Some of you might be wondering what exactly I’m going to school for in England. As the title suggests, it’s Publishing! I will have my MA in Publishing by the end of next fall. Now, you might want to know what that entails.

So let me share with you some of the things I have done so far, or will do. First of all, the university I attend is The University of Central Lancashire, which is in northern England, or more specifically, Preston. What is unique about the program here is that the university has its own publishing house, UCLan Publishing. So along with my studies, we are privy to insider business information that we wouldn’t get with the same program at a different university.

This also means that for my major project, I will be working on a manuscript from the submission stage to a finished PDF file, including communicating with the author, the editorial process, working on the cover design, creating marketing plans and sales sheets. And eventually, that very same book will be published by the company.

Seems legit, right? I agree. Along with the course work, we have had a number of guest speakers from different companies and positions within the publishing industry who have spoken about their own roles and given helpful tips to help guide our way and get our foot into the door of publishing itself.

So far, I’ve noticed that while there are a lot of overlaps into US publishing, there are a lot of differences as well, so this program will give me additional international experience in the industry, which would be beneficial for the publishing companies that have offices in New York as well as London. It also means that I will still have lots to learn when I come home from England, but I’ve always been up for a challenge. And having direct experience with the UK publishing scene will provide a lot of insights.

Since I’ve only been in classes for just over a month now, I haven’t submitted or worked on any assignments as of yet, but I know that the end of the semester will also bring many more due dates.

Stay tuned for updates. I hope you’re as excited as I am. Stay safe and stay happy, and as always, thanks for reading!