Book Publishing Job Skills: What You Need to Get Hired
BookJobs NYC · Updated May 25, 2026
What job skills do book publishers actually prioritize in 2026? Well, we scanned 500+ job posts in the BookJobs NYC database to find out, counting explicit mentions of common software tools and capabilities. Below you can find our key findings and a data-driven look at the publishing job skills that matter today.
Key findings
- Excel proficiency is the most in-demand publishing job skill: it appears in 21% of job records (1030 jobs). Spreadsheet skills are essential for budgets, schedules, comp titles, and ad hoc reporting across editorial, marketing, and operations.
- Microsoft Office skills cluster together: PowerPoint and Outlook trail Excel but still show up in a large minority of posts. Many publishing roles blend analysis, presentations, and calendar-driven coordination.
- Adobe Creative Cloud proficiency (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat) appears most often in design and marketing-adjacent roles. InDesign alone shows up in about 4% of job posts.
- Digital marketing tools (Canva, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Google Analytics) are increasingly requested in consumer-facing and digital roles, even at traditional trade publishers.
- Enterprise system experience (SAP, Salesforce, Workday, SharePoint) is less common but often critical in finance, royalties, IT, and operations roles. When these appear in job requirements, they are typically non-negotiable.
Publishing Job Skills by Job Category
Each job is tagged with a primary category. The tables below show the most commonly requested tools within each category. Percentages indicate the fraction of jobs in that specific category that mention the tool.
Editorial
775 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 171 | 22.1% |
| PowerPoint | 87 | 11.2% |
| Outlook | 84 | 10.8% |
| Microsoft Word | 60 | 7.7% |
| InDesign | 56 | 7.2% |
| Acrobat | 35 | 4.5% |
| Biblio | 30 | 3.9% |
| Photoshop | 27 | 3.5% |
| Illustrator | 17 | 2.2% |
| Canva | 15 | 1.9% |
| HTML | 15 | 1.9% |
| Workday | 10 | 1.3% |
| Smartsheet | 8 | 1% |
| XML | 8 | 1% |
| Salesforce | 7 | 0.9% |
| Asana | 7 | 0.9% |
| SAP | 6 | 0.8% |
| FileMaker | 4 | 0.5% |
Marketing
544 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 131 | 24.1% |
| Canva | 108 | 19.9% |
| PowerPoint | 63 | 11.6% |
| Photoshop | 56 | 10.3% |
| HTML | 27 | 5% |
| InDesign | 26 | 4.8% |
| Salesforce | 24 | 4.4% |
| Outlook | 24 | 4.4% |
| Google Analytics | 20 | 3.7% |
| HubSpot | 19 | 3.5% |
| Mailchimp | 18 | 3.3% |
| SQL | 17 | 3.1% |
| Illustrator | 13 | 2.4% |
| Airtable | 11 | 2% |
| Python | 11 | 2% |
| Microsoft Word | 10 | 1.8% |
| Asana | 10 | 1.8% |
| Monday.com | 7 | 1.3% |
Operations
503 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 196 | 39% |
| SAP | 61 | 12.1% |
| PowerPoint | 37 | 7.4% |
| Salesforce | 31 | 6.2% |
| Outlook | 31 | 6.2% |
| Jira | 24 | 4.8% |
| SQL | 15 | 3% |
| Workday | 11 | 2.2% |
| Confluence | 9 | 1.8% |
| Microsoft 365 | 8 | 1.6% |
| Zoom | 7 | 1.4% |
| Biblio | 6 | 1.2% |
| Microsoft Word | 6 | 1.2% |
| NetSuite | 6 | 1.2% |
| Python | 6 | 1.2% |
| SharePoint | 5 | 1% |
| Asana | 5 | 1% |
| Airtable | 5 | 1% |
Sales
483 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 170 | 35.2% |
| Salesforce | 98 | 20.3% |
| PowerPoint | 94 | 19.5% |
| Outlook | 41 | 8.5% |
| Microsoft Word | 14 | 2.9% |
| SAP | 11 | 2.3% |
| Biblio | 9 | 1.9% |
| Microsoft Teams | 9 | 1.9% |
| Zoom | 9 | 1.9% |
| HubSpot | 7 | 1.4% |
| Canva | 6 | 1.2% |
| HTML | 5 | 1% |
| InDesign | 4 | 0.8% |
| Photoshop | 4 | 0.8% |
| Slack | 4 | 0.8% |
| Mailchimp | 3 | 0.6% |
| ONIX | 3 | 0.6% |
| SQL | 3 | 0.6% |
Retail
324 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | 10 | 3.1% |
| Excel | 8 | 2.5% |
| HTML | 5 | 1.5% |
| PowerPoint | 1 | 0.3% |
| Outlook | 1 | 0.3% |
| SAP | 1 | 0.3% |
| Canva | 1 | 0.3% |
| Mailchimp | 1 | 0.3% |
| SQL | 1 | 0.3% |
| Python | 1 | 0.3% |
Engineering
250 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 96 | 38.4% |
| SQL | 66 | 26.4% |
| AWS | 66 | 26.4% |
| JavaScript | 33 | 13.2% |
| HTML | 13 | 5.2% |
| Excel | 12 | 4.8% |
| Jira | 12 | 4.8% |
| Microsoft 365 | 8 | 3.2% |
| SharePoint | 4 | 1.6% |
| Office 365 | 4 | 1.6% |
| Figma | 4 | 1.6% |
| PowerPoint | 3 | 1.2% |
| XML | 3 | 1.2% |
| Salesforce | 2 | 0.8% |
| SAP | 2 | 0.8% |
| Zoom | 2 | 0.8% |
| Confluence | 2 | 0.8% |
| Smartsheet | 2 | 0.8% |
Design
159 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Photoshop | 83 | 52.2% |
| InDesign | 81 | 50.9% |
| Illustrator | 77 | 48.4% |
| Acrobat | 25 | 15.7% |
| Figma | 18 | 11.3% |
| Excel | 11 | 6.9% |
| Creative Cloud | 8 | 5% |
| Jira | 6 | 3.8% |
| PowerPoint | 5 | 3.1% |
| Canva | 5 | 3.1% |
| Smartsheet | 4 | 2.5% |
| Microsoft Word | 3 | 1.9% |
| HTML | 3 | 1.9% |
| Biblio | 2 | 1.3% |
| Salesforce | 1 | 0.6% |
| Outlook | 1 | 0.6% |
| Office 365 | 1 | 0.6% |
| Workday | 1 | 0.6% |
Production
142 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Acrobat | 35 | 24.6% |
| Excel | 32 | 22.5% |
| InDesign | 24 | 16.9% |
| Biblio | 14 | 9.9% |
| Photoshop | 13 | 9.2% |
| Microsoft Word | 9 | 6.3% |
| Smartsheet | 8 | 5.6% |
| HTML | 8 | 5.6% |
| SAP | 7 | 4.9% |
| PowerPoint | 6 | 4.2% |
| Outlook | 6 | 4.2% |
| XML | 6 | 4.2% |
| FileMaker | 5 | 3.5% |
| Creative Cloud | 5 | 3.5% |
| Illustrator | 4 | 2.8% |
| JavaScript | 4 | 2.8% |
| Microsoft Teams | 3 | 2.1% |
| SharePoint | 2 | 1.4% |
Publicity
112 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 38 | 33.9% |
| Canva | 21 | 18.8% |
| Outlook | 20 | 17.9% |
| PowerPoint | 16 | 14.3% |
| Microsoft Word | 9 | 8% |
| InDesign | 5 | 4.5% |
| Photoshop | 3 | 2.7% |
| Microsoft Teams | 3 | 2.7% |
| Mailchimp | 3 | 2.7% |
| JavaScript | 3 | 2.7% |
| Workday | 2 | 1.8% |
| Zoom | 2 | 1.8% |
| Biblio | 1 | 0.9% |
| Illustrator | 1 | 0.9% |
| Acrobat | 1 | 0.9% |
| SharePoint | 1 | 0.9% |
| Asana | 1 | 0.9% |
| Airtable | 1 | 0.9% |
Rights
75 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 31 | 41.3% |
| Outlook | 14 | 18.7% |
| Microsoft Word | 7 | 9.3% |
| PowerPoint | 7 | 9.3% |
| Illustrator | 6 | 8% |
| Biblio | 5 | 6.7% |
| Salesforce | 4 | 5.3% |
| HTML | 4 | 5.3% |
| Workday | 2 | 2.7% |
| SAP | 2 | 2.7% |
| InDesign | 1 | 1.3% |
| Microsoft 365 | 1 | 1.3% |
| Slack | 1 | 1.3% |
| Zoom | 1 | 1.3% |
| Asana | 1 | 1.3% |
| Airtable | 1 | 1.3% |
| Canva | 1 | 1.3% |
| ONIX | 1 | 1.3% |
Executive
73 job records · % = share of jobs in this category
| Tool | Jobs | % of category |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 7 | 9.6% |
| PowerPoint | 5 | 6.8% |
| Python | 4 | 5.5% |
| Salesforce | 3 | 4.1% |
| Outlook | 2 | 2.7% |
| Zoom | 2 | 2.7% |
| Asana | 2 | 2.7% |
| SQL | 2 | 2.7% |
| Photoshop | 1 | 1.4% |
| Illustrator | 1 | 1.4% |
| Microsoft Word | 1 | 1.4% |
| Microsoft Teams | 1 | 1.4% |
| Microsoft 365 | 1 | 1.4% |
| NetSuite | 1 | 1.4% |
| SAP | 1 | 1.4% |
| Slack | 1 | 1.4% |
| Jira | 1 | 1.4% |
| Trello | 1 | 1.4% |
Publishing Job Skills Across All Roles
| Tool | Jobs | % of all jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 1030 | 21% |
| PowerPoint | 389 | 8% |
| Outlook | 302 | 6% |
| InDesign | 218 | 4% |
| Photoshop | 213 | 4% |
| Salesforce | 199 | 4% |
| Canva | 191 | 4% |
| Python | 146 | 3% |
| Microsoft Word | 142 | 3% |
| SQL | 140 | 3% |
| Illustrator | 139 | 3% |
| SAP | 123 | 2% |
| Acrobat | 120 | 2% |
| HTML | 114 | 2% |
| Biblio | 83 | 2% |
| AWS | 83 | 2% |
| JavaScript | 72 | 1% |
| Jira | 62 | 1% |
| Workday | 59 | 1% |
| Microsoft 365 | 48 | 1% |
| Zoom | 48 | 1% |
| SharePoint | 39 | 1% |
| Figma | 35 | 1% |
| Google Analytics | 32 | 1% |
| HubSpot | 31 | 1% |
| Airtable | 30 | 1% |
| Smartsheet | 30 | 1% |
| Asana | 29 | 1% |
| XML | 29 | 1% |
| Mailchimp | 28 | 1% |
| Creative Cloud | 26 | 1% |
| Microsoft Teams | 26 | 1% |
| Office 365 | 22 | 0% |
| Monday.com | 21 | 0% |
| Slack | 19 | 0% |
| Confluence | 16 | 0% |
| ONIX | 15 | 0% |
| FileMaker | 11 | 0% |
| NetSuite | 10 | 0% |
| Klopotek | 6 | 0% |
| Firebrand | 4 | 0% |
| Trello | 3 | 0% |
| Virtusales | 2 | 0% |
How to read this data
Job descriptions don't name every tool: Many listings ask for "comfort with databases" instead of naming SQL, or a "title management system" instead of Firebrand. If a tool isn't listed, it doesn't mean it's never used.
Mentions don't equal workload: A keyword hit tells you the hiring manager thought a tool was worth naming, but not whether it makes up 5% or 95% of the role. Use this guide as a starting point, then ask for specifics in interviews.
Looking for salary data? For department-level hiring trends and pay rates, check out our nine publishing career paths breakdown.
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