Carole Blake Open Doors Project 2025 - Muminah’s Story

Muminah Koleoso joined the Blake Friedmann team for two weeks in 2025 as part of our internship scheme, the Carole Blake Open Doors Project.

Last summer, I had the privilege of joining the Blake Friedmann team as an Open Doors intern, spending two weeks learning the ins and outs of the publishing industry from the perspective of literary agents. The internship programme itself was both broad enough to offer a good overview of publishing departments and tailored to my unique interests and background.

From the beginning, the team were incredibly supportive and accommodating. As someone based in Scotland, I really appreciated being offered accommodation via The Book Trade Charity and commuting to the office from there during the week. The working hours were flexible too, and I was able to use the office meeting room during lunch breaks for prayer.

Over the course of the two weeks, meeting professionals from across the wider publishing industry, I learned a lot about how books move through the publishing pipeline, from author submissions through to representation, editorial work, contracts, rights deals, publication, production, marketing, and publicity. I also gained a better understanding of the overall publishing landscape, learning that the publishing calendar tends to revolve around the Frankfurt Book Fair in October and the London Book Fair in March, especially for translation rights. I also learned about the different types of rights and territories involved in publishing deals, including audio, ebook, translation and film/TV rights.

One particularly eye-opening area for me was translation rights and literary scouting, two parts of publishing I was less familiar with beforehand. Translation rights teams negotiate licences with publishers in different countries so books can be translated abroad, while scouts act as literary intermediaries working for international publishers and anticipating industry trends to help them identify books to acquire.

Another highlight was that I had the unique opportunity to hear directly from Muslim publishing professionals about their experiences and perspectives - meeting with members of Hachette’s Muslim Network and learning more about their initiatives, including the annual iftar event. I also had the opportunity to speak with editor and author Kasim Ali at Bonnier Books about his publishing journey and how a desire to see more stories by BPOC writers published inspired his career journey. He also shared some insightful tips from his industry experience, which I found especially helpful as an aspiring author.

I also met with people working in audio publishing, marketing, publicity, and production. Across the meetings I attended, it was interesting to hear how different parts of the industry are adapting to changing reading habits and new technologies, such as BookTok and Bookstagram, digital publishing, and expanding into non-traditional products such as puzzles, games, and colouring books. Speaking with an Acquisitions Manager from Bolinda, one of the largest independent audio publishers, gave me a new appreciation of how audiobooks are produced, from casting narrators and sound design to marketing and production. As a big fan of audiobooks, I enjoyed hearing how the medium has evolved in recent years, especially with platforms like Spotify helping audiobooks reach wider audiences and influencing recent market trends.

One of my favourite parts of the role was getting to read submissions and write readers’ reports (a type of formal book review) on them. Another aspect of this internship that was interesting for me was realising that, as much as lit agents do a lot of reading and editing, there’s more to the job than that, from admin work, to finances, networking, attending events, negotiating deals, social media, etc. — it’s a very varied, high-paced role. I also had the opportunity to work on some of these day-to-day tasks, including drafting social media posts, writing news announcement articles, reviewing contracts, and updating information in the online database system, Bradbury Phillips.

Outside of the meetings and tasks, there were also plenty of opportunities to network and attend industry events. I visited publishers including HarperCollins and Bonnier Books, attended a mixer event at Pan Macmillan, where I met people at various stages of their publishing careers, and attended the Nature Writing prize at Hachette, where I met some authors and even crossed paths with an old school friend who’s an editor there.

One of the things that stood out most during the internship was learning about everyone's diverse career journeys. Sometimes it can feel like getting into publishing has to follow a very linear pathway with only one fixed route in, but hearing from industry professionals themselves proved otherwise, as everyone had come from different educational and career backgrounds. As someone who studied Computer Science and Maths at University, I found it reassuring to see that there really isn’t “only one way” into publishing and, at the end of the day, regardless of background or previous experience, we’re all connected by our shared love of books.

As to be expected, throughout the programme there were lots of opportunities for reading and free books - a definite highlight of my experience. Even before I started, the team sent me a selection of books from their client authors, spanning various genres of fiction and non-fiction. I was fortunate enough to pick up more proofs and books, so much so that by the end of my internship, I had a bag-full to take back with me to Scotland (the stuff of dreams)! 

But aside from the books, my head was also full of all the new information and insights I’d gained over the two weeks. The experience really demystified publishing for me and helped me better understand just how many moving parts there are within the industry. Everyone I met was generous with their advice and honest about the realities of their profession.

I enjoyed the internship so much that when I was offered the chance to come back and do freelance work with the team for a couple of months afterwards, I accepted. I’m really grateful to the Blake Friedmann team for all the insights, opportunities, and support they shared with me throughout my time there.