My journey to the University of Stirling and this masters in Publishing Studies seems like a long one when I look back on it. When I left school I had no idea what I wanted to spend the rest of my working life doing. After settling on an undergraduate degree in English Literature and History at the University of Aberdeen I thought I had it all figured out – I would teach. However, it was when one of my friends pointed out to me that I did not have the patience to teach secondary education that I really began thinking about publishing as a career option. Truthfully, my main motivation was finding a career in which I could read for a living.

Doing a post-graduate masters was always appealing to me. I feel it is one of the best ways to learn about the publishing world and hopefully lessen the feeling of ‘I have no idea what I am doing‘ when I actually step into a career. Besides, I just love being a student. This year also lets me explore areas of the publishing industry that I had not even thought about before I started. I always thought I would only ever be interested in working in editorial in fiction. Only three weeks into the course I am now much more open to the idea of working in other areas. Well, still in editorial, but now I am toying with the idea of either academic publishing or children’s publishing.

Who knows where in the publishing world I will end up, but I am certainly excited to find out.