Several months ago I was lucky enough to secure a paid summer internship at a publisher.
10 weeks ago I was an excited new addition to the Swales & Willis editorial team, walking into the office for the first time with another intern and being shown to my desk for the next two months:
Swales & Willis is an Academic publisher in Exeter who project manages titles for other publishing companies such as Taylor and Francis. In my time here, I have edited indexes, proofread maths books, compared the first typeset proofs to the second, ensuring all author queries have been answered and added, checked the copy-edits, and completed a page scan on a Greek republished book. It's gone very fast and I've learnt so much.
Today is the last day of this publishing Internship so I thought I'd write a summary blog post about what I've learnt throughout my time here.
So, on to what I've learnt:
1. A notebook is 100% a necessity
Luckily, I was provided with one - but it definitely came in handy! What started out as neat spreads during the first week, when I had meetings with several members of staff about their role in the company, turned into rushed notes about the title and description of the next job, from a proof I had to check to an index that had been incorrectly done by an author.
2. You should never be afraid to ask questions
At S&W, they have their own little chat system, kinda like WhatsApp. It meant that if I was confused on a certain project or just wanted to double check before making a specific change to a proof, I could direct message the project leader and ask. Then, when they weren't busy, they could reply. This made it really easy to ask questions, because I wasn't having to interrupt anyone's work; they could respond when they were next free. That didn't stop me being nervous to keep bothering people in my first week. At my two-week catch-up they actually commented they were surprised I wasn't asking more questions. Now, I'm definitely willing to pop someone a quick message to ask a question.
3. You'll never fully know when and when not to use a serial comma.
Seriously, never. I'll stare at one comma for 15 minutes and still be unsure. That's where a quick message to ask someone comes in handy. Then there's the rules for when they use them: always follow author's style but if it's more than two authors contributing, the chapters only have to be consistent within themselves, not across the whole book.
4. Typesetters aren't always English... and make the funniest mistakes.
My favourite example is a colleague wrote an instruction to them (such as put this in bold) but forgot to use the <> marks to indicate it was an instruction instead of a text addition. So on the second proofs "put this in bold" was inserted into the middle of a sentence about physics.
5. Make sure to get full instructions before someone goes on holiday.
I worked during July and August, when everyone was rotating holidays and covering for each other. It takes a lot more time if you don't have a catch-up before they leave to confirm all the project details. I had one title with 6 different level of headings, but we didn't know how each one was meant to look. Very hard to check they are all the correct level when you don't know the specifications of each level.
6. Bring snacks.
Seriously, it's a great conversation starter. Everyone gets hungry around the same time in the morning and stops for a tea break and a biscuit/homemade goodness. We even had a bring a picnic lunch a few times, where everyone contributed.
7. The simplest tasks are sometimes the nicest.
I went in most excited about the copy-editing and the hard editorial tasks. But I actually enjoyed checking the indexes and marking up author corrections on the proofs, purely because there was a set list of checks; it was more methodical and I didn't have to constantly ask questions.
8. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
I was one of two interns and at the start I was very wary of splitting the tasks in half so we both had an equal chance. If I was about to finish up a big project,. I'd be very self-conscious of letting the other intern get the next big project on our board of tasks. As the weeks progressed, I found that the board of tasks was always emptier when I came to it and the other intern clearly didn't have the same mindset. That's not to say I turned nasty and took all the projects but I definitely was more mindful of 'they might offer me a job next year' and took the projects I knew I could shine on for myself when I could.
9. Make full use of the resources available. One of the project managers had created an Interns folder with useful documents, such as a list of jargon we may not have knew and guidelines for how to copy-edit that they send out to authors and new copy-editors. When you aren't deeply involved in loads of tasks and have a free moment or two, which did happen a bit each week, it was great to go through these and take notes. Once I'd done this, I looked through the style guides in their bookshelves, things I'd usually have to pay for.
They were also doing a prize (winner gets their entry published) and after volunteering, I spent my free time reading a few of the entries as well.
This is my second publishing internship but only my first related blog post. Let me know if you want me to write more on this topic, such as how I secured the internship, or ask a question in the comments or on Twitter.