Interview with Lucy Hale, the Consumer Director of Hodder Publishing by Emma and Amber, year 8

We interviewed Lucy Hale, the consumer director of Hodder.

Lucy Hale is the consumer director and head of sales, marketing and publicity department for Hodder publishing books. Her job is to run the department through the connection with readers and media. She connects with the readers so that she can publish the best books and know what it is that we want to read. She is also in charge of the art department, whom of which will design some covers and adverts and titles for those books without. She chooses some of the books that Hodder will publish.

We interviewed her over the phone and this is what we got from what she said to us:

What do you look for in a good book?

Different books are made for a different audience, such as horror may not appeal for everyone. For example biographies. The authors of these need to really think about who they are talking to. Some of the people who would want to read these biographies wouldn’t be the people who normally read, so they need to make sure that everything is related to their profession and life, and don’t use complicated phrases or long confusing words. These will only lose the reader’s attention.

Do you think that the current generation is missing out on the experience of books because of the increasing demand of iPad’s and new technology?

Of course books are now available electronically, and 30% of our sales are now e-books, but the new technology is a distraction and it means that they have to work even harder to get the books to connect with the =readers. It is getting easier to connect with the readers though, because most of us will now have some form of social networking site we can talk to them via these sites.

What advice would you give to young people looking for jobs to do with books?

People are never going to be rich through publishing, which is a fact that you have to deal with if you want to publish. Publishing is a very good industry, and you get to know a lot of famous people and people who share the same love of reading as you. If you want to get into publishing, then start reading a lot of books now. Look at the best seller chart and start selecting the books that you think you will like. Some of these books will be so good that you may use them to base your thoughts of a good book on when you are older.

What sparked your interest in publishing?

I have always loved books and reading is escapism for Lucy. When the opportunity for publishing came up of course she seized the opportunity and she is still doing it now 30 years on.