Hello readers!
Today is my last day as a Beaufort intern. It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight weeks, but something tells me the people who give out visas don’t particularly care about how time “feels”, so back to Canada I go.
These past two months have been really amazing. New York is a fantastic place and I’m so glad I got to spend my time here working at Beaufort. I’ve learned a lot about everything from proofreading to editing to marketing and social media and even a little bit about design. Every day I spend in the office, I am consistently amazed by how many parts a book can have. The sheer number of things that have to happen before publication can happen is mind-blowing – and if even one of them is done improperly, it could compromise the future of the book.
For a reader, books seem to pop into existence fully formed with the express purpose of finding a place on your bookshelf (or in the pile of books on the floor next to your bed that you SWEAR you’ll read soon, you promise, it’s totally fine to buy three more books to add to the pile because you are just about to go on a total reading binge, you really mean it this time). Every book is personal to the reader, of course, but they’re also commodities, each volume one among a huge number. HarperCollins recently printed two million copies of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. Two million people will receive that book and have ostensibly the same experience in reading it. Being on the business side of books makes you look at them in a whole new way.
On one hand, this new understanding of how publishing works depersonalizes the reading process a bit. The book is no longer simply mine. It’s something that was or was not designed properly, was or was not edited properly, did or didn’t make money. On the other, I am now hyperaware of just how much work goes into creating that thing, that impossible, beautiful, miraculous medium beloved by so many for so long. The singular experience of reading a good book happens as a result of the work of a whole pile of people – editors, copyeditors, proofreaders, layout designers, cover designers, sales teams, marketing experts, and accountants (and maybe even an intern or two). Sure, I’ve lost some of the magic, but I make up for it in appreciation for just how much has to fall into place for each and every book at the store to exist. It’s kind of beautiful.
With that, I bid my Beaufort cohorts adieu. I will be forever grateful for my experience here!
Much love,
Violet BEAUdelaire