Many English majors express a desire to “get into publishing,” but it’s hard to know how. On March 14 at 6:30 PM in Bracken Library 104, three recent alumni who work in publishing will share their career journey.  Two of the panelists work in publishing in Indiana , and they’ll be attending in person. The third works in New York and will be attending via Skype.

Daniel Brount

Daniel graduated in 2016 with a major in English/CW. In college, he pursued a variety of professional experiences, including working for Ball State Daily News, Odyssey, the Writing Center, Broken Plate, and Digital Literature Review. His senior year, he spent a semester in New York interning with DAW Books, where read and evaluated manuscripts and organized publicity information. He also interned and at The Rights Factory, a literary agency where he read and edited manuscripts and proposals and prepared them for pitching to publishers. After college, he moved to Austin, TX to work for Gatehouse Media, where he designed pages for multiple newspapers and copy edited pages prior to publication. In May 2018, he moved to New York to work as a Production/Editorial Assistant at Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

Brandon Buechley

Brandon graduated in 2015 with a major in English/CW. He spent the fall semester of his senior year living in New York and interning at Guerilla Lit Reading Series and at DAW Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. After graduation, he secured a position at Cardinal Publishing Group in Indianapolis, where he wrote marketing copy, proofread manuscripts, drafted sales proposals, designed trade show booths, and researched and contacted potential customers. Currently, he’s an Editorial Assistant at Alpha Books in Indianapolis, an imprint of DK Publishing/Penguin Random House. In this position, he sets up new titles and contracts in various databases; tracks author and freelancer contracts and payments, hires freelance editors, indexers, photographers, stylists, etc.; maintains in-house library of Alpha titles; prepares lists and approves backlist reprint corrections; and manages backlist title edits. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

Elisabeth “Niki” Wilkes

Niki graduated in 2015 with a major in English/CW. In college, she pursued a variety of volunteer leadership positions connected to her faith with organizations such as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and the Christian Leadership Program, a year-long internship with the Newman Center where she was in charge of creating engaging events for college students. After college, she pursued an MA in Publishing at the University College of London. There, she secured internships with Life and Soul Pictures, Ltd., Amnesty International, UK., and the Catholic Truth Society. Today, she’s the Marketing Coordinator at Ave Maria Press in Notre Dame, IN. She works with the Direct Marketing Manager to help create direct mailing pieces and advertisements, as well as author promotional material. She also coordinates for conferences they attend, compiles marketing and sales reports, and maintains their AdWords account. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.