Exciting News!
Hi all! I’m doing something a little different with this post today to share some exciting news with you. I said way back in my intro post that I often get free books as part of my job, and I’ve mentioned my job a couple of times, but I haven’t talked much about it. I love my job and I always want to tell people about it, but because the opinions I express here are purely mine and not that of my employer, I’ve avoided talking about it here. That is all about to change.
I work as an Art Associate for Penguin Random House. I’ll get more into that in a future post, but basically, my boss and I handle licensing and crediting all of the cover art for books published by Viking, Penguin, Penguin Classics, Penguin Press, Penguin Life, and The Open Field imprints. We also work with foreign publishers to help them license the art if they want to use the same cover as us and I work with many, many departments within PRH to make sure that the art used on the super cool Instagram posts, marketing campaigns, and other media used to advertise our books uses the cover art as per our existing agreements and that all of the artists and photographers are compensated and credited for the use of their work. We have a great team of designers who design and pick the art that actually goes on the covers, but it is our job to make sure that those designs can become a reality legally and financially. Like I said, I will get more into the nitty gritty of what the day to day looks like in the future, but my job is different every single day and I get to work with a lot of really talented, creative people and I just love it.
Another huge perk of working in publishing for me is access to free books. Penguin Random House does a free book order for employees several times a year where we get to pick out ten books to get absolutely free. There are also raffles for new books almost every week and we often get free books at special programs and meetings throughout the year. We also have access to employee apps that allow us to read ebooks or listen to audiobooks on our personal devices for free. The company is really generous—they want us to be excited about our books and the best way to do that is to make sure we have access. Because I live in West Virginia but my job is in New York, I don’t get to go to the office very often, but there are also “take shelves” in the office that are like little free libraries where you can just help yourself to books. It’s like visiting the Wonka Chocolate Factory for book lovers (though we don’t use Oompa Loompa slave labor and to the best of my knowledge, no one has fallen into a chocolate river while working).
The reason I am telling you all of this now is that I am excited to announce that I have been selected as a Penguin Random House Employee Ambassador. That means I get to tell you more about the company and my role in it and some of the great books we have been/are working on. For you, this means that there will still be plenty of my usual content of book reviews (of books published by PRH and books not published by PRH), but for the next couple of months, I’ll also have some other content that deals with what I do at work all day and the publishing industry as a whole. I’ll answer some FAQ below to get the ball rolling, but if there are any questions you have or any sort of publishing content you want to see, let me know! You can comment on the post or email me at: therestisjustexposition@substack.com.
I also have my very own staff recommendations page on our website, so be sure to check it out here.
FAQ
Q: Can you get my book published?
A: No! I have nothing to do with the book acquisition process. However, I’m happy to talk to you about the book publishing process and help you figure out how to find someone who can get your book published.
Q: Do you have a law degree?
A: Also no. Even though I deal with the legal aspects of book cover licensing, we have a great legal team of people who actually do have law degrees that set up most of our contracts and agreements. I just work within those existing frameworks to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial to the artist and the company and work with other departments within the company to make sure we are adhering to those agreements.
Q: Can you get my art on a book cover?
A: Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it. I do really like art and when there is an artist or type of work I really enjoy and think would make great book covers, I send the information to our designers, but the designers have gone to design school and know way more about how to successfully design book covers than I do and they also work with our sales and marketing teams to know how to best position a book in the market. The decision on which art to use is ultimately up to them.
Q: Did you go to art school?
A: The last answer probably spoiled this, but no, I did not. My degree is in English!
Q: Have you seen the TikTok about all the historical fiction books that feature people walking away from the viewer (below)? or Why do so many book covers look similar?
A: I have seen the TikTok and I think it is funny, but there are actual reasons that there are trends in book covers or why book covers don’t feature faces. One has to do with rights and permissions: to have a face on the cover, we usually have to have a signed release from the person whose face it is, but photographers/stockhouses don’t always have those, so it is often much simpler legally to not feature a face (hence people walking away or being cropped so they are only seen from the chin down or something). The other is that while we’ve always been told not to judge a book by its cover, people do in fact do that. So for most people if they read a book and like it, they are more likely to want to read a book with a similar looking cover because they remember that cover art. Having similar-looking covers allows people to more easily and quickly find books they will enjoy.
Q: Are you getting paid to do this?
A: Nope. I am getting some swag as a participant in the Employee Ambassador Program (maybe I will try an unboxing soon?) but being an Employee Ambassador is done outside of my typical work hours and is completely voluntary. I am super excited about the swag, but like I said above, the company is generous and there are other ways to get swag. I applied for this program because I am excited to tell people about my job and what I’ve been working on.
Q: Does working at PRH impact your reviews?
A: I said this in my first post, but I really want to reiterate it here: being affiliated with PRH does not impact my book reviews. I read what I want to read and review what I want to review and I give you my honest opinions regardless of who has published the book. Because PRH is one of the biggest publishers in the US and because I have so much easy access to these books, a lot of the books I read are published by PRH, but I read plenty of other books as well and tell you what I really think of any book I choose to review.
So, what else do you want to know?
So awesome! Congrats 👏👏👏👏👏