Notes on an Internship: Eve
We’ve had the pleasure of welcoming Eve to the Mushens Entertainment office for a 2-week long internship. Read all about her experience working in our team below!
Hi, I’m Eve and for the past two weeks I’ve been here at Mushens Entertainment as an intern. As an A-level student who had very little idea of what I wanted to do in the future, this internship has inspired me and given me an overview of all aspects of how publishing works, I feel very fortunate to have been given inside knowledge and understanding every day that I’ve been here, and I feel very equipped to explore the world of publishing! The office at ME was so warm and welcoming, and everyone was very friendly; it was a great environment to work in.
Every day of this internship was different; however, I did a lot of reading throughout. I read client manuscripts and made notes on my thoughts, which really helped me to develop the skill of reading and analysing critically, and I became pretty good at reading quickly whilst still retaining information I read and coming back to it later. Kiya and Rachel helped me learn how to structure my notes and gave me useful feedback; I felt like my opinions really mattered. I absolutely loved reading and giving my opinion, and I learned to trust my own thoughts and views on books and what their strengths and weaknesses were. In addition to lots of reading, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by experts who were more than happy to explain to me how the industry works, Liza, Alba and Catriona went through a foreign rights seminar with me, which was really interesting and was a topic I never thought I would enjoy learning about so much. One of my favourite things to learn about was translations of books to be sold in other countries, a process which was totally unknown to me before, learning about what works in other countries and whether specific territories have specific tastes was fascinating.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the submissions meeting, where I got to see first hand what agencies look for in books, and how individual tastes play into this. The whole process has given me a clear insight into how much time and effort goes into publishing a book. The next time I’m in a bookshop I guarantee this is all I will be able to think about!
Finally, interning at Mushens Entertainment has showed me the importance of personal relationships in the publishing world; and it was clear to see that the friendly atmosphere of the office continued into their work with clients and beyond. It was really nice to see how much each book was cared about and the detail that goes into the work done here, it was a perfectionist’s (me) dream! My time here has showed me that publishing and working with books is a very rewarding and interesting career, and I’m excited to pursue it further in the future! I’m very grateful for the opportunity I had here at Mushens Entertainment and I’m so thankful for how welcoming everyone was, it was a great experience, and I learned a lot.