Q&A with Susannah Fountain, Content Creation Champion at Just Content

This week, we’re joined by Just Content’s new Content Creation Champion, Senior Content Lead SUSANNAH FOUNTAIN ! Read on to find out more about Susannah’s thirty-years-plus experience across a whole range of content management roles, plus her top tips for aspiring content leads!

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became a Content Creation Champion for Just Content? What drew you to the role?

Within my 30-plus years in educational publishing, I have had 11 different job roles and have had the opportunity to sample and develop countless micro-skills within each role. From starting out as an assistant to the director of a small children’s publisher, I have worked as an editorial assistant, production editor, print buyer, project manager, development editor, commissioning editor, and freelancer. The journey through these different roles has led me to realise that content creation and development is what truly piques my interest. I enjoy being able to shape the way in which content is presented and working closely with authors in order to achieve the best content we can for the end user.

How do you ensure quality and consistency across different platforms and mediums?

This can certainly be challenging but early planning and knowledge sharing across a multi-component project can certainly help. Shared, and regularly updated, documents, together with short, focused meetings can mean that everyone has clear, readily available information easily to hand to capture issues to facilitate consistency.

Can you describe a typical day in your role at Just Content?

No two days are ever the same which means that variety is the spice of life! I am an early riser with older children who no longer need (or want!) supervision in the morning. This means that I am able to start my day at a time that suits me; generally, this is at around 7.30am. (If the weather is good, I will try to stride out on a brisk walk before I sit down at my desk. I find this helps me feel more energised and ready for the day.)?

If I have a piece of content analysis or editing that requires quiet concentration, I will make a point of not opening emails until I feel that I have completed a decent chunk of work. As we all know, as soon as you open your Inbox, your time is pulled in multiple directions. This is especially the case at Just Content where we all work on multiple projects at the same time.

Once I engage with the world and with emails, I will assess the priorities in my Inbox and decide which needs my attention first. My content work generally has relatively long lead times so I can structure the number of hours that are budgeted for it around my week and the various meeting commitments within that week.?

I like to be able to allocate large chunks of time to development editing so that I can truly immerse myself in the content to ensure I don’t lose my train of thought. Meetings inevitably punctuate some days but for me (at the moment) these tend to span the middle days of the week so I find that the start and end of the week affords me ‘head-down’ time to concentrate.?

So, a typical day may start with some development work, followed by emails, project meetings, undertaking script assessments, liaising with freelancers on my projects, author management (including phone or Teams meetings), implementing decisions on current projects, internal team meetings and 121 meetings, and updating our systems to reflect the current status on projects.?

How do you collaborate with other teams (e.g., marketing, design, editorial) in your day-to-day work?

We use Teams for quick messaging, and checking in with team members; emails for longer handovers and discussions that need documenting; shared spreadsheets or files for collaborative work; and phone calls or video calls with authors or freelancers as necessary. There is, I would suggest, a growing cultural reluctance to pick up the phone to discuss a project, but this human connection can greatly enhance a working relationship. In the whirlwind of activity that makes up our daily lives, emails can help us to have an anchor point for discussions and a record of what’s been decided, but I think it is important to take time occasionally to reach out and actually talk to someone! This is especially important at Just Content because we all work remotely.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a career in content creation and publishing?

My advice would be to try and experience as many different roles in publishing as possible to expand your skill set and to help you understand how each stage of the process fits with the next stage. If content creation specifically is your area of interest, try writing articles, posts, or pieces of content, or offer your services to edit or comment on what has been created already. Creating bespoke content is challenging, time-consuming and can be mentally exhausting so give yourself plenty of time to craft any piece of writing; draft, and redraft. Ask a friend or colleague to peer-review your work; invite them to give constructive feedback about what works well in your writing or what requires improvement.

If you are developing or editing another author’s work, hone your skills in empathy. The author may well have laboured hard over their piece of writing, so treat them, and it, with the respect it deserves. If you believe that aspects of it require reworking, offer gentle ideas or suggestions to help the author to craft something that reads more clearly, or conveys the message in a better way for the reader. Always keep the end user and the overall market in mind.??

How do you think advancements in technology (like AI and machine learning) will impact the industry?

This is far from my area of expertise, but I think that the subtleties of language and the infinite ways we can craft content thoughtfully is an area AI will take time to master, but certainly in the near future, I would anticipate that the humbler processing tasks within the educational publishing arena will benefit increasingly from what AI can offer. I am excited for the day, for example, when we can ensure 100% accuracy in proofreading pages and pages of book references for example! So, while machine learning can recognise the patterns of different referencing styles, we still should not rely on it to provide error-free references according to a publisher’s house style for example.??

What is one piece of advice you wish you had received when you started your career?

Have the courage to ask questions and throw yourself into every opportunity presented to you. Oh, and start a pension from Day 1! Plan for your long-term future – take it from someone who hasn’t been diligent enough about it!?