Mastering Publishing

City Publishing alum Sarah Bell (Class of 2007) discusses her time as Senior Product Manager, Head of Subscriptions at Yoto, as well as her new role as Senior Product Manager, ScienceDirect at Elsevier with host Riley Karekos. Sarah shares how she went from working in marketing at magazines to running a team of engineers at Elsevier, emphasising the importance of being flexible in your career ambi...

City Publishing alum Candela Rivero (Class of 2023) joins us to discuss her work as a Rights Assistant at Penguin Random House Children’s in the UK with host Lila Fierek. Join their conversation as they dive into what it means to work in rights and sell children’s books around the world. Candela also reflects on her time as a master’s student at City. Since recording, Candela has moved to New York...

City Publishing alum Megan Blair, talks about her role as an Audio Production Assistant at Strathmore Publishing in this Mastering Publishing episode. Join Host Oshin Hephzibah as she chats with Megan about reader-led trends in audiobooks, the effect of AI technologies, and how much fun casting can be!  This episode was created by Guadalupe Vendemia, Nicole Ilieva and Oshin Hephzibah. The Masterin...

Episode 1 of this new season of Mastering Publishing profiles City Publishing MA alum, Mitch Collett, who now works as a designer at Farshore, a children's imprint of HarperCollins UK. Mitch is also the creator of the Mastering Publishing logo! Join host Hayden Ginder as she chats with 2025's employee of the year about his time at City, his design career so far, and how an assignment Mitch...

This Mastering Publishing episode profiles Valerie Brandes, a former City Publishing MA student who founded Jacaranda Books, an independent publishing house dedicated to promoting and celebrating brilliant diverse literature. Join host Emilie-Rose Ledeme as she chats with Valerie about her time at City and how the award-winning Jacaranda Books continues to create space on the bookshelf for a vast...

In this episode of Mastering Publishing, created by Publishing Masters students at City St George's, University of London, Annamaria Ratki interviews former student Lucy Clayton, Senior Publicity Manager at Hachette Children’s Group. Join them as they discuss the highs and lows of finding a job in the publishing industry and explore the opportunities and challenges facing children’s book publicist...

Welcome to the debut episode of Mastering Publishing! Join us as Liberty Vaz Townsend chats with former City Publishing MA student Cristiana Caserini, who seems to have done it all! She was a bookseller, started a job in production during the COVID-19 pandemic, and had a hand in mouthwatering marketing campaigns for Bloomsbury's cookery list. Plus, Cristiana was at ground zero when  The Song of Ac...

Join City Publishing student Sophia Dramm as she chats with Nick Barreto, co-founder and Operations Director at Canelo, an innovative business (co-founded with Iain Millar and Michael Bhaskar) with a bold mission to make digital books more than an afterthought. Sophia and Nick discuss the challenges and triumphs of running a modern publishing house, while reflecting on Nick's pioneering approach t...

In this episode of Mastering Publishing, City University student Aastha Agrawal interviews Jo Liddiard, Head of Marketing at Head of Zeus. Jo walks us through her first steps in the publishing industry, from a one-month internship to finding her first job even before finishing her Publishing MA at City! Discover the differences between working at a Big 5 publisher versus an independent house, expl...

Katie Bellamy, Senior Business Development Manager at Disney Publishing, is the subject of this Mastering Publishing episode. City Publishing MA student Fiona Pearson chats with Katie about the unpredictable twists and turns, the challenges that became opportunities, and the worldwide travel that have punctuated an impressive career selling international rights. Discover how the City Publishing MA...