Caveat: As I've learned only too well from recaping True Blood episodes for The National Post, your greatest fan is your greatest critic. So, with apologies to anyone who's been offended of late by what appears to be a stream of passionate rants, enh. What do you want? You made me love you.

Begin.

As someone who entered the publishing industry at a time when it was still a question as to how relevant social media was to the traditional model of selling books, I read with great interest HarperCollins' recent call for candidates in a role dedicated to digital marketing.

Posted at Quill & Quire, here are the responsibilities:

Responsibilities:
- Create written digital content

- Maintain websites, blogs and social media pages
- Coordinate all corporate social media

- Plan, track and maintain digital statistics
- Coordinate review and blog outreach
- Collaborate with sales and marketing on channel-specific promotions

- Collaborate with marketing, online, publicity, sales, editorial teams to form and execute plans

- Create digital marketing, sales and POS materials
- Assist in digital video creation

- Identify digital marketing opportunities

Qualifications:
- Minimum 1-2 years publishing or digital marketing experience

- Knowledge of and experience with social media
- Excellent knowledge of and working relationship with the media
- Excellent written and oral communication skills

- High proficiency with blog software, social media MS Office
- Strong organizational skills, ability to multi-task and juggle several projects at once
- University degree and/or publishing diploma

Advance apologies to HarperCollins, because I adore their digital team. That said, here we go!

This job description is in perfect keeping with the role I performed at House of Anansi Press as Online Content Manager before leaving late last summer, and Trish Osuch has since taken up with aplomb. Manager. The above role? It's for the position of Marketing Assistant.

Assistant.

I'm having a hard time with this term, especially at the level of a multinational. Anyone who's worked with me knows I'm not a snake oil salesman. I constantly turn down work. I'm the worst possible model to follow if your hope is to get rich quick. I work with people I genuinely like, and my prices couldn't get lower if Honest Ed took a red pen to my invoices. I love this industry in all it's cockedupness. So this isn't a rant about the crap pay in publishing. It's about a trend that I fear will undervalue the MAD SKILLZ of those who excel in loyalty marketing, conversation building, and, yes, frakkin' Twitter and Facebook.

So, let's discuss the greater impact of this demotion. Which is exactly how I see it, especially for a publisher who prior to this posting appeared to be one of the more agreeable kids on the (book) block when it came to recognizing the value of good chit chat with the consumer.

• Will it set a trend? Is this a real or imagined fear?
• Will entry level assistants knock their heads on the ceiling upon entering the building?
• Does it mean g'luck to existing assistants who held high hopes for advancing any time soon?
• Does it devalue the trail blazers who were once charged with the task of "figuring all this stuff out," kept their heads above water, and managed to convince their uppers that social media isn't just a matter of marketing but an essential part of their business plan?

Look. I'm no Bruce Willis. I didn't divert an asteroid from turning Planet Earth from an outtie to an innie. (Now, that's real talent!) But I am part of a front that made a big ass difference. I'm not looking for early retirement and full dental. But, c'mon. Assistant? With one word, it just became that much harder for some of the smartest people I've met in this industry to move up the ladder into positions of real influence.

There. That's all I got. Peace out and let's work together real soon, hey?