Category Archives: Publisher Profile

Behind the Books: Meet publicist Ayesha Aggarwal

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In this series, we take you behind the scenes to get a glimpse of the glamorous life at Adelaide’s premier publishing house. This week, meet our gung-ho publicist (with a side in sales!) Ayesha Aggarwal.

Ayesha Aggarwal

What made you want to work in publishing – and how did you get your start?

I’ve always been an avid reader with a love of stories. I was the kid that always had to be told to put my book down about five times before I could wrench myself away, much to the annoyance of my mum (who also was 100% responsible for my reading habit in the first place). One of my earliest memories is coming home with every copy of the Mr Men and Little Miss books which I devoured in about a week. When Mum and I went to our local library, the librarians would vacate this bright orange stool so that I could stand on it and watch them check out my latest pile of books. So, really, publishing was always my dream job.

I got my start at Wakefield Press largely thanks to editor extraordinaire Margot Lloyd. We bumped into each other at a friend’s party and drunkenly discussed how much she was enjoying being at Wakefield Press and how I should apply to be an intern there. I dutifully sent in a request for an internship and my timing turned out to be excellent because there was a position as a receptionist opening up. So I applied for the role and had an interview (with three Wakefieldians!!) and I got the job. Whew!

What does your typical day at Wakefield Press involve?

My typical day is a flurry of tasks. I answer the phones and do all kinds of admin-y things as well as looking after various aspects of our marketing and publicity. Most days, I’m halfway through a press release, or adding an event to a newsletter, when the phone rings and I help a customer with a question about our books (quite often this is a budding writer who has questions about the publishing process).

Mainly, though, my job is to liaise with the media about articles, extracts or interviews about our books and to promote all our excellent authors. And I put together all our email campaigns. And flyers.

What’s the most absurd or surprising thing that’s ever happened to you on the job?

I took a phone call once where the caller wanted to speak with someone who was already on the phone so I asked whether they would like to leave a message. As they were midway through the longest message ever, I realised that I could now put them through to the person they wanted to speak with and told them so but got an earful about interrupting them while they gave me their message instead.

 What’s the best thing about working in publishing?

I think this is specific to small publishers like Wakefield Press but I really love the broad range of genres that we publish. It means I get to work with so many different types of people and dip into different industries all the time. One day I’ll be looking up food magazines and the next I’ll be trawling for blogs about young adult books. It keeps me on my toes because there’s always something new to discover.

What’s the worst thing about working in publishing?

As a publicist it’s my job to keep our authors abreast of all the publicity surrounding their books. The space for books in the media has continued to shrink and we’re publishing five or six books each month that are all pitched to the same major book journalists. At the end of the day, it comes down to luck and timing but it’s never easy to have to tell an author (who may have spent years writing their book) that they haven’t got an interview with Richard Fidler.

What kinds of things do you love to discover in a book (on the job or as a reader)?

I really enjoy when writers write dialogue as it is spoken so you can really get under the skin of the characters (except in the case of Irvine Welsh where the thick Scottish accents took a million years for my brain to comprehend).

What books are on your bedside table right now?

This my seem like blasphemy but when I’m not at Wakefield, I’m usually elbow deep in clay so I’ve turned to audiobooks to feed my reading habit. I’m such a sucker for a funny, insightful read so at the moment I’m revisiting Terry Pratchett’s Discwold series (I just blew through Good Omens and Small Gods last week). I also have Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist on my to read list as well as Lindy West’s Shrill.

Ayesha moonlights (sunlights, really) as a ceramicist on her days off. Her beautiful pieces can be found on her website, and for a limited time, some seconds pieces are available at Wakefield Press HQ.

Behind the Books: Meet events guru Maddy Sexton

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In this weekly series, we take you behind the scenes to get a glimpse of the glamorous life at Adelaide’s premier publishing house. This week, meet our events guru, editorial assistant and all-round office doer Maddy Sexton.

Maddy Sexton

What made you want to work in publishing – and how did you get your start?
I wanted to work in publishing since I was about eight, which seems like a lie, but I have a whole collection of ‘published’ work hidden in my parent’s garage with thrilling stories including ‘The Adventures of Starfish’, a story about a starfish (named Starfish) who goes out one day and then comes home (that’s the entire story), among other things. I’d write, illustrate, and bind all of my stories and tell anyone who would listen that one day I would be an author.

I actually came to be in publishing very much by accident, mainly because I never thought I’d be able to crack into the field. A friend of mine used to work at Wakefield Press, and when she got a job in Melbourne, she suggested that I go for the role, and the rest is history. I’m very lucky to be here!

What does your typical day at Wakefield Press involve?
It’s a lot of reading – emails make up most of my material, but I also do a bit of proofreading and editing bits and pieces that come across my desk. My main job is events coordination, so the rest of my day is usually filled with organising book launches and other events for our authors. The rest of the time I’m trying to keep the bookshop stocked up and looking nice, which helps to break up my work a little bit.

What’s the most absurd or surprising thing that’s ever happened to you on the job?
I’ve only been here for a year, so I don’t have any exciting stories really! My biggest surprise was getting the job, followed closely by finding out just how glamorous it is to work in publishing! It’s kind of funny sometimes answering the phone and having a conversation with someone which seems to be quite normal and relaxed, and then just before they hang up you find out you’ve been talking to a TV network producer without even knowing it!

What’s the best thing about working in publishing?
The best thing for me is being able to work on lots of different books in (usually) really small ways, and knowing that although I might not have been credited in the book, I still had something to do with bringing the book into the world. It’s very satisfying, especially if the book was difficult to work on!

What’s the worst thing about working in publishing?
The constant suspicion that I’m not meant to be in publishing, and that someone will walk in and say ‘Hey, what are you doing? You’re not meant to be here!’ and kick me out. Otherwise it’s great!

What kinds of things do you love to discover in a book (on the job or as a reader)?I love when there’s a little ‘A-ha!’ moment in books, where the penny finally drops for you as the reader but might not have dropped yet for the characters. Also, I love weird humour (I read too much Lemony Snicket as a kid), so it’s always good to find a ridiculously placed bit of comedy in a book.

What books are on your bedside table right now?
It’s embarrassing but my bedside table is really just a ridiculously tall stack of unread books that I keep adding to in moments of weakness. One day it will get so tall that I can’t get out of bed, but I’ll probably still add to it. Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman is on top, along with The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. I finished Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 recently, which I really enjoyed – one less on the stack!

Keep up to date on the Wakefield Press crew’s day-to-day activities by following us on Instagram! Maddy will be posting pictures, videos and polls to our stories every day. Visit us online or in store at 16 Rose street, Mile End, to see us all in the flesh.

Behind the Books: Meet editor Margot Lloyd

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In this series, we take you behind the scenes to get a glimpse of the glamorous life at Adelaide’s premier publishing house. This week, meet editor extraordinaire Margot Lloyd.

Margot Lloyd

What made you want to work in publishing – and how did you get your start?

I actually used to work for a few hours a week at Wakefield when I was a teenager, helping with mailouts and databasing. At that point, I hadn’t really considered a career in publishing, but it must have planted a seed. Many years later, finding myself at a loose end after finishing a BA, I thought I might enjoy editing so moved to Melbourne to study at Monash. I worked for a couple of publishing houses there, before moving back to Adelaide and starting (again) with Wakefield Press.

What does your typical day as an editor involve?

Mainly reading, which I guess isn’t surprising! Either that or checking emails or other small admin tasks to break up the day. We also have book launches and sales and other events, which are good fun and stop me from feeling like a total introvert.

What’s the most absurd or surprising thing that’s ever happened to you on the job?

Going to India with the Australia Council in 2017 sticks out. That was unexpected and amazing.

What’s the best thing about being a book editor?

Sometimes while I work I feel like an archaeologist with a tiny brush exposing an amazing piece of work. That feeling is pretty neat.

What’s the worst thing about being a book editor?

The constant and incurable worry that I’ve missed something.

What’s your pet editorial peeve (on the job or as a reader)?

Changing tenses halfway through a piece. Mainly because it’s such a pain to fix!

Also, surprisingly enough, exclamation marks. I use them all the time in casual writing, I think as an act of defiance against my work-self(!).

What kinds of things do you love to discover in a book (on the job or as a reader)?

Unexpected humour. While I don’t generally read comedy, I think the ability to make your reader laugh out loud without warning is very underrated.

What books are on your bedside table right now?

I’ve just finished Jane Harper’s latest book – which I thoroughly enjoyed – and I really want to read Elmore Leonard’s Out Of Sight, which Michael Bollen (Fearless Leader) lent to me.
The chances of me getting to it soon are slim to none. There’s always something else that needs to be read first.

Publisher Profile – Michael Bollen

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The very last of our profiles for the upcoming Wakefield Press Book Fair is not an author, but our very own publisher, Michael Bollen.

Michael Bollen

Michael is publisher and director at Wakefield Press, where he has worked for 20-odd years. This version of the company was started in 1989 (the fifth incarnation of Wakefield Press, if you can believe it) which means Wakefield has a 25th birthday coming up in 2014. Michael works across all areas of Wakefield, from editing to finance to marketing, and knows the business inside and out.

As Wakefield releases around 40 new titles each year across fiction, true stories, history, food and art, Michael has a large backlist to keep track of – as well as a formidable range of general knowledge!

There is no one in South Australia who knows more about the publishing business than Michael does, and he is an invaluable member of the SA creative community. He’s also a great source of information about the publishing industry, which is why he has been roped in to give a couple of talks during the Wakefield Press Book Fair. You can catch Michael at the fair at 11.00 am on Saturday 14 December or at 1.00 pm on Sunday 15 December.

Come armed with your questions! This is your opportunity to get the inside scoop on what’s happening in the industry, and to find out about the process of publishing your book.