In a typical day, one could find Dawn Werk in an editorial meeting discussing new book ideas, formulating sell sheets, interfacing with authors and more. Werk wears many hats in her role as director of marketing for Alpha Books, a division of Penguin. More, in fact, than most other directors at her company.
“Because my group is so small, I have more to do than other directors of marketing at Penguin,” said Werk. “Other directors handle marketing, but I help design the books, I help design the Web site and its functionality, and I make editorial decisions. I wear several hats, and that’s unique here.”
Werk’s group consists of approximately 20 people in various functions, including editorial and graphics, plus a freelance publicist. They handle 450 non-fiction books, mostly reference titles, that “can range from cookbooks to auto repair to what is Christianity?” said Werk. “We have a dozen titles on music theory and music composition, as well as guitar, harmonica and even a singing book. So, music is a small percentage of the total title count, but mighty in terms of sales.”
Music is something that’s been of interest to Werk since her school days. She played piano for six years, participated in swing choir—“which was a lot like what you see on TV now with Glee,” she said—and played various instruments in the junior high and high school bands, including flute, bass clarinet, marimbas and other percussion instruments.
“While I never got to be advanced at anything, I was exposed to it,” said Werk.

The Right Woman for the Job
Werk is really involved in her titles from beginning to end. She gets to decide whether authors are hired, “based on their writing experience, as well as how marketable they are,” said Werk. The graphics team reports to her, as she is in charge of designing the books. She works with the sales team to market the books. And she is actively involved in cultivating book ideas.
“We get a lot of ideas from the general public, as well as from staff looking at the marketplace and determining what people would be interested in us doing a book about,” Werk explained. “Sometimes, buyers in book stores will say, ‘It would be really cool if you did a book on this,’ but often agents will bring us ideas and we’ll do our own research, too. It’s much easier now in the age of the Internet than it was when we’d have to go through the newspapers.”
To handle that many facets of such a variety of titles takes a certain personality type that Werk luckily possesses. “It helps in this job to be outgoing, organized, and open minded in terms of what ideas will work and what ideas won’t work,” said Werk, who describes herself as not particularly shy. “In my position, I’ve got to mesh editorial with sales. That’s not always easy, because they sometimes want different things. I exist as a go-between, so you’ve got to be a team player. This isn’t something you can do by yourself.”
It helps that publishing is an industry in which powerful females are prevalent. According to Werk, not only is her boss female, but her boss’ boss also is of the same gender.
“I don’t know why that is specifically, but publishing is a good industry for women to be in. There is a lot of opportunity to move up and, when you do, you won’t be the only one,” she said. “I started out in the utility industry, which is much more male-dominated, or at least my particular company was. But publishing is pretty equal opportunity.”
“It’s an environment where our opinions are valued,” Werk continued. In fact, her ability to make decisions is one of her favorite things about the job and what gives her the most pride about the work she does. “I like the feel of autonomy. I’m allowed to make decisions. The publisher isn’t babysitting me. She may not always agree with me, but at least I’m given the opportunity to make decisions, whatever they may be.”

Keeping the Balance
Being a professional with her fingers in so many different pies is something that requires Werk to exhibit a great skill for organization. That was especially important when she earned an MBA while working full time, and it’s become imperative now that she has two small children at home.
“It helps to have a helpful husband when you’re balancing work and family life, but really it’s about being organized. I’m at work when I’m at work, and I’m at home when I’m at home. I try not to mix the two,” explained Werk, whose daughters are 6 and 3. “I’ll work late in order not to bring work home with me but, in the age of laptops, it’s really easy to come home, do my thing while I’m there and then do some more work late at night when the kids are asleep. That way, work isn’t interfering with the kids and vice versa.”
Looking into the future, Werk says her family has renewed her interest in some of her past extracurricular activities. “My husband and I used to ride our bikes a lot. So, I’d like to get back into that and get into shape to do that again. It’s something we can do as a family, but you have to take the time to do it,” said Werk. “I’d also like to take up piano again. I inherited a piano, so I’d like my daughters to take lessons and I’d like to as well, or maybe even try something new. I’ve never played the guitar before, and I know that’s kind of a romantic fantasy for a lot of people.”
Professionally, Werk is also excited to learn more about her business and help it thrive in the years ahead. “I want to help grow the business we have, especially in an Internet age in which people can have access to a lot of information for free. They may think ‘Why buy a book?’ So I want to help us grow into the next phase.”