During Summer 2014 I completed a 10 week internship with Oxford University Press

(OUP) in New York City. This was an amazing opportunity to intern with a great publishing
company and a chance to get my foot in the door in a difficult industry. My experience in
publishing with Oxford taught me far more than I expected with a wide range of tasks from day-
to-day to give me the broadest experience possible and see how many facets of the publishing
industry work.
My job tasks and responsibilities varied greatly. Over the course of the 10 weeks I
learned how to log copyright data for books, write up New Book Announcements (NBAs) and
delegate notes, work on proofing manuscripts, and even some market research.
I worked on a lot of projects that required writing including writing cover copy, NBAs,
delegate notes, and review summaries. Cover copy, NBAs, and delegate notes are all similar
documents. For each of these I had to compose a two paragraph description of the book I was
working on. A short book description is provided by the author of the book in a questionnaire
they are required to fill out in order to provide Oxford University Press with materials to
successfully publish and then market their book. From the author questionnaires I would write
up the cover copy book description and then in addition write up a marketing copy that
included the book description along with the authors background information, highlighted
points about the book, and other competing titles. All of this information would then be logged
into a New Book Announcement form as a first introduction to a book that will be published.
The delegate notes were also very similar containing the original book description from the
cover copy along with a couple of reviews of the book that is then sent to the OUP office in the
UK to announce new books being published here in the New York office.
Review summaries also required me to do some writing. To write review summaries, I
was provided with three reviews of a book from outside sources. I would write a one paragraph
summary of each review highlighting the key points that authors should consider in editing and
proofing their books before final publication. The three reviews would then be composed into a
short letter to the author asking them to consider the reviews and make their edits before
sending the book back.
The first few weeks of my internship were mostly spent working on short projects like
those explained above. A few weeks into my internship I began to do some editing work which
was my favorite part of the internship experience. The first editing experience I had was being
taught by one of my mentors how to proof manuscripts. I would be given a PDF version of a
manuscript and would then check each chapter title, headings and running titles, and the first
preface or book introduction for any spelling errors or layout errors. Proofing a manuscript
never required me to read an entire manuscript or edit for content as OUP primarily publishes
academic material and therefore this level of editing is peer reviewed.
After learning how to proof manuscripts I then began prepping the manuscripts for
proofing, the step before what I had been previously doing. To prep a manuscript I would be
given a folder with individual files for each chapter of the book. Prepping the manuscript would
require me to go through each individual chapter, format the content correctly, remove figures
or tables and save them into individual files, log all figures and tables into an art log, and then
complete a castoff spread sheet with the page count and figure/table count for each chapter.
After chapters are prepped, they are all then combined and made into PDFs as a first draft to
be proofed and then moved on to the production process.
Another part of my day-to-day tasks included sitting in on different meetings. Every
Monday I attended a meeting where the editors from my division would propose new books to
be published and then would be approved or denied. I also sat in on monthly meetings where
my entire division (including people from editing, marketing, and other areas) to discuss their
individual accomplishments or challenges from that period and how to go forward as a team
from there. My favorite meetings to attend were the cover meetings where the editors of each
book that the division is currently working on will give multiple examples of the artwork for the
cover of each book and the team decides together which will be the most attractive and
successful cover.
The way and order in which I learned how to do all of these individual projects came
together for me by the end of my internship. I have now seen the entire process required to
publish a book from its initial approval to its final manuscript being sent off for printing. While
each project I completed was one small task, they are all part of a larger picture in the
publishing of one title.
In addition to the editing and writing work I completed, I also worked on market
research. During my first week I received three marketing projects to work on over the course
of my 10 week internship:
- The first market research project I worked on was creating an Excel spreadsheet
documenting the social media use of Oxfords front list lead authors. This required me
to research over 60 authors and their presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, news,
and blogging websites. This project was my least favorite part of the internship as it was
very tedious and time consuming. A majority of the authors had little to no presence on
social media which made the project seem pointless to me.
- I also worked on a market research project where I was given about 25 social work
journals and had to create a spreadsheet of the editorial board for each journal and log
the position, university, and email of each member of the board. After working on this
project for hours a week over about 6 weeks total I had compiled a list of 750 editors.
This was a very large project and it was a relief to accomplish it. Over the course of the
project it was tedious and boring work but it provided the medical division at Oxford
with a contact list for hundreds of editors from universities all over the world that will
be useful to them in future projects for years to come so in the end it was a worthwhile
project that I was happy to have helped with.
- My final market research project was my favorite one. During my first week at OUP I
met with one of my mentors and the head of the marketing team in my division to begin
the project. They had both just worked together to publish a new short book intended
for graduate level students in psychology programs and had the idea to send a mass
email out to program coordinators in large clinical psychology programs in the US
offering a discounted price for buying the book in bulk with the intentions to sell large
numbers and make a profit off the book right off the bat. I spent a few weeks on this
project and compiled a list of about 100 of the best and largest clinical psychology
programs in the country. This was my favorite project because it seemed to be the most
likely to provide Oxford with success in marketing books. I received a lot of praise for
completing the project in a timely manner and creating the most comprehensive list of
buyers that my division at Oxford has and that will be useful to them for many future
books as well.
Overall my internship far exceeded my expectations. I have always been interested in
publishing due to my love of books and finally had the opportunity to see what a job in
publishing would really look like. I was able to work on a wide range of projects and get a feel
for the how the publishing process works for an individual book. Working on a range of projects
taught me far more than I expected and greatly improved my computer skills as well. I found a
lot of strengths in my work editing and prepping manuscripts which was not surprising because
this was the side of publishing I was most interested in and I have always enjoyed editing far
more than writing. While I have never considered myself a bad writer, I also found a lot of
strength in the writing work that I did with OUP. I usually dont enjoy writing but the writing
assignments I was given during my internship required a lot of summarizing and editing what
the authors provided for me so I found it to be mostly enjoyable work.
As a whole this internship experience was so valuable to me. It confirmed that a career in
publishing is definitely the right path for me. I found a lot of strength in the work that I did with
Oxford University Press and I also found it to be a very pleasant work environment. This
internship also gave me the opportunity to experience living in New York City for the summer. I
knew going into this internship that New York has the largest job market for publishing and that
I would most likely need to start my career there. I was skeptical about moving so far to a big
city but I will now be very sad to be leaving New York to finish out my senior year at FSU. This
internship solidified that a career in publishing and a big move to New York will absolutely be
the right career path for me. Publishing is a difficult job market to break into but this internship
with Oxford was a big step in the right direction and I am hoping that my networking and
experience here will lead to the beginning of my career in publishing upon my graduation.