Latinx in Publishing (LxP): What do you do?
Alison Macke (AM): I'm the Senior Legal Compliance Associate at Macmillan Publishers. I work on promotions and data privacy compliance, which can be a lot of legalese but it means I get to work with every marketing department in the company, and I also work with people at every level of the company.
LxP: How did you get started?
AM: I used to work at a mid size law firm as a paralegal and was looking for a new job when I received a targeted email from LinkedIn which said I might be a good fit for an open role at Macmillan in the legal department. I almost didn’t apply because I was trying to pivot away from law since I knew I didn’t want to go to law school and didn’t want to get stuck being a paralegal. I think LinkedIn’s algorithm saw that my old job had the word compliance in the title and took it from there, but I always wanted to work in book publishing so I was excited and decided to just apply and see what happened, especially since I'd kind of written it off as an impossibility since I didn't have the right internships in college.
LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?
AM: I wish I'd known more about the "behind the scenes" departments at publishing houses. Legal is definitely one of those departments, but there are truly so many people who bring a book to readers and not every part is as "exciting" as editorial or marketing or publicity who are quite forward facing by nature. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have written it off! So thanks, LinkedIn!
LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?
AM: My reading has been all over the place recently, but I'm in the middle of Just Us by Claudia Rankine and I'm also listening to Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford. Highly recommend both--Rankine's writing is just *chef's kiss* and Ford's writing and narration are a searing spotlight on her upbringing.
Alison grew up in northern Illinois and now lives and works in NYC where she reads, writes, consumes art in pretty much any form, and is constantly on the lookout for baked goods or ice cream. She graduated with a B.S. in Linguistics and Psychology from Barnard College and has worked at Macmillan since 2017. Follow her on Twitter @alison_macke or on Instagram @ageekyreader.
