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Posts Tagged ‘summer internship’

An Irish Goodbye

Wednesday, August 16th, 2023

Once the first blissful week of sleeping in has passed, I always find college summer vacations a bit tough. 

Where are my friends? 

Why is there nothing to do after work except come home? 

And how in the world do people fill all that free time on evenings and weekends? 

After a few days of being bored out of my mind, I remember that I like reading. I rediscover old classics, pick up long-forgotten childhood favorites, and scour the shelves for unread volumes. 

Being separated from my college pals, I also make an effort to reconnect with hometown friends and meet new faces. I chat with visitors at local wineries or find connections with young adults who happen to be working in my obscure hometown over the summer. 

During summer, I always try to work some creative muscles as well that may have been weakened or lost in the heaviness of academics: sketching, designing letters, you name it. 

Today, I realized that all of these activities—these “favorite things” that tend to make my summers fun and rejuvenating—belonged to my summer internship. My “work.”

Reading submissions, writing pitches. 

Discovering random connections with my co-intern and meeting my wonderful employers.

Being allowed to spend hours on Canva designing graphics about books, playing with colors and shapes, like a 2-year-old with a box of markers. 

Thank you, Beaufort Books. What a summer. 

-BEAUtie Wooster, Summer 2023 Intern

A Virtual Farewell

Tuesday, August 10th, 2021

Summer is coming to an end, and so is my internship with Beaufort Books. Though my internship was entirely virtual and I never made it up to New York, I discovered the positive side to working from home. I was able to go to my local coffee shop when I needed a change of scenery, and traveling was basically a non-issue, as long as I had access to Wi-Fi. I even got the chance to visit some friends in Boston for a few weeks!

I also learned a great deal about the publishing world. A lot goes on behind the scenes of book-creation, and most of it has nothing to do with actually writing the book. Still, every step in the process is equally important, and if one step is ignored, that entire process will fail. I think what I found to be most surprising about publishing is how crucial editors are to the writing process—I’d always assumed that editing was one of the last steps in publishing a novel, when in reality an editor will sometimes advise the author to completely rewrite a draft long before the book’s publication.

Despite the positives of working virtually, I am sad that I never got to meet everyone in person or visit the Beaufort office in the city. I hope that one day I’ll be able to travel to New York without hearing any Covid-19 news, and that I will be able to meet the wonderful people at Beaufort without having to wear a mask or practice social distancing. Until that day comes, I will really miss chatting with my coworkers about all things book-related!  

Lamor-BEAU

Manuscripts

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016

Reading an unpublished work is kind of like going backstage after a show. Backstage lacks the polish of the finished product. You can see the mechanics of the magic, and yet somehow it doesn’t take any of the magic away. The ropes and pulleys, the props and cast-off costumes betray the hours of hard work that the show concealed so well.

Manuscripts have the same essence as what lies behind the stage door. They are not perfect, but with a little work they have the potential to be just as beautiful and heart-wrenchingly good as any Broadway production.

About a week into my internship, I was asked to read some of the manuscripts in our submissions portal. I was thrilled. This, I thought, is what publishing is all about. My excitement died down a little bit as I began sifting through the entries and didn’t immediately find the next Harry Potter. Nonetheless, I was reading unpublished material, and it fulfilled every dream I’d had of interning at a publishing company in New York City.

I’ve been honored to be able to work with a few manuscripts over the course of the summer. As an intern, I’m not making big changes or drastically shaping the future of the American novel à la Maxwell Perkins—don’t worry. Most of the time I’m just an extra pair of eyes to look over the edits and make sure they were made correctly. But even in such a small capacity, I’m still incredibly excited every time I’m asked to help with one of the books. For one thing, I love reading more than anything, so it could never be boring. For another, even though I’m providing only the smallest help I still feel important. I’m saving the world one Oxford comma at a time. Most of all, it is a privilege to see an artistic process take shape as the manuscript becomes a book. I imagine a stage manager or a producer feels the same way, watching their play go from script to stage. For publishers, it all begins with a manuscript.

–Caroline, Intern

*This is a joint post between Beaufort Books and Spencer Hill