Internships
Summer 2013 Internship Positions Available
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Description:
The MIT Press seeks enthusiastic spring interns in various departments. These unpaid internships are a chance for people who love books and journals to learn about publishing and see how a busy university press functions. Successful interns will make valuable contacts and gain experience at one of the nation's largest university presses.
Internships are available in Books Acquisitions, Books Editorial, Books Marketing, Books Production, Books Sales, Journals Marketing, Journals Production, and Digital Initiatives. These are unpaid, part-time internships from May through August. Hours will be negotiated, but candidates should be able to commit at least 10 hours per week.
Requirements:
The ideal intern candidates will have: a strong desire to learn about publishing, basic computer skills, excellent communication and organizational skills, the ability to work well individually and as a member of a group, an eye for detail, good judgment, a positive attitude, and a willingness to take initiative.
Books Acquisitions: The Books Acquisitions intern will work in the department responsible for contracting, receiving, and assessing both book proposals and manuscripts for potential publication. This intern will be responsible for tasks such as general manuscript preparation, placing orders with our warehouse, mailing catalogs and other materials, general data entry into our database, possible long term research projects, and a variety of other tasks. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about scholarly publishing in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
Books Editorial: The Books Editorial internship will provide experience with a variety of editorial tasks, such as checking through revised page proofs and prepress proofs, proofreading jacket copy and cover proofs, editing indexes, and handling corrections for reprints. The intern will be familiar with a full range of stages in the editorial process by the end of the internship. College graduates and graduate students with editorial experience and familiarity with Chicago style are strongly preferred.
Books Marketing: The Books Marketing Intern will have the opportunity to be involved in many areas book promotions. Interns will primarily be involved in: helping manage the website and email campaigns, gathering mailing lists, data entry, building mailing lists for text promotions, and assisting the marketing staff on a variety of other projects. Candidates should be computer literate, have strong internet research skills, and good communication skills. Familiarity with internet protocols, html, FTP clients, and Photoshop is desirable, but not required.
Books Production (General): A Book Production intern will be involved in learning the entire process of production and manufacturing by helping with daily Production tasks, such as opening, distributing, and packaging up daily mail, helping with reprints (organization, estimates, budgets, proofs) and new titles (sending materials to typesetters and preparing paginations), and various copying and filing. In order to give a rounded knowledge of the department, interns will shadow members of the department and, if timing allows, attend a printing and manufacturing plant tour or Book Builders of Boston event(s).
Books Production (Print on Demand): Print on Demand is a term used for titles that are printed digitally, can be ordered one at a time, and are sent directly from the printer to the end customer.
The Book Production POD Intern will focus on preparing select backlist titles for entry into the MIT Press POD program. This will include helping the Production Coordinator track multiple batches of books that are being entered into different programs, marking text and cover corrections, arranging text and cover scanning, checking proofs, calculating costs, and working with multiple vendors. The intern will gain a sense of the overall book production and manufacturing process and an expertise in POD programs.
The successful candidate should be interested in learning about book production and manufacturing and have careful attention to detail. There will be a lot of organization using excel spreadsheets in addition to using Adobe Acrobat, Filemaker Pro, and FTP software.
Books Sales: The Books Sales intern will primarily support the in-house sales department with sales conference preparations and special sales research. Daily tasks vary, but may include: researching market channels for lead titles; creating mailing databases for special sales outreach; tracking title availability on Amazon and other major accounts; preparing international promotional materials; helping with our seasonal sales conference, which will include compiling sales information for sales representatives and editing sales sheets. The Books Sales Intern will also be given the opportunity to attend department meetings, launch meetings, and sales conference.
Journals Marketing: The intern will perform market research, craft releases for podcasts and news items, manage routine updates to our website, prepare promotional materials for conferences and events, and support the staff on various projects as needed. Additionally, there are two projects of special importance to complete: an online collection of important articles to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the journal Design Issues; and heavy assistance with the creation of the annual marketing summaries, which will include extracting and compiling data across a wide variety of platforms. The intern may also be assigned special research projects under the supervision of the Journals Director. The intern should be well-versed in the Microsoft Office suite (particularly Excel), have strong internet research skills, a strong analytical approach, and the ability to communicate professionally via e-mail and in-person.
Journals Production: The Journals Production intern will learn the ropes of journals production by working with production staff on a back content conversion project, shadowing production coordinators, and attending production team meetings. The back content conversion is a large project, and while it’s active will be the focus of the intern’s attention. Familiarity with Word and Excel, attention to detail, and consistency in following procedure are required.
Digital Initiatives: The intern will work with the group responsible for overseeing the production and distribution of files and metadata for ebook programs, maintaining the digital archive, and shaping the Press’s XML workflow infrastructure. Daily tasks include bookmarking PDFs, creating ePub files, and preparing metadata. Candidates should be computer literate with strong communication skills. Familiarity with HTML and Adobe Acrobat is strongly preferred.
For more information on other internships and current job openings, please see our careers website at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/mitpress/jobs/internships/
How To Apply For This Internship:
Please send us your resume and cover letter indicating the department(s) you are interested in applying to. E-mail application to: Internship Coordinator, mitp-interns@mit.edu, by April 26, 2013. For more information about the MIT Press, visit our website at: http://mitpress.mit.edu.