Publishing Company Hierarchy

A publishing company is one which may publish any literary piece of work such as newspapers, novels, educational books, magazines, or journals. A publishing company is divided into many sections or departments based on distinction in tasks and duties.

For example, there is a creative team handling all the creative aspects of the business whereas the marketing team takes care of promotion and advertising and thus have to be put in different departments. To further understand the hierarchy of a publishing company, you can go through the following given information:

A) The Publisher

The Publisher is the owner of the publishing company and is the boss of the house. He/she is responsible for recruiting, firing, giving salaries, deciding on content and handling the major decision making of the company. Everyone else who works for a publishing company jobs under the supervision of The Publisher.

B) Editor in Chief

The position next to that of the Publisher is of the editor in chief who can be considered as the head of the other editors and one of the most powerful persons in the publishing company. He/she is responsible for controlling the content of the productions of the company and decides the budget and other important matters.  The editor in chief may also be responsible for hiring the other editors.

C) Editors

Apart from the editor in chief, there are other editors as well who are hired by a publishing company. These editors look into the editing of the books and other publishing works and suggest changes to the writers.  An editor is an important part of the publishing company and in may be responsible for finishing of a book.

D) Proofreader

After the position of an editor comes the position of the proofreader in a publishing company. A proofreader is one who corrects the grammatical mistakes of the writers and is responsible for checking spelling mistakes, improving the sentence formation and changing words where required. This is an entry level position in a publishing company.

E) Literary Agent

A literary agent is that employee of a publishing company who helps in publication of the books written by writers and looks after the process of payment to the writers etc.  They are the ones who pursue the contracts and review materials submitted by unpublished authors.  There are many literary agents working for the same publishing company and are responsible for supervising different genres of writing. On the basis of this, they can be classified as follows

  • Horror literary agents
  • Comedy literary agents
  • Romantic book literary agents
  • Fiction literary agents
  • Educational literary agents
  • Science literary agents
  • Women’s fiction literary agents
  • Fantasy literary agents

F) Creative Experts

The creative team consists of several positions which are given as follows:

  • The illustrator
  • The comic artist
  • Graphic designer
  • Concept designer
  • Photoshop expert
  • Visual expert
  • Photo editor
  • Page designer
  • Artist

G) Marketing Team

The marketing team of a publishing company is responsible for effective marketing of the products of the company.

  • Marketing head
  • Marketing manager
  • Promotions manager
  • Advertising manager
  • PR expert
  • Media expert

H) Finance Department

The following are the positions within the finance department

  • Accountant
  • Finance expert
  • Assistant accountant