From September 2021-April 2022 I participated in the Editing and Publishing Practicums at the University of Windsor. You may be asking, “What is that?” This course is an experiential learning class offered by the English department in which students get to work for Black Moss Press, a local publisher, as well as work with an interning team to edit, market, design, and publish a book written by a Canadian author. During my experience, I had the opportunity to manage marketing and social media for First I Fold the Mountain by Terry Ann Carter and it was a surreal experience. Not only did I learn what the publishing industry was like (as a CMF major, that’s something I don’t get to learn), but I also learned a lot about myself. So here is my reflection on what I’ve learned in the past 8 months.
- So Much Marketing is Involved in Publishing a Book
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This is a bit of an obvious point but since I was out of my element I didn’t really think about it. When I think of the creation of a book, the main steps that come to mind are copyediting, cover design, and a book launch. But there are so many other factors I didn’t think about! Even aspects such as press kits, teaching kits, and the interior of a book were all important factors towards a book’s success. For example, in terms of my role, I never really thought about how important the marketing was for a book. For some reason, in terms of book marketing, I thought the publisher and authors promoted it but I never really thought about books needing social media campaigns or video promotions, which were things I got to work on over the course of my internship. Going into the class I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of my role, but the tasks that I performed were super fun and exciting.They were also things I could add to my portfolio for future endeavours. Marketing was also involved in all categories of the book publishing process, so I was very immersed in the entire thing and got to work on a lot of different jobs outside of my marketing area which was really fun.
- The Importance of Expecting the Unexpected
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Going into a marketing role, I felt relatively confident. I have a significant amount of social media marketing experience and was really passionate about the manuscript, but there were so many things that occurred that I didn’t expect. There were four main things that occurred that I wasn’t ready for. The first two which were more intern oriented included a deactivation of our social media pages two times, and the second was a change in marketing intern partners that occurred at the end of the first semester. The other two were more author focused because there was a lack of social media presence from our author (which caused less traction on our social media pages as we had to use more press to reach her audience). As well, both authors were unable to attend the in-person book launch due to the pandemic. None of these moments really crossed my mind going into it and they really stressed me out when they occurred. However, after wrapping my head around everything I was able to calm down and come up with practical solutions to solve these issues, ultimately helping our social media pages in the process. From this, I learned that while I may think I know every possible scenario, things are going to come up that I won’t expect so I need to remain calm and think carefully to figure out the best situation.
- I Need to Be More Confident in Myself
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When it comes to my career, I find that I sell myself short sometimes. Being in a competitive field, I always feel like I constantly need to do better and sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough, or the people I’m working with were always doing better than me (in the case of the practicum we published 2 books, meaning so the marketing was a little competitive). When the semester began, I felt out of my comfort zone as I didn’t have much experience with books, but as I went along, my team, the GAs, and Professor (Marty Gervais) made me realize that I’m actually good at what I do and I need to embrace it. I found once I reached the end of the semester my confidence really improved leading up to the launch, and now I look back at my work and I think “Yeah, I did that. Go me!” I need to learn to keep that mentality in everything I do, since if I am confident in my abilities, my work will show that.
- I Need to Take More Breaks
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UWindsor’s Editing and Publishing Practicums are less like a class and more like a job. I knew that going in, but I didn’t realize how much time it was going to take from my schedule. While I was super passionate about the subject matter, I found midway through the second semester that I was getting into a bit of a slump when it came to my productivity. The practicum along with school, extracurriculars, and work made me realize I wasn’t taking time for myself, which caused me to get burned out. The ways I combatted this included taking the tasks I had to do and transitioning them into what I was passionate about; I love content creation and graphic design, so I pivoted to those aspects of my life when I needed a breather but still wanted to be productive. I would also chat with the other students in the class because they were all going through similar things, so they were great to go to if I needed help. Finally, I made time to step away from my computer and do self-care, read, or watch TV. Doing these things helped me to remain calm and readjust my focus to keep pushing successful content out with the practicum.
- Prioritize the Relationships You Make
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Little did I know that I would make genuine friends at a Black Moss Press internship. Amidst everything going on and the stress that was brought on from the experience, I soon realized that there were many other students who were going through the same thing along with me or had gone through the practicum previously that I could go to for advice. Getting to know people in the class made the entire experience so much more fun since I had a group of people that I could not only work with but lean on when Ireally needed them. I made a few lifelong friends from this experience who I didn’t realize I would have things in common with outside of the class. Not only did I make friends but I found more opportunities for networking. I found a volunteer marketing opportunity to further expand my marketing skills in the literary arts community and build skills in other aspects of practicum that I didn’t get to learn, such as Press Kit and Event Planning.
After a long 8 months, the experience I had with the University of Windsor’s Publishing Practicum is something that I wouldn’t take away for the world! I learned so much about books, my career, my lifestyle, and my future all from one experience, and I don’t regret a second of it. It’s also crazy to say that I have a publishing credit at the age of 20. To conclude, if you’re in the English program (or like me and just enjoy books and marketing), DEFINITELY take part in this practicum experience!