Summer 2021 Work Experience
Our second work experience programme this year kicked off on Monday 26th July 2021 with us welcoming 30 students from across the country. From Newcastle to Norwich and Liverpool to London, our students came from a variety of schools and backgrounds and were all eager to get stuck into their tasks for the week!
At TBP, competitive spirit was high amongst group mentors with each team confident that they had the formula that would see them victorious.
As with last time, the teams were led through a series of webinars from TBP staff and worked in their groups to select a book from the synopses and samples provided and create a plan of how to take their title to market.
One of the tasks from their Agency webinar with Hattie, was to come up with an Elevator Pitch and Blurb for their title, she gives some examples in the slide below. Can you identify the books?
As the week went on, the students got familiar with the legal and finance sides of a literary agency too. Answering questions like, ‘what is intellectual property and how is it protected?’ and ‘how does an author end up getting paid?’.
This was followed by insights into marketing and how to position the book. Establishing who the readership for their title would be and how they would go about reaching them. Positioning for the book is paramount, and there is no shortage of options:
With our student heads brimming with ideas and knowledge, we ended the webinar with an introduction to international publishing and digital publishing. Even more food for thought for their presentations.
Finally, on Friday, after having spent the morning preparing with their mentors, each of the groups presented their work to our panel of esteemed judges: Hattie Grunewald (agent extraordinaire and host of their first webinar of the week), Rory Scarfe (head honcho of the agency team, who knows a good pitch when he sees it) and Jemma Hill (our no-nonsense Group Finance Director, who can smell commercial success).
Every team presented exceptionally well and brought something different to their title, but there could only be one winner. In the end, the winning team demonstrated an abundance of creative thinking, commercial awareness and presented with real finesse.
Exhausting, but we can’t wait to welcome a new group of students and do it all over again!
