intern in jeans, five o'clock

As I'm waiting for Doctor Who to load, figured I should update on stuff, internship in particular.

As much as I love Spiegel and Grau and as much as Random House looks like a great place to work (benefits and stuff), this internship is not for me. The weekly meetings during which speakers lecture on different aspects of publishing are boring because I already know what the person's talking about. I feel sorry for anyone who's stuck sitting next to me because I finish the presenter's sentences:
"How can I describe first serial rights?"
*under my breath* "It's an excerpt of pre-publication material."
"It's an excerpt of pre-publication material."
It's more impressive when I'm doing it because I'm usually reading a magazine or manuscript.

I also get agita when it comes to working with the other interns on this project; I'm sure they can't stand working with me either. In the back of my head, I knew this was going to happen. I'm not a people person and consider group work torture. I figured I could withstand the collaboration because my interview with HR was excellent -- that wonderful interview with Melissa probably had the most influence in my decision to spend the summer at Random House -- and because me and S&G are a perfect fit. (They published Our Inner Ape and The Frog King while at Riverhead; how can it not be a match made in heaven?)

I'm even more annoyed because I was told off about wearing jeans the first week. The reason I wore jeans? Julie (the Grau half of the imprint) interviewed me in jeans. Kirk (affectionately nicknamed Girl Kirk because she is female and people look at me weird when I say her name and then refer to her as "her") first shook my hand in jeans. Mike, an S&G editor, wears jeans every day. At Spiegel and Grau, you don't have to dress to impress; you impress with the quality of work. The reason why I haven't written here lately, or finished a book or two from my summer reading list, is because I've been reading manuscripts (MS) and writing pseudo reader's reports -- the grunt work of interns and editorial assistants, though I hardly mind doing it because you're either the first line of defense or the first one to experience the next Michael Chabon.

Getting back to my point, I've been reading these manuscripts -- few and far between are gems, let me tell you -- writing a few paragraphs of my thoughts, and e-mailing the person who gave me the MS. The Publishing Program trained me well, as my reviews are appreciated and used in rejection letters. Thus, I'm having a great time at S&G, but with the no-jeans policy, I'm too busy worrying about what the intern coordinators think of me to enjoy my temporary tenure. And since I would love to have a future at S&G and have to go through the intern program to get it, I have to play by the rules, which means I'm back in Molloy and changing on the train. Not really, of course, but kind of sort of. (Blame the vagueness on my paranoia, which is worried about possible surveillance. Intern in jeans, five o'clock!)

At least this total stranger I found when researching literary blogs for work agrees with me.

So I've complained about the internship program. What makes S&G so great, other than liking my faux reports? Frankly, it's everything Traveler was not. Sanjay was great and all, but he didn't tell me exactly what he wanted or how he wanted it until the last minute. Kirk keeps me informed. Kelsey, for whom I'm doing a marketing (publicity?) project, sends me very informed critiques. Also, Traveler was too clique-y. Even though Kirk's my supervisor, I can ask Mya or Hana for a clarification or for something stupid, like a plastic bag, which I needed last week. I never spoke with Traveler's editorial staff, and they seemed to prefer it that way.

To use a terrible cliché, you can cut S&G's camaraderie with a knife. Tomorrow is Cindy's birthday (she's the Spiegel half), and to celebrate we had ice cream in the meeting room. We had a great half-hour conversation: Cindy told us she was bringing her son to camp tomorrow, Julie casually gossiped about authors she had worked with, Gretchen shared some symptoms of pregnancy, and Lucy informed us about a New Jersey knitting shop. They're running a good group, and I really want to be a part of it.

In short: Spiegel and Grau, I love you; Random House internship program, we were not meant to be, and we have only seven more weeks through which to persevere.

PS -- Random House: Please consider providing the option of Macs to would-be workers. The Dell is seriously cramping my productivity. It took me a whole hour to set up my signature on Outlook. Traveler uses Macs with Entourage -- like Outlook, a program I've never before used -- and it took me seconds.

a bustling calm before the quiet storm

I am in the final component of the Publishing Certificate Program: the internship. Though it was explained that IMing and blogging on-site was bad, I think off-site is in a nice gray area. I'll name people I like but won't name people I dislike, especially if they hold some power. I would like a job from this internship and don't want to ruin my chances, but I also hate bullshit and inefficiency, about which I must complain.

Instead of starting with the job, I'll begin with the Book Expo America (BEA). I was an autographing intern. My sole responsibility was to collect two signed copied of books from each author in my area; the books are later auctioned for charity. There were thirty-four tables, so roughly eleven tables for the three charity collectors. I met Pete Hamill (sweetheart, with hot Michael Pietsch), Gregory Maguire (doll), Joe Hill (<3), and Alan Alda (aged!), to name a few among over six hundred authors.

I didn't achieve my goal: to steal obtain two copies of Chelsea Cain's Heartsick (St. Martin's Minotaur), which Matt Baldacci praised when he visited pub. practicum class. I'm currently reading a galley with an awesome cover, and as far as I'm concerned, Chelsea Cain's up there with Neil Gaiman. The extra copies were for Ashley and Meg.

As I kept reminding my co-collectors, I wasn't being selfish -- had so many books by the end of the day that Random House Eric, or Rheric, offered to walk my box to the bus stop, as I could barely walk the box ten feet -- but was gathering mostly for friends: Bill got fifty pounds of books (for him and family); Ashley, Meg, Rovena, and Joey got perhaps ten titles each; and a few (three to five each) went to my mom, uncle, and infamous aunt. Jessica has two coming to her, and Andrew got one. That's not to say I didn't make out like a bandit:

• Typo: The Last American Typesetter, or How I Made Lost Four Million Dollars (An Entrepreneur's Education) by David Silverman (Soft Skull)
• What the Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire (Candlewick)
• Maynard and Jennica by Rudolph Delson (Houghton Mifflin)
• Pandora's Daughter by Iris Johansen (St. Martin's)
• Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
• A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans (Shaye Areheart)
• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (Knopf)
• The Vampire Within by Drew Silver (self-published?)
• No Guns, No Knives, No Personal Checks: The Tales of a San Francisco Cab Driver by Larry Sager (Everett Madison)
• Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell (Scholastic)
• Hero by Perry Moore (Hyperion)
• Calling All Authors: How to Publish with Your Eyes Wide Open by Valerie Connelly (Nightengale [sic])
• North River by Pete Hamill (Little, Brown)
• Beowulf by Gareth Hinds (Candlewick)
• America's Best Lost Recipes (America's Test Kitchen)
• The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (Workman)

Three I got for Joey that I want to read:
• Truancy by Isamu Fukui (Tor) (No Amazon link?)
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown)
• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron (FSG)

Though I invited perhaps fifty people to volunteer to work the BEA (you get paid in books), only one from my original e-mail "blast," Laura from Darwin class, was there. She's working at Norton this summer and expressed interest in the PCP. It's an excellent program and deserves someone great like her.

My one complaint about the BEA, notwithstanding the lack of air conditioning, is that it was very hard to coordinate book collecting, line opening, and publicist reminding. Perhaps the authors could sign two copies when they arrive in the green room? Maybe not all authors "sign in," but there must be a better way than either attacking the authors before they begin signing or waiting until the line "dies down," because some lines don't.

The man behind this organized chaos, Dave Holton, was a joy to work for. He ensured that the authors were informed, he printed business cards for the volunteers to network, and he made working your butt off a pleasure. I hope he keeps me in mind for future BEAs; I'll work without hesitation.

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Blogger just ate my appraisal of the first week at Random House / Spiegel and Grau, so I owe you one.