EmpowerShop Pro-life

By: Stephen Champagne

Are you con­sid­er­ing a desk­top pub­lish­ing career? Well to begin with, make sure you know what desk­top pub­lish­ers do. Desk­top pub­lish­ers use com­puter soft­ware, for­mat and com­bine text, numer­i­cal data, pho­tographs, charts, and other visual graphic ele­ments to pro­duce pub­li­ca­tion ready mate­r­ial. This mate­r­ial can range from books to busi­ness cards, cal­en­dars, mag­a­zines, newslet­ters and news­pa­pers, pack­ag­ing, slides, and tickets.

Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­t­ics, there were about 32,000 peo­ple employed as desk­top pub­lish­ers in 2006 in the United States. Most of these worked in the print­ing and pub­lish­ing indus­tries. You can pur­sue a desk­top pub­lish­ing career nation­wide from home, how­ever many jobs are located in major cities.

You do not need a col­lege degree to start a desk­top pub­lish­ing career, but the BLS strongly rec­om­mends it. Those with either cer­tifi­cates or an asso­ciates or bach­e­lors degree will have more, and bet­ter, job oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able to them. Many peo­ple work­ing in this field learn on the job, but many oth­ers learn by tak­ing classes and spe­cial­ized desk­top pub­lish­ing programs.

It is strongly rec­om­mended that any­one con­sid­er­ing a desk­top pub­lish­ing career have all or most of the fol­low­ing: good com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, basic com­puter skills, a strong work ethic, the abil­ity to com­pute ratios to esti­mate job costs, good man­ual dex­ter­ity, the abil­ity to pay atten­tion to detail and work inde­pen­dently, good eye­sight (includ­ing visual acu­ity, depth per­cep­tion, field of view, color vision, and the abil­ity to focus quickly), and artis­tic ability.

Though the BLS does not pre­dict any seri­ous growth in the desk­top pub­lish­ing indus­try through 2016, jobs will be avail­able due to nat­ural attri­tion in the work­force, which will need to be replaced. The BLS also states that the median earn­ings for some­one in a desk­top pub­lish­ing career were $34,130 in 2006.

Those enter­ing a desk­top pub­lish­ing career with lim­ited train­ing and expe­ri­ence may start as helpers receiv­ing instruc­tion from expe­ri­enced desk­top pub­lish­ers. As one mas­ters more skills and learns how to use new soft­ware, he or she can advance to posi­tions with greater respon­si­bil­ity. This may include super­vi­sory or man­age­ment posi­tions. Some desk­top pub­lish­ers may start their own com­pa­nies or work as inde­pen­dent con­trac­tors, many of these pub­lish­ers work at home. Those who are more artis­tic tal­ent and can fur­ther their edu­ca­tion may find oppor­tu­ni­ties in graphic design or com­mer­cial art. These are often higher pay­ing careers, that can also be done from home or in a major city.

Stephen Cham­pagne owns and oper­ates http://www.allaboutonlinepublishing.com Book Pub­lish­ing Contracts

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