Hello, wonderful people! I hope this post finds everyone well. I write you now after my first week of work at Simon and Schuster Publishing Company. After my first full week of being a real person, I feel confident enough to say that I may indeed survive it in the future.
My abroad program is made up of two parts: five weeks of classes and nine weeks of an internship. After being in London for five weeks, it was time to begin the second half. I was placed at Simon and Schuster Publishing because of my passion for books and literature. I have no prior experience in publishing, but I know that it is something I am seriously considering as a future career. When I went in for my interview a couple of weeks ago (which I think I posted about), I explained that this was very much an exploratory internship. I wanted to see what departments I liked most, which I was good at, and how each one worked. They seemed to like my eagerness and willingness to work hard at whatever job I was given, so I felt from the start that I would get along well over the nine weeks.
I work Monday-Thursday from 9:30 AM-5:30 PM. On Friday I have one class from 9:00 AM-1:00 PM, so it’s nice to get that break from the office and back to the world of academia. My work reimburses me for my lunch and travel, which has proven to be a very nice perk. This helps me both save money and keep track of what I am spending.
The office is split between the children’s literature side and the adult’s literature side. Publicity, marketing, illustration/design, and accounting seem to be intermixed within these two areas. I technically am stationed in the fiction and nonfiction editorial department on the adult literature side, but I was informed that because I am trying to feel things out, I have the option to move departments as often as I wish. I think this will be great for me as I try to really get a feel for the world of publishing and decide if it is an attractive career in the future.
I thought I would have a bit of a routine by the end of the week, but what I do seems to vary daily. My days are split from doing tasks that are pretty self-explanatory to being taught something on their book database. This teaching is for later on in the internship when I will be asked to enter records, check records, etc. Usually I arrive at work, greet everyone by name (and to those whose name I don’t remember, a friendly wave and “hello” seems to suffice for now), and make my way to my desk. As I said before, I am technically in the editorial department, but my desk is in publicity. I played a bit of musical desks at the beginning of the week, but now I think this is my permanent work station.
I honestly love my internship, though. They have asked me to do so many interesting things, and it has only been four days. First of all, everyone is so warm and welcoming. If ever I have a question, they are all more than willing to help. A lot of them at the office started out there as interns, so they constantly remind me that they know how I feel. I feel that this empathy helps me to find a common ground with my co-workers, and I hope this will help me to feel like less of an outsider as the days go on.
Office!
So far my responsibilities have ranged from reading manuscripts submitted by authors or agents of authors to attending launch and board meetings. Reading a manuscript entails of me reading an excerpt of a submitted work (50 pages of so) and writing an “impression” of it. The impression consists of a detailed summary, what I thought of the piece, what kind of people I think would read it, and any other works that it reminds me of. This is my favorite thing that I have been asked to do. I know it sounds silly, but it gives me a sense of importance in reading something that the rest of the world hasn’t yet. It makes me feel like my opinion, or “impression,” really matters; as if my say may go into the fate of the book. I know this may be taking it a bit far, as I am only an intern, but it still is a great to feel that I am doing something worthwhile.
I usually just sit quietly in the corner during meetings, but it’s interesting to observe how the different departments of the company interact. For example, during a cover meeting, illustration, editorial, and marketing come together to discuss how the cover of a book will affect its sale and response. The editorial will give a summary of the story and what age group is the target audience. Illustration then proposes one or two difference covers, usually varying in color and font size/style. Marketing then gives its opinion on what is more aesthetically pleasing and would generate the most notice from consumers.
I should probably mention that this UK branch of Simon and Schuster is one of three branches with the other two being located in New York City and Sydney, Australia. One thing I noticed in the various meetings that I have attended is that this branch of Simon and Schuster considers what its American branch is doing with each book. It is not necessarily that they want to follow what the US is doing, but rather I think they are just very aware of the connection between the US and UK markets. For this reason, I believe they want to make sure their decisions positively reflect and relate to what is going on at the US branch.
I am so pumped for next week and what it will bring. Sorry to run off, but I have catch a flight to Florence! I’ll make sure you post about that next week, as well!