My Publishing Career, Part V

So I was an intern at Dorchester, an independent press that specializes in romance and horror fiction.  As someone who used to read tons of romance from the Love Spell imprint, I was very excited to work there.   The good thing about working for such a small company (about ten people on the book side, since they also owned a magazine) was that I was able to rotate through editorial, publicity, marketing, and managing editorial.  Even more exciting was how I finally got to work on front list titles, as opposed to dealing with the back end of things as I had in reprints, which was quite dull.


In the midst of that internship, I also decided to go back to school; I got into NYU's masters in publishing program, but without financial aid, the costs were prohibitive.  I withdrew immediately and took advantage of my student status to later secure internships at Simon & Schuster, Random House children's, and Writers House Literary Agency.  I was interning full-time for no pay (with the exception of Writers House, which did in fact pay a stipend), but I thankfully had my parents' financial support to back me up.


I was applying to jobs all the while and getting many interviews, but no job offers.  Some weren't the right fit, but I was often shut out by internal transfers and people who already had jobs (sadly, it's easier to get a job if you already have one).  It was aggravating.  I was on the verge of giving up when it finally happened.  


After two-and-a-half years of working for free, I received two offers.  It was a tough decision because they're both great places, but I made my decision and haven't regretted it for a minute.  I'm now working at a major children's publishing house and I absolutely love it.  I'm on the marketing side of things and enjoy peddling kids' books to the masses.  I'm not exactly where I'd like to be (I'd like to move into editorial down the line), but I can honestly say I'm happy where I am.  

I'm lucky, what can I say?

My Publishing Career, Part IV

I went on several other interviews before I started getting desperate.  I couldn't fathom why something that had a cinch before had gotten so difficult.

Six months into the job search, I decided to expand to internships.  I didn't even care that they were unpaid; I just wanted back in.  Problem was, I wasn't a student or a recent grad (within 6 months of graduation) and internships liked students.  I applied to various ones anyway, since I wanted to at least see if someone would bite.

I re-organized my résumé and made my cover letter snappy (I worked at Penguin with Charlaine Harris and Nora Roberts books!  I ruled, blah, blah, blah).

Months passed and I happened to see an internship posting for a small press that looked promising.  I got in touch with the coordinator (a girl who was my age, but I tried to overlook that fact).  She was really nice and I had a meeting with her for the summer internship.

I didn't get it.

I didn't let that stop me, though.  I emailed a nice note, thanking her for her consideration and letting her know that I was interested enough to wait around for the next internship possibility in the Fall, if she was still interested.  I didn't hear back, but no worries.  They probably got emails like that all the time and couldn't actually respond to all of them.

I waited until the coordinator was likely recruiting for the next round, so two months later, I emailed her again to re-affirm my interest, even offering to come in for another interview.  She said she remembered me and that she would definitely keep me in mind for the opening.  No additional meeting was necessary. I thanked her again.

A month later, I sent another email asking if she'd arrived at her decision yet.  About two minutes after it was sent, she responded, saying that, what a coincidence!  I had the position and she was about to email me.  Now if it was true or not (she might have just been tired of hearing from me), I didn't care.  I was over the moon!  I'd gotten my foot back in the door.

I was now a Fall intern at Dorchester Publishing.


(If you think the story is finished, well no, not quite.)

EDIT:  Unfortunately, Dorchester isn't doing so well now.  They're in a bit of a pickle.

My Publishing Career, Part III

Since I absolutely HAD to go to Harvard or Yale Law, my so-so LSAT score wasn't going to cut it.   I didn't know what I was going to do if I couldn't get into a top school.  If I had to go anywhere else, I didn't want to go at all.

After quite a bit of thinking and chocolate gorging, I realized something: I didn't want to go to law school.   I realized that if I ONLY wanted to go to those schools and nowhere else, I wasn't so much interested in law, but prestige.  I was only obsessed with prestige and money, which are terrible reasons to choose a profession.  So after having taken the LSAT, gotten my recommendations, and all but filled out the applications, I simply dropped the matter.

I decided to go back to my first passion:  Book publishing, which I wound up missing after all.  I definitely did not miss reprints, so I figured on getting into another department, though I wasn't sure which.  Publicity?  Marketing?  Editorial?

Either way, I figured it would be a piece of cake to land another publishing job, seeing as how it had been so easy the first time.  I sent out my resume and got a call back right away from HarperCollins.  I went in for a managing editorial opening and left feeling pretty good about it.

I was rejected.

I got called in for an interview at Harlequin next.  I went it and felt good about that one.

I got rejected again.

All I could think was, Are you kidding me?  That thought would resonate over the next couple of years.

My Publishing Career, Part II

Where were we?  Oh right, law school.

I left Penguin and went straight to Princeton Review's LSAT tutorial (Well, maybe not straight.  I may have spent a month planted on my parents' couch doing nothing, but that's beside the point).

The first night at Princeton Review, they gave us a sample test to gauge our abilities and split us into three classes, ranging from from the Brilliant Prospects to the You-Need-all-the-Help-You-Can-Get class.  I fell into the middle with Might-Have-Possibilities-if-You-Don't-Screw-it-Up people.  Promising.

LSAT studying was as tedious as can be expected, but I met two people in my section: A fellow Cornellian who eventually tested out of our section (hello, Yale Law) and a really cool girl named Ingrid who stayed with me as we remained average.  She sought me out that first night because she had a goldfish named after me (My full name is a more unusual Spanish one, so that was quite a coincidence, to say the least).  I had to mention Ingrid because she was the only good thing that came out of that LSAT class.  We're still friends and I like to think I paid $1400 for her.

Anyway, I took the LSAT.  Is the test insanely difficult?  Well, yes and no.  It's pretty straightforward if you can learn how to take it properly.  It's better for the mathematically-bent minds, where there's one answer per question and that's that.  For me, there were usually two answers that worked for each question.  LSAT evaluators don't hold with that sort of thinking, unfortunately.  I overanalyze things, what can I say?  I was great at Reading Comp, but sucked at Logic Games.  I don't like puzzles; my mind just doesn't work that way.

[Sample logic game]

Mary goes to the other end of the city to meet her grandmother 2-3 times a week.
On her way the following stops are made according to her mode of transport.
The buses stop at L, M, N and O, in that order.
Express trains stop at N only
Early local trains stop at P, Q, N, and R only, in that order
Late local trains stop at P, Q, and R only, in that order
On her way back to her  house the routes are reversed
The buses stop at O, N, M, and L, in that order
Express trains stop at N only
Early local trains stop at R, N, Q, and P only, in that order
Late local trains stop at R, Q, and P only, in that order
The bus station is next to the train station near her house, at N, and near her grandmother’s house


I took the test and promptly panicked, cancelling that score before I could see it.  After six months of additional 6-hour-a-day studying, I re-took the test.  I scored pretty well, but nowhere near brilliant.  And brilliant is what I needed if I wanted to get into a top law school.

Maybe it was time to re-evaluate my goals.

My Publishing Career, Part I

I was having lunch with a couple of new hires the other day and they were talking about what they'd done before they came here.  Inevitably, the question came right along back to me.

"What about you?  What did you do before?"

If only that were a question I could answer concisely!  My journey in the publishing biz has been a little backwards, if you want to know the truth.  You see, there are two kinds of people in publishing: Those who struggled to get in and those who were lucky to fall into it.  I straddle both categories.  Impossible, you say?  Allow me to explain.

I graduated from college in 2005 with no clear idea of what I wanted to do.  I'd thought about it for the longest, honest!  I'd gone through the doctor stage, the lawyer stage, the businesswoman stage, the broadcast journalist stage and, eventually, the psychologist stage before coming up with...bupkis.

Go, Big Red!

It was over lunch with an alum who'd graduated some years back that the idea of book publishing came up.  I loved to read, she said, so that might be a place to start.  My friend then connected me to a human resources person she'd met.  The HR lady got in touch with me and I submitted my resume for an editorial opening (the most sought after) which didn't pan out.  The HR lady then asked if I might be interested in a job in reprints, and though I had no idea what that was, I said I was.  I went in for an interview and was thrilled to get the offer as soon as I reached my doorstep.

Yay, me!  I'd landed my first job.  I was on my way.

I hated my job.

I loved Penguin, don't get me wrong.  My boss was great, the company was great.  But we were understaffed in my department and due to an insane amount of work, were barely making sensitive deadlines on even twelve hour days.  If it weren't for the insane pace, I'd have stuck around.  Between that and the fact that it was my first job had me wondering if maybe I was supposed to be doing something else with my life.

My supervisor, who'd been there since she'd graduated from college, mused aloud every now and again how she'd always been interested in law school herself.  If she didn't have a family, she'd say, she'd have gone to law school or travelled.  Done something else entirely.

I was shelving books one day when Susan Estrich's How to Get into Law School fell on my head.  A sign, I thought.  I read the book from cover to cover and nine months into my first job, handed in my resignation.


I hadn't applied or anything, but those were minor details.  I was going to law school!


That's when things began to get complicated.