Day 153-- Secrets of a Publishing Intern

And so I was standing there in front of the crowd, awkward as hell along with other fresh graduates, with the parents in the seats asking us what we were going to do after college with an English degree.  I wanted to vomit with nerves and inadequacy and when it was my turn to answer the daunting question I said, "I'm moving to the beach.  I'm going to get a great tan and freelance stories and articles.  Mainly get a tan."

The truth was that I was terrified of the future, and in my flimsy cap and gown I wondered how the fuck I was going to make it into world of heels and skyscrapers of book publishing.  That was May.

Flash-forward to October and I was walking around downtown San Diego, wearing a short blue peacoat, with the the latest City Beat in one hand, a Starbucks in the other, my iPod playing some Black Keys in my ears, and I was the intern for the biggest publisher in the city, spending my time there reading manuscripts and doing social media promotion.

It's not always glamorous being an intern, but sometimes, it's the best fucking job in the world. Here are a few secrets of being an intern in the book publishing industry. 

Secret #1.) Don't Dress Better Than Your Boss

I wrote a post earlier this year about Post-College Fashion and was more than excited to wear my pencil skirts, wrap-around shirts, and black heels for my first post-college job.  Well, my boss was more of an old faded mom jeans kind of lady.  Actually, almost everyone was a jean and t-shirt person aside from D--, who used to work at a bigger publisher and wore short heels and a skirt most days.  Needless to say, no one really liked me until the seasons changed and I dropped the heels for ballet flats and  my skirts for nice jeans.  Lesson learned: don't dress better than your boss.

Secret #2.) Publishing internships are hazardous to your health

Publishing internships are not paid, which means you need to bust your ass at a second job to make up the money difference.  With the internship plus a job, I was working a 52-hour week for about a month until I dropped down to 45 hours.  I've fought off colds, bladder infections, a bad diet on the run, and a pissy mood towards people from lack of a break.  Try to take your vitamin pills the moment you're hired.

[Open] Secret #3.)  There isn't money in publishing

On my first day of my internship one of my co-workers flat out told me that there isn't money to be made in publishing.  During my tenure there, we had a pizza party when we actually made profit for the first month in a long time.  Yikes.  Furthermore, they couldn't pay their employees more than 40 hours a week, so if one of them worked a book signing for 4 hours at night, they would have to come in 4 hours later the next day.  One of my co-workers revealed that she only makes $10 an hour, which is a little more than a coffee shop job and the same amount as my front desk job at the hotel.

Secret #4.) Regional publishers have more heart

I worked at a regional press which means their books are more San Diego/Baja themed and they only produce about 6 books a year.  To make up for the lack of funds at the press, my publisher had more heart.  Authors would spend the night at my co-workers' houses to save money on hotels, the book buyers have been friends for decades, we picked up one author at the Mexican border to save him the trouble at the check-points, three of us applied stamps to 400 postcards to bookstore advertising our latest book, and each book produced has to be approved by everyone. People in the book industry truly honestly deeply care about books.  There's no other reason to be in this game 'cause it ain't for the money.

Secret #5.) You have to be an optimist to be in publishing (and have to like ebooks)

As I said, money just isn't really in publishing so you have to be a real optimist to keep going.  Our work office was sort of cubicle-designed with a door in the back that led to a huge warehouse of books.  You really had to believe that those books would sell one day, so part of my job was promoting them via social media, like having Twitter feeds and Facebooks statuses about our books (like trivia or quotes).  Most books signings only sell 2-10 books so you can't be discouraged when you set one up, and every time I walked around the building to tell people to come on in for a signed book, I couldn't be offended when people told me 'no'.  

One of the last projects I did for my internship was to create spreadsheets which included information of all of the independent booksellers in the US so we can send postcards and information to them when we get a new book with the hope they'll order some.  And while everyone in the office more or less hated ebooks because they adore the feel, smell, and sound of an actual book, we had to stay up-to-date turning our books into ebooks.  You need to survive in this industry.  And while pragmatism is absolutely key not to go bankrupt, if you don't have hope, you couldn't be in this business to begin with.

Secret #6.) You will fall deeper in love

After working in publishing, I know for sure now that it's what I want to do for a career.  There is too much of a high when a new book comes in to walk away from this.  I love seeing the design process, and reading the manuscripts before the public gets to read it, and meeting these authors who range from astute professors, to gentlemen of leisure, to nervous half-writers/half-some other job, to funny old men who have some time on their hands and become historians of the region.  Publishing is about making someone else's dream come true--and I can't think of a better job than that. :)