We accept candidates who are grossly overqualified, too.
Atticus Books has announced that it will be offering a Summer Internship Program for college students aspiring to live, work, breathe and barely sustain a living as future publishing professionals.
Summer interns at Atticus Books perform – and will be allowed only to occasionally shirk – a variety of responsibilities in all areas of book publishing, including editorial, marketing, sales, production, publicity, research, and business development. The part-time positions available are ideal for individuals based in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Summer interns are not required to clean windows or mop floors. (Unless, of course, they want to volunteer such services, in which case they will be intrinsically rewarded.)
Primary responsibilities, cerebral requests and Great Expectations politely demanded of the summer intern include, but are not limited to:
- Thinking outside the book
- Assisting in all phases of editorial work
- Being grateful to be entering such an exceptional profession
- Writing, compiling, editing and proofreading copy for the Web site, including feature articles and interviews
- Perceiving each book project as a multi-armed creature of undetermined species poised to travel outside the conventional package of bound pages
- Performing administrative tasks to update and maintain the Web site
- Listening to your muse and then turning the page and finding another muse
- Screening and reading unsolicited manuscript/proposal submissions and offering feedback, along with an executive summary, for the publisher to review
- Eating a good lunch on the house (after all, you’re working for less than peanuts)
- Preparing marketing materials, drafting press releases, coordinating media mailings, and contributing, as needed, to an array of ongoing publishing projects
- Thinking viral.
To be sure you understand the dynamics of joining forces with a startup publishing house, let’s be clear about the work environment: Our second-story office is a chipped crevice of space in between four peeling walls of a charming antique village outside the nation’s capital.
Much of our work is outsourced to the publisher’s former colleagues from a previous life. But we often contract with energetic and creative individuals, and take pride in building a rapport with the community.
Our authors are our most cherished asset and our customers pay the electric bill, so we treat both with aplomb and utmost respect.
Our interns, alas, do not get paid, but they are cherished and will be credited for their work, when and wherever possible.
If we haven’t yet lost your attention and you crave a unique opportunity to learn nearly every aspect of book publishing – and you genuinely want to be a small but integral part of literary history, this internship may be for you.
Send letters of interest to the publisher: danc@atticusbooks.net
