My time here is sadly coming to an end, so with that, I leave you with my top three most valuable things I’ve learned over the course of these past few months:
- Working/Interning at a small press offers more learning opportunities: There’s a reason they are referred to as “small presses.” Key word here is “small.” There’s not a ton of staff for these indie publishers to work in an assembly line fashion, keeping to their specific task. Most likely, the workers at these companies, though they have an area of expertise, are still doing a little bit of everything–editorial, marketing, publicity, sales, etc. Therefore, when you start your position at an indie publisher, you’re going to be learning way more than you would at a Big 5 publisher, and who knows, you may even find you love a different area of publishing more than you originally thought to pursue.
- Publishing is way more than just reading books: This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my last point, but I assume this also translates well to those who work at a Big 5 in, say, editorial. It’s not all reading submissions. There’s a lot more tedious tasks that go into making everything come together. So, while you will spend a lot of time reading, prepare yourself for the administrative tasks that come with the position.
- There’s more than just the Big 5 out there: This goes for both, those trying to get published and those trying to get a job in publishing. It’s so easy to be overlooked by these major publishers because so many are flocking to them in pursuit of their dreams. However, your chances of getting your big break will greatly increase if you seek out opportunities elsewhere. Indie publishers are way more likely to pay you mind, so take a chance on them and they just may be willing to take a chance on you.
I hope these points enlighten you as they did me. I had such an amazing time at Beaufort these past few months and I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to intern here. So with that, this is me signing off.
-Beau Swan
Tags: Advice, Beaufort Books, Big 5, blog, goodbye, indie publisher, intern, publishing intern