The SYP helps people break into the industry or progress within it. How has it helped you get where you are today?

I joined the SYP after I started in my current role as Marketing Executive at Nelson Croom so the SYP didn’t have a direct role in me securing this position. However, the SYP has helped me to immerse myself in to the publishing industry, allowing me to meet new people, stay up to date with news and views and attend some brilliant events. All of which I think will be invaluable as I progress in my career.

What has been your most rewarding experience as Chair of the SYP?

It is difficult to single out one thing as the most rewarding experience but up there would have to be the last issue of our magazine InPrint. We restructured the committee in January and, after a year where InPrint wasn’t at its strongest, the team managed to deliver what I think was the best issue yet.

For people considering becoming members, what would you say are the biggest benefits of joining? And what’s coming up in the near future for the SYP?

If I was to summarise the benefits of the SYP into one heading I would have to say support. Through our events, articles and job alerts we aim to help people as they start and progress in their career. This could be as simple as allowing them to network at events or replying to questions we get emailed or tweeted but our biggest goal, and the biggest benefit we provide, is that we offer impartial advice and support from people who are at the same level of their careers as our members.

Publishing remains a seriously competitive industry. What do you think young publishers (or those aspiring to be) should be doing to get ahead?

For me there is no one thing people should be doing to get ahead, rather it is about building up transferable skills and networking. These are the two most important things and each has a lot of facets to its build up. You need a social media presence, a physical presence – at events – you need to understand digital AND traditional publishing methods and models and also be aware of new ideas and concepts which both succeed and fail.

Nelson Croom are offering 10% off publishing courses to BookMachine folks (great!), why have you made that decision, and why should people take these courses?

Nelson Croom, who I work for, has a selection of great online publishing courses, from Introduction to Publishing to Social Media for Professionals. Luckily I get to complete the courses as part of my job but it is something my bosses and I thought could be valuable to people starting out in the industry and so we wanted to do all we could to make them accessible to them. BookMachine provided this opportunity and we were very happy to offer a discount to their members for this.

Finally, what has been your favourite SYP event and why?

I have to say our February ‘Last night a speed date saved my . . . career’ event was probably my favourite. It was the first event of my time as chair and we were really ambitious with it. We had over 20 speakers and thankfully the turnout was amazing, with over 100 people registering for the event. The night was fun and I really believe people learned a lot about areas of the industry they had never considered. You can see a full write up of the event here. I also have to give special mention to our Literary Pub Crawl event as it combined two of my favourite pastimes, fancy dress and beer, to allow me to get merry in central London in my PJs and a dressing gown.