What working at Austin Macauley Publishers has taught me

How long have you worked for the company?

I started as a Production Coordinator at the beginning of May and have now been here just over 7 months.

Within your (6/7 months) at the company do you feel like it has enriched your experience and knowledge?

I have definitely learned a lot from my time at Austin Macauley Publishers. While graphic design has always been an interest of mine, it was not until joining this company that I was able to use these skills in a work environment. Utilising these skills at work have improved my design abilities drastically by gaining knowledge and inspiration from?other employees that perform design-related duties and gained a better understanding of how to work with clients and create a design that fits the suits of both the business and the client (in our case author) themselves.

On top of this, I had zero experience with Adobe InDesign before I joined. While I am far from an expert in the software, I now feel confident in completing jobs within the program and am sure that with more time and advice from employees more familiar to the software than me, my understanding of InDesign will only expand.

How would you describe the work culture?

I would say AMP has a very nice work culture that is friendly yet professional. Due to the large variety of different tasks that arise in the course of producing a book, our team is very close-knit and happy to help each other out in different areas as we all have different skills and abilities. This means that in an area you may feel like you struggle, there is always someone around to give you a helping hand and aid you in expanding your knowledge.

What do you love most about your job?

I would say that my favourite thing about working at AMP is how varied the work can be. This keeps the job fresh and interesting and means you never get too demotivated with a task. One day I could come in and focus on sending emails and coordinating, whilst the next I may be focusing on covers and design-related activities.

On top of this, there is a large variety in the types of books we publish and authors that we speak to which keeps things exciting and gives you an insight into many different personalities, lives, and ways of living.

What are things you’ve done at this company that you’re proudest about?

I would say my proudest moments at the company are the times I have been asked to create a cover for an author that had previously had multiple covers that they did not seem to be happy with. In these scenarios, I like to have an in-depth conversation with the client to discern what they are looking for and how important each element of the design is to them. This means that I can make educated decisions when problem-solving in the design process and create a design that is both pleasing visually and represents the author’s vision.

Do you feel that there is good mobility within the company?

I feel there are good opportunities to expand your skillset and evolve your role in the company here. For instance, since being here upper management have taken more of an interest in my design skills and are receptive to the idea of me being more directly involved with the rest of the designers to help train them further and give them tips and tricks they may be unaware of.

There are also ?employees who did not feel suited in their role and were allowed and encouraged to try out a different department when the opportunity arose to see if this may be something they are more suited to or enjoy more.

Last question, what is your favourite book that we have published?

I would say the book that I have the most pleasant memories of working on would be Nyika, I Love You by Alice Vye Henningway as it was one of the first books that I had a lot of involvement in and was basically the book that threw me into the deep end of book publishing. It also has an interesting story where you get to learn a lot about other cultures – specifically Zimbabwe and South Africa – which I found very intriguing. It was also nice to be able to speak to author and gain a little more personal insight into her story.