Buyer beware - Anonymous employee Sourcebooks Employee Review

2.0
Oct 17, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- They have great authors, and do publish good books. - As a new employee fresh out of college or in your early career you can learn a lot, as you will be doing a lot. - Despite all of the challenges in publishing, Sourcebooks continues to grow and gain market share. - Smart, creative employees - You’ll either thrive in the culture, or you will find it intolerable. - Good benefits package

Cons

The reviews you read about the CEO, the negativity, the toxic culture are all true. - There is a huge turnover rate. The company hires a lot of young people, pays them low salaries, and expects that they will leave within 1-3 years. This is the standard operating model and most departments turn over completely in those timeframes, and plan for that. - The CEO is absolutely as volatile as described in the all of the other reviews here. She is very smart and good at publishing books (or else the company wouldn’t be where it’s at). But she is also a bit “manic.” One day she’s effervescent and ready to conquer the world, the next day ready to jump out of the window or throw someone under the bus. You’re lucky if you don’t have to work directly with her. And don’t get on her bad side, or you’ll find there is no going back once you find yourself there. - Senior Management is good and could be so much better, except they have to spend so much time making up for the lack of consistency in the CEO’s office that you never really know what to expect of them. - Reptitively, I saw employees hired for their skills and job description and then be told that they knew nothing, and were essentially incompetent in their positions. When, in fact, Sr. Management didn’t trust them or the experience they were hired for, and believed they simply knew better. So the individuals essentially found themselves incapable of performing their jobs based on their own years of experience. - The company is a “yes” company. As long as you can toe the line of “nothing is impossible, and will get it done” you’ll fit in. If you have other beliefs it may be better just to find a new role or be quiet. - Don’t believe that your manager has your back, or best interests and career at heart. They are all toeing that line as well. - The management promotes transparency to the company, but their ethics leave much to be desired.

Explore other reviews about Sourcebooks

5.0
Jun 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Incredible managers, great team, genuine openness to growth and learning, meaningful work

Cons

None to speak of at this moment

1.0
Apr 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

In hindsight, I'm not sure if there were any apart from some friendly coworkers.

Cons

I infuriatingly see promotions handed out left and right via LinkedIn, but just know that actually being someone to get to that level means literally grovelling and being lucky enough to be in the good graces of the egotistical CEO. Upper management brown-noses her as their main job, and they will prevent you from any upward mobility if you're not one of her favorites (which seems to be picked based on how much you kiss up to her, and if you keep your own opinions to yourself, and other factors entirely unrelated to your actual performance). Absolutely criminally high monthly healthcare premiums, paired with insanely high deductibles, bare-minimum PTO, and mat leave. HR is a joke and not one HR employee seems to last very long. Salaries are abysmal, even by publishing standards. Most books acquired are bottom-of-the-barrel since they don't pay most of their authors much, and they have to be edited within an inch of their lives to be readable and marketable. I left the industry after this company and have never been happier.

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