I’m going on an adventure: Work Experience @ Penguin in Editorial!

Since The Flash wasn’t shown this week, due to Valentines day last week, I have a gap in my blog schedule today. I thought that I would use this opportunity to announce my plans for March 2017.

Those of you who saw Saturday’s blog post will know that I have been offered two weeks work experience at one of the biggest publishing companies in the world, Penguin Random House.

I will be working with the editorial department at Vintage books for two weeks from the 13th to the 24th March 2017. Vintage have reprinted and republished classics from authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, H.G Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle, and they have published some of the greatest writers from around the world, such as Haruki Murakami. More on Vintage here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/publishers/vintage/

Anyone who has read my TV recaps knows that I am mad about Sherlock Holmes, originally written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Anyone who follows my Flash recaps will know how awesome I found it that this seasons Harrison Wells is a writer called H.R Wells, a nod to H.G Wells!

I am also a writer. I love to write stories, and I have a fascination with myth and legend, as well as great literary works. I am particularly interested in how some stories stand the test of time and continue to delight readers centuries after their publication.

Vintage, with its classics, seems like the ideal branch for me.

Editorial is also the best department for my placement. (It was my top choice: the others were marketing and publicity.)

I love to read, and I am always looking for ways to improve the things that I read. If I spot a spelling mistake, I correct it in my mind. If I think that a sentence could be written better, I find that I try to rewrite it. I sometimes like to read less polished works, because it keeps my inner editor happy and engaged.

Of course, editorial is about so much more than proofreading, correcting a few spellings, and editing the work to make it flow better.

It is about receiving manuscripts, reporting on new submissions, judging characters and plot, writing book blurbs, thinking about potential readers and audiences, helping with cover design, and I imagine a lot more.

To a new writer, the world of traditional publishing may seem daunting and confusing. I barely understand the process myself, probably because I have focused my research on self publishing so far.

If anyone reading this has any questions that they want me to ask the fantastic people at Penguin, be it about publishing, editorial, the submissions process, or even about other departments, like marketing, let me know in the comments below!

I will endeavour to ask as many of your questions as possible during my experience, and I will post the responses on my blog, probably with a round up after each week. So, watch this space for interesting insights into the world of editorial 🙂