A hands‑on course in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies's writing department is preparing students for the publishing industry by putting learners in front of Canada's largest publisher.
In the course, students are asked present industry‑ready marketing campaigns directly to industry representatives. When Rachel Saarony's turn was up, she noticed her hands trembling as she walked into the offices of Penguin Random House Canada (PRHC).
The fourth-year professional writing student was about to present a full-scale marketing plan to the country’s largest book publisher, completing the final assignment for PRWR 3004/4004 – an upper-year course designed to bring real-world publishing exposure into the classroom.
For Saarony, the moment felt significant. “I felt a lot of pressure to leave a strong impression in front of industry professionals,” she says. It was her first encounter with the publishing industry, and the stakes felt real.
That opportunity was exactly what Matthew Bucemi, director of 첥Ƶ’s Book Publishing Specialization in the Writing Department, had in mind when he helped reshape the program in 2022. Among his efforts was the desire to create meaningful connections between academic learning and the industry realities students would face after graduation.
“My goal was for students to get a level of hands-on experience that a classroom can’t provide,” Bucemi says.
As part of that push, Bucemi drew on industry connections at Penguin Random House Canada and approached Polly Beel, director of marketing and publicity, to explore collaborations. The result was PRWR 3004/4004, a course grounded in a shared idea that students learn best when they are asked to meet professional standards and should have the opportunity to present their work beyond the classroom. “What does it feel like to really present something to senior staff at a publishing house?” says Bucemi.
First, however, it was Beel’s who would present. In January, she and members of PHRC's marketing team visited Bucemi’s class to introduce a project where students would develop original, comprehensive marketing plans for Spoiled Milk, a debut supernatural gothic horror novel scheduled for release.
While students were given broad creative freedom, Beel outlined the same expectations a marketing team like theirs would face, including deliverables, timelines and creative standards. “It reframed the project from a classroom exercise into something that felt professionally real,” says Saarony.
The class was divided into five teams, each responsible for a different piece: a preorder push, influencer outreach, paid digital advertising, organic social media content and an in-person reader event. Over the course of three months, students worked collaboratively to build a unified, multichannel strategy that blended digital marketing with immersive, experiential ideas.
The final campaign leaned heavily into the gothic atmosphere of Spoiled Milk. Elements were timed around culturally resonant moments, such as Friday the13th and Halloween, with the aim of extending the novel’s eerie tone beyond the page. One proposed initiative – dubbed a “Summer-ween” reader event – imagined bringing the book’s haunted boarding school setting into the real world.
Saarony served as one of two team leads on the influencer mailer project, which focused on creating a tactile, interactive experience for book-focused creators on TikTok and Instagram. She and her team designed a themed mailer inspired by the novel’s setting.
The package took the form of a vintage steamer trunk and included story-linked objects such as tarot cards, a custom bookmark and a painted compact mirror featuring a rotting apple. Interactive elements encouraged recipients to explore the contents over time, including hidden messages revealed with a UV Ouija planchette (also known as a spirit board pointer).
“Our goal was to give influencers something they could return to,” Saarony says, “objects they could explore, decode and interact with.”
Another student, Lauren Russell, co-led the digital ads team, which developed a cross-platform advertising strategy tailored to online book audiences. The team identified platforms such as Goodreads and Book Riot, and created a range of static and animated banner ads, alongside short-form video content for social media.
For Instagram, Russell took on an acting role, posing as a fictional student from the novel’s boarding school in a character-driven mock interview. The team also produced a TikTok-style video showcasing gothic horror recommendations, positioning Spoiled Milk within a broader reading community.
At the end of March, students visited Penguin Random House’s Toronto offices to deliver their pitch.
After months of preparation, Russell says the key was stepping into the room with confidence. “We kept reminding ourselves that we knew our work was strong,” she says. “Our job was to show it clearly and enthusiastically.”
For Saarony, the nerves subsided quickly. “Once we started, I went into autopilot,” she says. “I trusted the preparation, and it went better than I could have hoped.”
Following the pitch, PRHC staff provided detailed, industry-aligned feedback to each group. Students were encouraged to think critically about their creative choices, audience targeting and feasibility. One piece of feedback resonated strongly across the class. “We were told that the presentation we had put together was corporate level,” says Russell. “I felt like all our hard work culminated in that moment.”
With the project complete, students reflected on what they gained. For Saarony, the opportunity helped build confidence in her ability to contribute to large projects, and to lead them – which sparked a new interest. During a post-pitch conversation with PRHC’s managing editor, Saarony mentioned her curiosity about the legal side of publishing – an exchange that led to an offer for her to connect with the company’s legal team to learn more.
Russell similarly described the experience as a turning point, noting how it sharpened her leadership, communication and research skills while demystifying how much planning and coordination goes into launching a book.
For Bucemi, those outcomes reflect the program’s broader purpose. Giving students the chance to apply their skills in a real-world context helps them see how theory translates into practice, and how their interests might evolve once they engage directly with the industry. “Understanding what professional life looks like before you graduate makes a real difference,” he says.
At the same time, he was pleased when Beel noted that the students demonstrated a level of ambition and creativity that would get them a job at any company in the industry.
“The biggest thing for me is helping students get practical opportunities that will support them as they enter the job market,” he says. “My hope is that putting something like this on their resume will be a real X-factor when they're looking for a publishing job."