Written by UNG Press Intern, Asa Conroy
I first learned about the internship at UNG Press while discussing career plans with Dr. Tanya Bennett when I took the Aging and Death in Literature course last fall. Honestly, I had only thought of publishing as a possibility, but I was not sure about it. After I told Dr. Bennett that, she suggested I take Intro to Publishing the following spring semester. So, I did, and I enjoyed it more than I thought. Some of my favorite assignments included editing, more specifically, line editing and creating style sheets. Admittedly, at first, I did not think that combing through something sentence by sentence would be enjoyable, but I was wrong. Although, I think that plucking out important words for the style sheet helped make it more entertaining. I ended up sending in my application for the Press internship right after submitting my final essay.
I know this was the right choice after working as an intern for the past couple of months. I have loved all the different assignments I get to complete every week, and not just the social media lifestyle posts where I talk about books I am reading, murder mystery games I play, or an excuse to use a Batman quote in a professional situation. I also love learning more about various parts of the publishing industry, such as learning about distinct types of editing or how book bans affect publishers. Making those posts was fun and among my favorites, but the best part was sharing what I learned with others. Whenever I open Instagram and see posts I made, I hope everyone who sees them enjoys them as much as I do.
Sometimes it can be a little intimidating because I do not want to mess up or get anything wrong, but that is always a part of the learning process and is the only way to move forward. However, as intimidating as that could be, nothing compares to suddenly realizing your opinion matters when it comes to submissions from authors or manuscripts that need proofreading. It is all a necessary part of the process, but part of me thought that it was too important of a job for an intern to work on. Fortunately, it was not, and as intimidating as it was, I was able to do my best and get it done.
So far, this has been a memorable experience, and I will be sad when it ends in a couple of weeks. I will forever be grateful for the time I spent here.
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