Q&A: Rebecca Griffiths, Books Commissioning Assistant at Emerald Publishing

For Work in Publishing Week 2025, we're sharing stories from people who are in the early years of their publishing careers. Here we catch up with Rebecca Griffiths, Books Commissioning Assistant at Emerald Publishing

What’s the story of how you found your way into publishing?

In July 2025, I graduated from the University of Derby with a degree in Creative Writing & Publishing, where I learnt all about the publishing process and industry and developed a particular interest in academic publishing. Like many publishing hopefuls, it took lots of time and patience to land my first role in the industry, which was a 12-week market research internship with the Emerald Publishing Services (EPS) team at Emerald.

The main objective of the internship project was to help expand EPS’s network of Journal Partners across different regions. This involved using tools like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and Dimensions to identify potential partners within the international social science journal market, with a focus on the Diamond Open Access model.

My day-to-day work involves managing the peer review process for book proposals, handling author and editor contracts and coordinating payments.

When I was coming to the end of my internship, I knew I really wanted to stay on at Emerald so I applied for a Books Commissioning Assistant role for Business, Management and Economics titles and made it to the interview stage, but didn’t get the position. Then, a couple of weeks later, I was invited to interview for the same role within the Social Sciences team and was successful!

In my current role, I support commissioning editors across a range of titles across sociology, criminology, education, politics, policy and public administration. My day-to-day work involves managing the peer review process for book proposals, handling author and editor contracts and coordinating payments.

What skill did you find most valuable during your first few months in publishing?

There are so many skills I could mention here, but one specific skill I found most valuable during my internship was using Excel! It’s more of a hard skill to mention (technical knowledge/training) rather than a soft skill (personal habits/traits), but I used it pretty much every day and still do in my current role. To any publishing hopefuls, I’d highly recommend getting comfortable with Excel and including it somewhere on your CV as a key skill, especially since most job adverts include this as required or at least preferred (with wording like ‘proficiency in Microsoft Office’).

To any publishing hopefuls, I’d highly recommend getting comfortable with Excel and including it somewhere on your CV as a key skill

There are some great resources to help you learn the basics of Excel, including a number of courses on LinkedIn Learning and plenty of videos on YouTube, but even just having a play around with it in your spare time can be a really effective way to learn.

What’s a part of the publishing process you didn’t even realise existed before you started?

Peer review is definitely one part of the publishing process that I didn’t realise was so important before I started working in academic publishing. I’d briefly learned about it during my degree, but since starting at Emerald I’ve come to realise how important it is in practice for ensuring the quality and credibility of published content. I’ve also noticed how it’s applied differently across types of content – at Emerald, for example, we use double-blind peer review for journals and single-blind peer review for books.

Another thing that’s surprised me is how long the journey from proposal to publication can be for academic content (spoiler: much longer than I expected!) A lot of my degree focused on trade publishing, where timelines tend to move slightly faster, so I was surprised to learn that journal articles can take six months to over a year to publish!

What one experience really stands out from your first year in publishing?

It would have to be receiving the news that I’d got the internship with Emerald – after months of applying for entry-level roles, to make it to the final round of interviews and be successful was a huge relief and milestone. I’d been interested in working for Emerald ever since I took a module in Academic, Educational and Professional Publishing at university and really enjoyed it.

A lot of my degree focused on trade publishing, where timelines tend to move slightly faster, so I was surprised to learn that journal articles can take six months to over a year to publish!

I was especially interested in working for Emerald since they’re based in Leeds (about an hour from where I live), they’re a remote-first company and they’re also the only publisher to have signed the Defend Research declaration (which publicly condemns and resists the censorship of academic research in the US) and advocate for academic freedom without fear of suppression. To be working for such an amazing company in a role I could only have dreamed about being in months ago still feels surreal!

What’s the best piece of unofficial advice you picked up – something no one tells you before you start?

I think something that’s not mentioned enough to publishing hopefuls is having a healthy work/life balance. Especially when I was applying for jobs alongside my degree whilst also juggling a part-time job and social life etc, I almost felt guilty when I took proper breaks or didn’t work on weekends.

For those working in entry-level roles or their first jobs, it can be easy to take on too many responsibilities in order to make a good impression or show initiative, so setting boundaries is really important. At Emerald, this balance is even more crucial as I work from home most days and only go into the office a few times a month. This makes it easy to log on early or stay on late, so one helpful tip I received during my internship was to wear ‘work’ clothes and then change out of them at the end of the day to create a clear boundary between work and home life.

Remember that rejection is just redirection!

Another piece of unofficial advice I’d offer is that everything happens for a reason. While I was interviewing for my internship with Emerald, I was also in the final round for a role at another academic publisher but wasn’t successful. If I had been offered that position, I probably would’ve accepted it immediately and wouldn’t be where I am now with Emerald. Similarly, when I didn’t get the first Books Commissioning Assistant role at Emerald, I assumed my time with the company was over and started looking elsewhere – only to be interviewed for the position I’m in now a couple of weeks later. Remember that rejection is just redirection!

If your career in publishing were a book title, what would it be – and why?

Great question! I think it would be something similar to my favourite book by Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking For Is In The Library, or my favourite academic book, Merchants of Culture by John B. Thompson.

Combining these ideas, I’m borrowing inspiration from Michael Robb’s recently published Shelf Life as a book title to describe my career in publishing since it’s still very much at the beginning and there’s plenty of time to develop my skills, learn new things and grow in the industry!

I also can’t resist mentioning a recently published article I read on the topic of Diamond OA with an iconic title, Shine Bright Like A Diamond, which I’m sure could have some kind of crossover with publishing hopefuls and the optimism and persistence needed to stand out and get a job in publishing!