1. Write to the job description and role requirements

Starting with an obvious one, but essentially the cover letter is the main opportunity for you to demonstrate how your unique experience relates to the requirements of the role. Read the job description and specification carefully and address key points from each individually in your letter. Are there elements that appeal to you based on your past experience, and why?

The fundamental thing here is to evidence how your experience specifically matches this role, giving clear examples. If a key requirement is: “Excellent organisational and time management skills”, give an example that demonstrates these skills and what the impact was. This can be drawn from your academic experience, from work, or perhaps even from activities you’ve been involved in such as volunteering. It is, of course, fine to take examples from other cover letters you have written (we all do it!), but make sure you adapt them for each role. For instance, if you include lots of examples of skills that we have not listed, you’re wasting a valuable opportunity and limited space to address the ones we have – plus we can probably tell you’ve just copied and pasted it from another application, and that doesn’t convince us that it’s this job you really want. If you only change the introduction and concluding paragraph on each cover letter you submit, we can most likely tell that as well!

2. Why this position, and why us?

Beyond addressing the role requirements, the cover letter really boils down to you showing us why you want to work in the role that you have applied for, within publishing, specifically academic publishing. For an academic marketing role for example, we want to know what about marketing books to an academic audience appeals to you?

A good tip here for a strong opening is to address the above in the first paragraph of your application and then to use this as the thread for the rest of your cover letter.

3. Do your research

The candidates that have conducted in-depth research into the company, and have critically engaged with who we are and what we publish, are the ones that really stand out to hiring managers. We want to see beyond a surface-level understanding of what it says on the About Us page of our website. Look at our recent company announcements to get a feel for our current big initiatives. What are we promoting on social media and our blogs? Which specific books, authors, series and digital productions that we publish do you admire? Can you relate any of this back to the role you’re applying for?

For academic publishing, this can be trickier if you don’t make a habit of reading university texts in your spare time! But you might consider whether we publish any books or digital resources that you used during your studies, or if not, whether there are any subjects that we specialise in that you are particularly interested in, and why. Can you think about the wider publishing landscape and address this too? What are the biggest market challenges or industry changes and what about this draws your attention? All of this signals to us your genuine interest in working with us long-term and that makes us smile.

4. Keep it concise

The cover letter should be clear and to the point. Half a page is likely to be too short to convey enough of what we need to know about you, and more than two pages is too long, so the sweet spot is very much around a page in length. Remember, you don’t have to include absolutely every point about why you’re a great fit for the role in intense detail (that’s what an interview is for!), and part of the skill of a good application is finding the right balance of giving just enough evidence about your fit for the job.

5. Find the common ground

It sounds obvious, but to build a rapport with the hiring manager, think about what you have in common. In this case, it’s easy: BOOKS! If it’s a marketing/publicity role, what did you admire about a particular campaign? If editorial, was there anything admirable about the way a particular book was published (think about what’s going on culturally and how the decision may fit into that)? If production, how were the books produced and what do you think of the finished product; and design, the cover of course!

6. Proof, proof and proof again!

We’ve seen it all, from letters addressing us as a different publisher to authors’ names being spelt wrong, and whilst we do want you to have “a can-do attitude and enthusiasm for supporting the team”, seeing it quoted right back at us verbatim from the job advert doesn’t give a great impression. Typos and mistakes happen to everyone, but they’re avoidable if you proof your application enough times. If possible, get a friend or family member to look at it for you as well. You will have spent a lot of time and effort on your application, and when the competition is so high, you don’t want to be disregarded because of a silly mistake. In publishing, where attention to detail to the written word is paramount, mistakes like this in your application do matter.

7. Formatting 

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but we’re all a little guilty of that, aren’t we? It’s no different for us when it comes to the formatting choices you make with your CV and cover letter. Choose a professional font and keep to a standard size (not too large, or too small – we know when you’ve shrunk it to size 9 on your cover letter to fit more in!). Use short, succinct paragraphs to make your points – if you’re applying for a marketing role, it’s exactly this sort of copy-editing we’re on the lookout for. For your CV, look at example templates so that you can choose a layout that works best for your purposes and so your different sections are clearly defined. There’s no right or wrong design for your application documents, but we want them to be clear, easy to scan, and in consistent formatting (again, a sign of attention to written detail!).

8. Small details, huge impact

Small details can make a huge difference and really elevate your application over others. Adapt the personal statement on your CV to the position that you’re applying for and use it to demonstrate that you’re looking for a position in that particular department/field. Address your cover letter to Bloomsbury Academic, rather than Bloomsbury Publishing, to show your understanding of the role and division that you’re applying for. As we’ve said, including specific details about the company or division and its publishing remit are vital to show us your genuine interest and make your application stand out.

9. The end

So after all of that, how do you end? First and foremost, keep it simple. Summarise your key points and emphasise again what about the position appeals to you and why you have the skills and experience to make you the perfect fit for the role.

10. One final point: Saving

This may sound a little fussy, but please save your application documents in PDF format with your full name as part of the file name. It won’t make or break the decision to shortlist you if you don’t, but it will ensure that none of your formatting will shift in the uploading/downloading process on our recruitment portal. As we’ve touched on above, wonky formatting could be enough to push us towards the rejection pile when the competition is so high. Speaking from experience, the hiring manager will also really appreciate it!

We hope this has been helpful and wish you luck for your future career in publishing.

Further reading

You can check out our current vacancies here.

We also recommend The Publishing Business: A Guide to Starting Out and Getting On for a full introduction to publishing, alongside insights and advice from insider interviews.