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Meet Gerilee McBride — MPub Alumni

March 03, 2020

This interview is part of our “3 Questions” series with Publishing Minor students, Master of Publishing candidates, and MPub alumni.

Meet Gerilee McBride, Advertising and Promotion Manager at UBC Press.

Instagram: @talkandnottalk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerilee-mcbride-92ab917/

1. What was something you wish you had done differently while in school?
I treated the MPub as an incubator environment and let myself be free to ask all the questions and participate in all the conversations. Regret is fantasy—this is a phrase I learned from my mentor, Margaret Reynolds (retired Executive Director of the ABPBC), and one that I've embraced wholeheartedly. You can always keep going forward, learning and improving, but you can never go back in time. Not yet anyway.

2. What was the most valuable skill you took away from your time in the MPub program?
Learning to view the publishing process through the many different lenses (design, editorial, production, acquisitions, business development, marketing, etc.) made me realize that publishing only happens with the understanding that every person/position is an important part of the whole. Oh, and make editors your best friends. I cannot recommend this enough. They almost always have the answers you need.

3. What is 1 piece of advice you would give to current publishing students (this could be advice for publishing minors or MPub)?
Ask all the questions, all the time. School is your opportunity to explore and experiment so don't hold yourself back—it's one of the few opportunities you get to be 100 percent optimistic. 

Gerilee McBride’s graduate report is available online from the SFU library:
Warp & weft: the future of the publication program at the Crafts Association of British Columbia.

Learn more about Canada’s only Master of Publishing program. Application deadline each year is February 1st.