Posts tagged publishing

HarperCollins Speakers at Digital Book World 2013:

Michael McGinnis, Senior Vice President of Digital Technology Services

The New Publishing IT Department: Changing Roles and Responsibilities in the Big Houses (Wednesday, January 16, 2013 from 2:30pm - 3:20pm)

Carolyn Pittis, SVP, Publishing Transformation

The Evolving Author-Publisher Relationship: How Publishers are Powering—and Empowering—Authors Today (Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 1:30pm - 2:20pm)

Chantal Restivo-Alessi, Chief Digital Officer

Looking Back/Looking Forward (Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 11:25am - 12:00pm)

Pamela Spengler-Jaffee, Senior Director of Publicity, Avon Books & Harper Voyager

Going Direct: Best Practices for Direct-to-Consumer Sales and Marketing (Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 2:30pm - 3:20pm)

Angela Tribelli, Chief Marketing Officer

Closing the New Book Discovery Gap (Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 1:30pm - 2:20pm)

Go to Digital Book World’s website for more info, and use #DBW13 to follow from wherever you are!

I wasn’t planning on being an intern… It was the beginning of the second semester of my junior year, and I was already drowning in schoolwork. As an English major, I was reading a book and a half per week. I told myself I didn’t need an internship because I was already learning all about the publishing industry inside the classroom (at least that was what I was telling myself at the time).

Last year, I enrolled in a course called Genre Fiction. In this class, we studied how genre fiction functioned in the publishing industry today and throughout history. Eloisa James, a HarperCollins / Avon Books author who recently wrote The Ugly Duchess, taught this course.

Early in the semester, she posted a list of available book jobs and internship opportunities. A HarperCollins publicity internship jumped out at me, and I applied online that night. Basically, what it came down to is this: I couldn’t stay away from the publishing world. I already knew that book publicity was what I wanted to do. In order to eventually get a job at a competitive publishing house, I knew the more internships I had, the better.

During my time at HarperCollins, I worked in the publicity departments for the Harper, Harper Perennial, and Ecco imprints. I learned how to write press releases, pitch letters, and galley letters (a lot of what a book publicist does). I was even able to sit in on book launch meetings, where the next season of releases are planned.

After interning at three different publishing houses, I can say that HarperCollins is a terrific place to work. I was exposed to different book genres and I interacted with a group of people who were equally enthusiastic about the publishing world.

My internship was a lot of fun and it will surely help me land an ideal job in this dynamic field. I would encourage anyone who aspires to work in publishing to consider applying for an internship.

Alexandra Coumbis is currently a senior at Fordham University studying English and Communications. After college, she plans to go into book publicity.

1. Summer hours

I’m going to miss those relaxed Friday afternoons now that Labor Day has passed: the leisurely lunches, the movie matinees, the early start to the weekend. On the other hand, problems have a way of surfacing on a Friday in the summer—enormous changes at the last minute from an author, or the printer has a question that only the designer (who’s on vacation or just left for the day) can answer. Will the book still make its release date? Stay tuned…

2. Reading on the job

When I first get a manuscript, I need to prepare it for the copyeditor. So I have to read through it. Then I read through it again before sending it back to the editor. Then I check it before it goes to production, and again when it’s in first, second, and third pass. Finally I read it one more time when I review the epub. Good thing I love to read. The book could be something hot and outrageous, like The Average American Marriage by Chad Kultgen; or something timely and urgent, like Ralph Nader’s The Seventeen Solutions; or something deeply thought-provoking, like Coming of Age on Zoloft by Katherine Sharpe. It’s never boring.

3. Other people in book publishing

Everyone says the people who work on books are terrific: editors, publishers, designers, production managers, publicists—they’re smart, interesting, tuned in, witty, maybe a little obsessive, and odd at times, but always fun to be around—even when the pressure is on. (Just don’t kill me if I missed that typo; remember, no one’s perfect, and we’re all in this together!)

4. The information

If I didn’t work here, I’d know nothing about the upcoming film Life of Pi. But because I was the production editor on The Making of Life of Pi: A Film, a Journey by Jean-Christophe Castelli, I know that Suraj Sharma, the actor who plays Pi in the film, had never acted before and didn’t even know how to swim. I get to find out what it’s like to be an actress on a soap opera—for a period spanning three decades (Not Young, Still Restless, by Jeanne Cooper)! I get a backstage look at life on the road with Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart (Kicking and Dreaming). Once, the drummer from another band that was touring with Heart actually thought he could ask the Wilson sisters to babysit his child while he went off for the rest of the night to “see this guy about something.” Okay, I’ll be honest—the books I read on my own time aren’t always in this same category, but I’m glad to know what I know, thanks to working here.

5. The journey of the written word

It starts in a private place, as an idea, a proposal, a concept. Then it appears in a manuscript or Word file, where it works to tell a story, describe a time in history, argue a political point, expose a crime, bring about total destruction…from there, it gets line-edited and copyedited so it can do an even better job. After that, it is designed and typeset so that it’s pleasing to read on the page. It gets proofread so it won’t embarrass the author or editor, and then it’s published. Hardcover, paperback, epub, enhanced epub: finally, it’s ready for the world. I see titles I’ve worked on for sale at Barnes & Noble, on the Amazon home page, advertised in the New York Times, and I’m so proud of them. They made it! And the journey ends, as it began, in a private place—in the mind and heart of the reader. What a long, strange trip—and I was there to see it happen.

by Lelia Mander, Senior Production Editor, It Books, Harper Design, and Harper Perennial