Internship Program 2008

Description

The Internship Program at Penn Press is directed toward undergraduate students and others seeking to explore the field of academic publishing. Running this year from June 16 to August 8, our summer program is an eight-week course covering the publishing process from manuscript proposal to bound book. Interns typically work 8-10 hours a week at the Press. The internship is unpaid.

The internship is structured but not inflexible. All Press departments are represented in the program: Acquisitions, Editing & Production (which includes design), Marketing, and Business & Administration. Interns are assigned to two departments and will spend four weeks in each engaged in in-depth projects representative of work typically encountered by staff members. To supplement their work, interns participate in six publishing seminars, covering various aspects of publishing and culminating in a session that addresses ways to attain an entry-level position in academic or trade publishing.

Over the course of the internship, work experience will range from reading manuscripts to researching the prospective market for a book. Interns are invited to join staff meetings, Editorial Review Committee and Faculty Editorial Board meetings, transmittals of book manuscripts from Acquisitions to Editing & Production, and possibly local exhibits or conferences. The schedule of these events will be made available to the intern upon acceptance to the program.

Selection Process and Schedule

Students of all academic majors are invited to apply. Applicants should mail a resume and cover letter to the following address:

Internship Coordinator
University of Pennsylvania Press
3905 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
215.898.0404 (fax)

The deadline for applications to the summer 2008 program is March 14th.

Cover letters should indicate why you want an academic publishing internship and what you expect to gain from our program. The cover letter will give us a sense of who our applicants are and how well they write, and are particularly important for those who have no prior publishing experience. While we don't expect prior experience, computer knowledge is a must, and we are keenly interested in those who have specialized computer expertise (i.e., an intern in marketing or design and production greatly benefits from experience using Photoshop or Quark, while an acquisitions intern may need to know only Word and Excel).