-stuffing can feel like a hard slog, work experience really is the best way into publishing. My advice to anyone who finds themselves elbow-deep in a ‘slush pile’ is to smile, be enthusiastic and ask questions. And force your email address on everyone! I did, and it meant that I heard about an opening for an editorial assistant. It’s usual to start out in editorial in an administrative position and although it’s demanding work, you do get a great overview of the publishing industry.

In the last four years, I’ve moved up through different roles and am now a desk editor. Editorial skills aren’t something that you can learn in a month, or even twelve, so patience and an unusually ardent passion for punctuation are essential. But it’s well worth the wait: as a desk editor, I work closely with authors, designers and acquiring editors; I not only edit manuscripts but also manage books through all their various stages, to make sure they come in on time and on budget; I work on novels, autobiographies, travel books and illustrated books – no two days here are ever the same. I love my job: it’s challenging and rewarding, and I work in an office full of exciting ideas, creative people and (of course) fantastic books.

Sales

Sales is the department with responsibility for ensuring our books get to our readers – the consumers who buy our products. Like all publishing houses, the majority of our books are sold via high street retailers including Waterstone’s, WHSmith and Borders, online retailers like Amazon and Play.com and general retailers like supermarkets. Sales are supported by the Marketing and Publicity departments who enable us to ensure all customers are aware of our publications and plans. In Sales, organisation and communication are key but relationships are vital, so it’s important to like working with people.

Frances Doyle, Trade Sales Director

I have always been passionate about reading and loved books, so I felt very lucky to find a job straight out of university as a rep for a small children’s publisher. From there I worked as a rep for several other publishers in London selling a diverse range of books from literature and poetry, SF and graphic novels to art books and cookery.

I have been at Little, Brown for about a year as a Trade Sales Director, looking after WHSmith.
 
What do I love about my job? Sales can be both challenging and rewarding but, most of all, it is an excellent place to be if you like working with people and books.

Export Sales

We are responsible for selling and promoting Little, Brown Book Group titles in the English language, in all international markets from Fiji to Finland, Shanghai to Switzerland. As we are often competing against local language and American editions of the same titles we have to be creative in our approach to selling and marketing our list. A thorough understanding of the markets we are selling into is required and in order to do this we regularly travel to key markets and attend international book fairs.

Melanee Winder, Export Sales Director
 
After completing a postgraduate publishing course I worked as a Sales & Marketing Assistant at HarperCollins NZ before moving to the UK where I joined the Export Department at HarperCollins UK as Children’s Product Manager. I subsequently moved into Export Sales and my training ground was Eastern and Southern Europe. After five years (and various territories) at HCUK I moved to the International Department at Penguin UK where I was Export Sales Manager for Asia and then Head of Sales for Europe. In 2005, I moved to Little, Brown Book Group as the Export Sales Director.

What do I love about my job? Reading, being involved in all aspects of the publishing process, travelling and meeting eccentric book people from all over the world.

Publicity

The Publicity Department promotes books by using the media to spread the message about our books and our authors. Our role is to persuade journalists and producers to take an interest in our forthcoming titles. Books are sent to the literary editors in the print media so they can consider them for a review. However, if authors are willing to publicise their books, we will focus on interesting angles within the book, their research, or suggest an aspect of their personal lives, which will appeal to the media.  If the media show a lot of interest, and you see big features in newspapers, and authors appearing on television or radio programmes, then the message has reached millions.

Rosalie Macfarlane, Group Publicity Director

Harper & Row was my first publishing company where I worked on their academic and business books as a Publicity Assistant. When they began importing general trade fiction and non-fiction titles, I ventured into a more interesting area of publicity. I felt I had had good experience behind me when I was accepted at Macmillan as a Senior Publicity Executive where I worked firstly on their adult hardback list, and then the Papermac imprint. I moved to Souvenir Press as Publicity Manager, and finally to Macdonald which was owned by Robert Maxwell. When he tipped over the side of the boat the company was put up for sale, and then bought by Little, Brown. I was already Group Publicity Director, and to this day I find my role both stimulating and fulfilling.

Rights

The rights department is a selling department. When we acquire a book from an author we also acquire rights which we can license on to others, e.g. to serialise extracts in a newspaper, to publish the book in the USA, to publish in translation, to license audiobook rights radio reading rights, and rights to print the books in large print, or condensed book versions. Through emails, bookfairs, and overseas trips, we present our books to foreign publishers and other licensees, arrange terms, and oversee the licensee’s publication of the work. Our busiest times are around the book fairs (London in the spring and Frankfurt in the autumn where we meet hundreds of contacts over a very intensive three or four days.

Andy Hine, Foreign Rights Director / Deputy Rights Director

My first experience in publishing was as a commissioned author while also working as manager of a bookshop. When work as a freelance reader for publishers led to a part-time job in Rights, populating a rights database, subsidiary rights revealed a whole new side of the publishing industry to me. I became Foreign Rights Director / Deputy Rights Director at Little, Brown in 2004. What do I love about my job? Everything - it ticks all the boxes. I love selling rights – from translation to serial to large print. I love meeting new publishers and prospective clients; working with my existing contacts; travelling to visit foreign publishers and attending bookfairs. I especially love the books.

Finance

The Finance Department at Little, Brown is responsible for the financial management, reporting and control of the company. This involves looking at past performance in terms of management accounts and key performance indicators, statutory accounts and disclosures and analyses of title profitability. We are also looking into the future through budgets and forecasts, pre-acquisition costings and strategic reviews.

The department is also responsible for the payment of advances and royalties to authors and agents.

The department is broken down into the following areas:

Management accounts and financial analysis
Financial and group reporting
Royalty accounting
Bought ledger
Cash management

The department currently consists of 10 staff ranging from those without formal accountancy qualifications, to part-qualifieds studying for their CIMA qualification and to ACA and CIMA qualifieds. The company actively supports those wishing to sit for accountancy qualifications and also promotes continuing professional development (CPD).