Sunday Summary: My Internship week one

As many of you know (I hope so anyway, I've gone on about it enough!) I started my publishing internship this week. The move down to London has been really exciting, the only downside I've found so far is that the guy in the room next to mine has an alarm that goes off at exactly 6:32am EVERY morning and wakes me up EVERY morning. But fortunately we moved on Saturday, so I will no longer have to put up with that.

So Monday morning I was anxiously waiting in the reception of Random House as Kay, the editor who organised this, was coming down to meet me. She's a lovely person and has been very, very welcoming (I'm going to her house for dinner next week!) I got to meet loads of the people who work here which was really nice as they were all really excited to meet me (and a bit daunting too, actually). Everyone has been really supportive and happy to answer my questions for me, usually over lunch which means they don't get to eat much....the office itself is really friendly and has a quite relaxed feel and there's books EVERYWHERE!

So far this week I've done proofreading, written a book blurb, picture research, read unsolicited manuscripts and sent out rejection letters, attended allllll kinds of meetings (editiorial, publicity, jacket meetings, production meetings) all of which have furthered my understanding and knowledge of publishing. Everything I've done has been exciting and new and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. I even got to go to the pre-publication meeting for The Night Circus (see my review here) which was ridiculously cool and so, so illuminating to hear them talk of sales, and how many orders has been placed and options for the second run etc.

But by far the most exciting thing I've done this week is attend a launch party for Misha Glenny who wrote a really cool book on cybercrime. Misha knew exactly who I was when I walked through the door which was amazing and I got to talk to loads of people I'd met briefly but not really spoken to much. I also had a cool talk with an agent which was great as I've been offered a second internship at a big literary agency if I want it. There was lots of wine and really awesome canapes (I adored the canapes!) and I generally had a really great time.

Oh, I lie, there was another totally exciting thing that happened. Just before we went to the launch party we were having a few drinks for one of the guys who's leaving for another job and Kay introduced me to someone who she told me was a YA author. I said that was really cool, and asked what she'd written and she very casually said she was the author of A Witch in Winter.

That's right, THIS A Witch in Winter:

How exciting right? So I had a bit of a fangirl moment because OMG! This book has been on my wishlist since I first heard about it! I'm going to try and convince Ruth that she really wants to let me read it...hahah.

So that's all from me for this week. but I'm having a great time (I even love the tube, though I doubt that will last) and I can't wait to see what other cool things I'll be able to do in the weeks to come!

Be sure to enter my current giveaway here!