Three weeks at DK: week one.
I found out only around two weeks ago that I'd gotten a three week internship in the production department of DK (of Penguin Random House) and I've already had a whirlwind of a first week there.
There's so much to learn and so much that I've learnt from university to be put in context but even after just one week, everything is falling into place and making more sense.
The first day was a general introduction, as you'd expect, with a tour of the offices (which are beautiful!).
We (another girl, Imogen, from my course is on the internship with me) did get to some work straight away, though - running sheets. I'd never even heard of these before and it was interesting to see some and learn the process of scanning the colour bar for accuracy - it's now a job myself and Imogen do in little moments of spare time, although we still can't work out the difference between coated and uncoated paper!
We also had a overview of the 'life' department that day, learning about the books they produce, the general costs, the rights involved and the extensive testing that children's books need for toxins and dyes. Little titbits of information like that are interesting to know and to apply to other departments.
Library tour ahead! We'd had a brief trip to the library in the sub-basement on day one, so this tour was a bit more extensive, simply showing us where everything is (it's not as neat you'd assume!) and the type of books they now keep - generally only books published in the last year are kept due to lack of room.
(The library door is briliant, like a vault!)
Next, back upstairs, was an introduction to Biblio3 (B3) - the database where everything is logged, reported and updated. Originally made by Random House for Random House, it's now a publishing wide system that keeps track of everything. In DK, it has three levels: WORKS, EDITIONS and IMPRESSIONS. The production department focuses solely on impressions which, simply put, are all the different versions/copies/reprints/updates of the work printed. Later in the week, we got a lot more in depth with B3, but a general overview was so helpful.
Now here I get a little confused and forget what happened which day (my notebook is notoriously unorganised), but assuming I'm on track, day three started with a production meeting that went over general issues in the department, upcoming merchandising ideas and how printers are doing. Being a part of meetings like this is fascinating, to see another side of the publishing business that isn't all about the books.
The Knowledge team meeting later on in the day was equally as interesting, if not much quicker. People from all over various departments go through a report of the books in progress to check every one is on the same page and everything is on schedule. One of the biggest things I've learnt this week: schedules must be kept to!!
I found this day the most interesting, meeting with one of the pre-production teams. I had no idea what pre-production entailed and I learnt a plethora of information, from discovering they're between creative (editorial) and production, like quality control, and that they barely use B3 like most of the rest of the department.
The design elements of the job fascinated me most as I have a design background. The team must look over all InDesign templates for any issues and and run source reports that scan every page, in every nook and cranny, for incorrect elements (these can take hours and are usually left to run overnight for large books). It was particularly interesting to learn that pure white text is never used in print because it makes it impossible to create co-editions. Instead, 1% black is used, giving the appearance of white. For co-editions as well, text must never be tightly boxed in so that when a translation is made, such as in German where text can be up to 25% longer, there is enough space.
After this meeting and just some simple, overview of tasks, I was immediately enthralled and would love to take up a career in that position!
Imogen wasn't with me this last day, so there wasn't much scheduled for me. I spent a lot of the day getting to grips with B3, putting in updates for travel guides and reprints also. The practice was helpful and will no doubt be useful in the future if I ever have to work on the system again.
The main interesting meeting of this day was a quick overview of illustration costing and commissioning from someone in creative. Having just completed a university assignment on a book proposal that required a basic costing on a heavily illustrated book (my own choice of book, this wasn't a course wide thing!), it was great to know some more information about illustrators pay and whether the team has favourites they revisit often. I also found it good to know that DK is moving away from illustrators and back into photography, meaning there are an abundance of illustrators but not an abundance of work. Sounds a little like the publishing industry in general!
No matter, though, I am not put off! The week has only served to make me even more enthusiastic about a career in publishing and I can't wait to start again tomorrow!
