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What is a "textbook packager"? How do they compare to a traditional textbook or academic publishing company? In this blog, I will discuss how a packager is essential to the academic/K-12 publishing business at large and why you might want to take a look at starting your publishing journey via packager. Remember: big opportunities come in small packagers.
What is a textbook packager?
K-12 textbooks cost a great deal of money to produce. Between getting the rights to or creating artwork, writing the text, editing, production, design, and more, there are many expenses to any textbook you see on the shelf. Because each of these elements require certain levels of expertise in order to appear in a textbook, academic publishers oftentimes look to cut the expenses associated with publishing. The most common cut is to their staff, usually cutting the low-tier positions, and mid-high tier positions (those positions under the highest level within their respective branches). This of course, leaves vacancies in the textbook-making process. These holes need to be filled somehow.
This is where textbook packagers come in. Packagers are companies that offer a publisher a variety of design, editorial, composition, printing, or other services at competitive rates. Packagers have an arsenal of contract and full-time employees in different subject areas and fields depending on their desired clientele. A large textbook packager may have a full staff for editorial, design, project management, and production. A smaller one may specialize in translation. However, the idea of a textbook packager, is that they offer services to package or complete, a textbook for their client. Established packagers are work-for-hire teams that bid on a great deal of projects from competing clients.
What are some of the benefits to packagers?
It may be difficult to envision working for a textbook company that is not the one responsible for publishing the textbooks themselves. However, packagers have a great deal of incentives that traditional publishers do not.
Flexibility. This is perhaps the biggest draw to a textbook packager. Because the company is not a traditional publisher, once you have experience in the industry, you have the flexibility to become a contract or subcontract employee. This means you can set your hours, accept projects that are of interest to you, and work with a variety of different team members. Of course, full-time staff have the luxury of interacting with rotating staff, as well. Another element to flexibility? Remote working opportunities. In many instances, textbook packagers have remote staff, in addition to on-location workspaces. If a packager is looking for your expertise, you may receive a Work from Home benefit a few days a week, or the possibility for full-time remote work.
Mentorship/Education experiences. Because textbook packagers are smaller than the companies they are contracted to work for, there is generally in-house communication and comradery. If you are just starting your career as an intern or assistant, whether you are in project management, design, or editorial, you will learn a great deal about all of the other departments that your packager has to offer. Packagers must have in-house communication to offer the best products to clients. If you are a veteran in the field, you may offer mentorship in order to help the next generation of publishing-focused individuals grow.
Variety. Though flexibility partially covers this, textbook packagers offer much more variety to all departments of their staff than traditional publishers do. In a starting intern/assistant role, a packager may have you on two or three projects at a given time. And, if you do not have a specific academic background, you will be placed on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and Humanities (English, Languages, History, Social Sciences) projects alike. You will also get to work with a mix of new clients, and new in-house staff depending on the projects of which you are a part.
Community. Due to the harsh reality that some clients may be difficult to please and that there will be bids that your company loses, it's easy for packagers to build close-knit communities. There's nothing like a water cooler chat about how the client expects a task that will take three days condensed to one. And then, somehow, you're able to deliver it.
What are some of the negatives of textbook packagers?
You may be thinking... how could a company that only has work when it bids successfully be a stable source of income for me? And, how will a small packager carry any amount of weight on my resume?
Job Security. Textbook packagers, like most other industry jobs, are dependent on the health of the publishing market. If a client needs to keep costs low, they will sometimes keep as much of the work in-house as they can, offering scraps to handful of eager packagers. So, if you are not a full-time staff member, job security can be risky. Contractors who depend on only one textbook packager may find themselves without work for a few months, depending on industry health.
Not a household name. Working for a packager does not have the same recognition as working for McGraw-Hill, or HMH Education. Small packagers may be known by the large clients, but maybe not by smaller potential clients. And, on a resume, you may not be offered the same level of consideration. However, for larger, long-standing packagers, this is not a problem.
Final thoughts
So, do the negatives outweigh the positives? That is up to you to decide. I know that my experience at a textbook packager has been absolutely invaluable to me. I feel that my understanding of how textbooks are made is firm, and that I have a wide variety of skills (not just contained to editorial).
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