Thank you to our event sponsors: The CIEP and Edelweiss

This event is also kindly supported by Bureau at the Design District

Bureau provides coworking at the heart of London’s Design District. Bureau offers flexible, design-centric workspaces, allowing members to develop their careers surrounded by like-minded individuals. With scaleable memberships and business support, everything Bureau does is centred around helping individuals and businesses thrive.

It’s not you, it’s me. Changing priorities for professional development and career progression: From marketing to editorial

Something has shifted after the disruption of the past two years. The way people view their work/life balance and career progression has fundamentally shifted. Mid-career professionals are carving out their own path, doing unexpected things, shifting roles or departments, or embracing portfolio working.

So what is it that publishing professionals want out of their career relationship?

Join us at Forum – Bureau at Design District London (just four stops from London Bridge) on Wednesday 22nd February 2023 for an intimate and inspiring in-conversation event to hear from the people who have made the move from Marketing to Editorial.

Our speakers will reflect on their journeys, share insights into their fears and frustrations, and articulate how they negotiated change to benefit themselves and their career. They’ll also explain how they have navigated their careers in this changing landscape, and what they look for now in their role and wider work.

Get insights into the personal choices they have made, and how this reflects on the world of publishing work now, know you are not alone if you itch for something new, and gain the inspiration and confidence to shape your own publishing career development.

Tickets

Please select either a digital or in-person ticket to this event.

Digital ticket holders will get access to the recording once it has been edited (this will take up to 2 weeks). In-person ticket holders will also receive the link to the digital version of the session.

Please note that tickets are non-refundable but can be transferred to another person if you can no longer make the in-person event.

Tickets for both the in-person or digital events are FREE for BookMachine members. Simply log into your account to book on with your discount.

Disclaimer: These events are ticketed so we can pay our contributors. Everyone who speaks at a BookMachine Unplugged event is remunerated for their involvement.

Want to make a great saving across all our Unplugged events in 2023? Join the BookMachine Community from £10/month and grab a ticket to all four events, plus access to training, discounts and resources.

Accessibility information

In-person event

The venue is on the second floor. It can be reached via lift or stairs, and is accessible to wheelchair users. The nearest London Underground station is North Greenwich (Jubilee Line, four stops from London Bridge station). Lifts are available from platform to ticket hall.

Some seating will be available for guests during the event. Let us know if you would like us to reserve you a seat when you have booked your ticket. For any further queries about the venue or access, please contact our team via email suzanne@bookmachine.co.uk.

Free tickets will be available for carers or companions for individuals with disabilities or additional access needs.

Digital event

Closed captions and audio personal descriptions will be available on the digital ticket recording. The recording will be available to digital ticket holders online via Vimeo.

About BookMachine Unplugged

BookMachine Unplugged is here to bring you discussion and connection around the topics that matter the most to you. Together with guest speakers, we’ll provide plenty of tips and insights around the crucial topics and talking points that we as an industry are facing.

Explore the full range of BookMachine events happening in 2023.

The speakers

Mags Abraha, Publisher, Jacaranda Books

Magdalene Abraha FRSA is a writer, cultural curator and multi-award winning publisher. Magdalene started her in journalism and was one youngest ever columnists for the Independent Newspaper where she covered politics, music, art and popular culture. Magdalene continues to write for newspapers and magazines, and is published in The Economist, The Guardian, VICE, the ipaper, Stylist, Vogue and more. Magdalene was on the 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 list for her work in writing and publishing – the only publishing professional on the list. She was also Bookseller’s Rising Star and awarded the LBF Trailblazer award for her contribution to the publishing sector. Elle Magazine named her as one of their Trailblazing Women and she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for her work in media and publishing as well being awarded the BBC1xtra Future Figures award 2022. Magdalene Abraha is also the creator and producer of the ‘groundbreaking’ book series A Quick Ting On, which is the first non-fiction Black British book series of its kind. She has worked in publishing houses such as I.B Tauris, Bloomsbury and is now a publisher at Jacaranda. @magsab

Katy Follain, Non-Fiction Publisher, Quercus

Katy Follain was born and brought up in France. Having attempted and failed to find a job in publishing in Paris, she completed the Diploma in Publishing course at West Herts College, Watford. Soon after she landed her first proper job as a publicity assistant at the Orion Publishing Group. Since then she has worked in a variety of departments in a variety of publishing houses, both independents and corporates. She is currently Non-Fiction Publisher at Quercus, but is moving to Bloomsbury in spring 2023 to head up a new division – Bloomsbury General – which will include non-fiction, crime, fantasy & sci-fi and commercial fiction.

Sarah Benton, Executive Publisher, Commercial Fiction, Orion Publishing Group

Sarah Benton leads the publishing and imprint strategies of both Orion Fiction and Gollancz as well as publishing her own list of authors such as Joanne Harris, Leigh Bardugo, Libby Page and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. She started her career in publicity doing the press cuttings, before spending ten years in marketing across various publishers such as Pan Macmillan, HarperCollins and Bonnier. At Orion, she became Deputy MD, overseeing many other aspects of the business and publishing strategy. Orion won Publisher of the Year in 2021 and she then followed her passion of working closer with authors and moved into editorial later that same year. @sarahbenton

Our event partners

The CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose. 

We aim to be:

• A recognised authority on editing and proofreading in English
• A supportive community for editorial professionals who are working to high standards
• A trusted source of advice, information, best practice, training and qualifications
• The place to find professional editorial services.

We have around 3,000 editorial professional members in the UK and beyond, with a growing international membership, who work for a wide range of clients –publishers, businesses, government and other organisations, academic institutions and authors. We formed in 1988 and were known as the Society for Editors and Proofreaders before being awarded our Royal Charter in 2019.

Edelweiss

Above the Treeline is the company behind Edelweiss, and recently celebrated 20 years of providing innovative tools to  the publishing and bookselling world. 

At its core, Edelweiss is a sales and marketing platform where publishers host their titles and catalogues in an engaging feature-rich site, supported by in-depth metadata. Over 200,000 registered users such as booksellers, reviewers, librarians, and other book industry professionals use Edelweiss as a hub to work better in all kinds of ways. 

The flexibility and options make it suitable for export sales teams, rights presentations, as well as domestic reps selling to indies, chains, and wholesalers. We also offer a variety of outbound and in-app promotional opportunities for publishers to leverage the wide reach of Edelweiss into the trade, libraries, and reviewers in the UK, US, and beyond.