#in the future sooooo I highkey recomend jumping to it sooner than later

[airitree]

Many art undergrads misunderstand how book design works or didn’t know it was ever a job. It is!!! [Notes below, for anyone interested in that career path because I heart book design]

1. For artists trying to get into in-house publishing, you are not the one responsible for hand drawing full cover illustrations [Childrens/Middle/YA/Romance/Fantasy], and if you were to do that in house, you’d be very underpaid. They freelance those jobs. More likely you could do hand lettering and less extensive elements that a stock photo couldn’t provide. Maybe even interior spots if they can’t find freelancers. For example, I could be asked in-house to draw a fore-edge. If you're interested in book illustration, you'd wanna work on getting freelance gigs or joining an agency.

2. It is heavy on Indesign, and there is no way to get in without that familiarity. You NEED to know Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign (and acrobat for pdf). It's not for people who are allergic to using standard design programs or do not know how to format digital text... Depending on the position, you could be formating a full wrap jacket or formatting 200+ pages of text. The main three types of designers are Cover, Production, and Interior. The jobs for all three could be held responsible under one designer, or two, or all of these responsibilities could be held. [Obvious] The tasks you're able to do depends on your title's specification and the publishing house your under as well as imprint, your department, the genres you work under. Childrens picture books tend to have one designer working on the front title, the interior text, and the full jacket.

OK to lay on the honesty, publishing is not THAT high paying, so none of us are getting rich. It is difficult to obtain an entry level job in any design field not just publishing, but not impossible. There is a high competition with very little jobs. In particular, design is few and far between. Luckily, It isn't as competitive as editorial!!! Before 2020, it was very NYC centric. TBH many people still are asked to move in person (with entry level salaries, gulp), and nyc residents are sometimes prioritized. But since covid, remote work has been far more common. Some houses are more remote friendly than others. Like all industry jobs, its heavy on networking (fucked up). Its very good to keep in touch with creative directors since many of them are also the hiring managers for positions. Most of them are hiring based off recomendations and the people who know you, and THAN once your in the radar they look at your portfolio.