I've been busier than usual these past few days, as I've been on work experience at a local University Press. I've done two days this week and will do another two next week. I was really, really nervous before I went in but everyone there was very friendly and welcoming. It was a bit of a shock to me working in the middle of a city and having an hour off for lunch - actually being able to leave the building and go somewhere different at lunchtime. Working in a call centre, I'm not used to that, but I did enjoy it.
The Press is in a lovely old university building and has only 16 staff altogether. My first two days this week were spent in the Editorial Department. I did a number of different things, from finding peer reviews for accepted proposals, to sending out rejection letters. I mostly enjoyed just getting a general feel for how a real publishing house works. One tip I was given was to apply for ANY assistant job going. I was told that the Press had recently had one opening for an editorial assistant and one for a production assistant. There were 250 applications for the editorial assistant job, and just 7 for the production assistant job!!!! Next week I am spending one day in production and one in marketing which should be fun.
In other news, I recently finished 'Rules of Civility'. It was a lovely book that, although written in a very light-hearted and easy-to-read style, did deal with some more serious issues. I would definitely recommend it. I am currently splitting my reading time between "Anna Karenina" and "The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest' - quite a difference there!
I'm off to finish my dissertation proposal now - it's all about literary agents!
