Dylan Fritz ('25), an English and Urban Studies double major, caught a glimpse of what a career in publishing could look like as an intern at Penn Press through the Summer Humanities Internship Program (SHIP).
Since before even applying to Penn, and influenced by my love for reading and writing, I have been interested in a career in publishing. Before my experience at Penn Press, however, I had a more narrow understanding of what it meant to pursue a job at a publishing company. This past summer has expanded my horizons in terms of what type of career I want to pursue and what I’m looking for in a position like the one I held at Penn Press. Beyond learning hard skills, like how to use the Press’s title management system Biblio, properly classify books, or how to pay peer readers for their contributions through iPage or Penn Marketplace, I also learned how essential the Press is to the larger academic community. I had never before realized just how relevant this Penn Press was to my life as a Penn student. For many of my classes, I frequently read academic monographs or journal articles, but rarely do I consider the role of the publisher and the thousands of small decisions that go into creating the book I hold in my hands. This summer, I was so grateful to be one of the people making those decisions. It is an experience that will change how I look at each monograph that crosses my hands in future courses and study.
One of the aspects of the Press that stuck out most to me was how positive and inviting the community was. Despite the majority of meetings taking place over Microsoft Teams, and only a handful of employees coming into the office each day, I felt very welcomed and there was no shortage of friendly faces. I was normally supervised by the Press’ two editorial assistants, who took the time to teach me how to do nearly everything they do on a day-to-day basis. I was also welcomed into the marketing department, where each member gave me a different task to work on long-term. This ranged from assigning subject codes to titles in our backlist to emailing authors various reviews their books had received. At the end of the internship, many of my coworkers sat down to give me helpful career advice and offer their support as I prepare to enter life after Penn.
Before this internship, I had a very general idea of what type of publishing I wanted to go into. I wanted to be able to read manuscripts, voice my opinions on them, help with the editing process, and choose to publish works that people would want to read. This internship has helped introduce me to the minutiae of those processes and has given me the skills I need to be a better candidate for future positions. Additionally, nearing the end of my internship I had a conversation with the Press’ director, Mary Frances, about potential types of publishing I could pursue. Since then, I’ve been thinking more about children's publishing, which I hadn’t considered as much before, but aligns well with other experiences I’ve had (like working in children’s creative writing education in the past). This internship helped me contextualize and visualize more clearly what I want to do with my future.
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