In 1973 in New York City, Bain began working in the editorial departments of several book publishers, including Alfred A. Knopf (during the early Robert Gottlieb years), Stonehill, Crown Publishers/Harmony Books (when it was still a downtown family business), and Houghton Mifflin (New York), as well as doing projects at Macmillan Inc. and other firms and on staff at the first American Book Awards.