Books are my business

What Laura did with her arts degree

Laura Hutchinson read a lot of books as a child and grew up to be a story-loving adult, so working at the world’s largest publishing house is an “honour and privilege.”

As Marketing Executive—Young Readers for Penguin Random House Australia, Laura plans and coordinates launch campaigns for books aimed at children anywhere from birth up to 18 years. Seeing Spot, the cartoon puppy, for a 40th anniversary push of Eric Hill’s classic book “still gave me warm, fuzzy flashbacks.” She also met author Morris Gleitzman. “I felt nervous. I gushed about how much I loved his books and which of his stories I enjoyed the most. My colleagues laughed and thought my reaction was adorable—they had been editors and designers of some of his other books.”

Tasks Laura might complete in a typical day include booking advertisements, briefing graphic designers, writing blog posts, creating email newsletters and listing books on Goodreads.

Laura graduated with degrees in communication and business in 2016. She’s used the knowledge learned and skills honed from her writing and broadcast media classes and internships to gain coverage for book campaigns. Content creators are often overworked, so providing ready-to-use stories “has helped me score editorial pieces and interviews for free.”

Lecturers who cared, who modelled the value of ethical work and who had great professionals connections were a plus, too. “My Avondale experience has helped me secure great jobs and foster strong working relationships with colleagues, suppliers and authors.”