In an effort to encourage ethnic diversity in hiring and generally raise the profile of publishing as a career choice, the Diversity/Recruit and Retain Committee of the Association of American Publishers has launched Bookjobs.com, a Web site and outreach program aimed at attracting college students to book publishing.
Initially, the program will focus on the New York metropolitan area and has been in contact with job placement centers at a number of area colleges. The Web site, which lists about 70 jobs right now, will list entry-level jobs and internships from every area of book publishing.
Bridget Marmion, v-p and marketing director at Houghton Mifflin and chair of the Diversity/Recruit committee, told PW that although the job market is tight right now, "reports indicate that we may be facing a labor shortage as soon as 2005. We're losing college graduates to other fields." Marmion emphasized that the industry needs to "attract people into all parts of book publishing. We need students with all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of majors—biology, finance and art, as well as literature and journalism."
In addition to listing jobs and internships, the Bookjobs.com site provides information about the industry, types of publishing, positions in the industry and how they match up with different majors. The AAP is also planning campus visits to recruit, as well as an extensive publicity campaign that will target colleges around the country. Publishers interested in more information can contact Ed McCoyd at the AAP.
