by Erica Bradley

Created on: March 10, 2009

Many students may assume that the best publishing internship is with some of the bigger publishing companies like Random House, McGraw Hill, or Thompson. While any internship is valuable experience, the best internships take place at some smaller companies.

There are numerous benefits to doing an internship at a smaller publishing house. Most programs have anywhere from one to five students participating at the same time, although it can vary with each company. Because there are not a lot of students working at the same time, there is more work do to. Smaller companies are also much more likely to give more valuable work to its interns.

At a smaller company you may be asked to research, fact check, copy edit, proofread, and attend staff meetings. Attending these meetings is one of the best things you can do, as it gives you an opportunity to see how the entire organization is run.

Internships in publishing are available in many different areas. The University of Pennsylvania Press offers internships in editing and production, acquisitions, marketing, and business. Students are able to work in two departments during the summer, and this is highly beneficial because it allows each student to gain experience in more than one area of publishing.

There are many different ways to go about finding the perfect internship. More and more, students are turning to the Internet to find their internships. Simply typing "publishing internships" into a search engine will yield results. Some of the best databases for publishing internships include: The Atlantic Online, Bookjobs.com, and the Magazine Publishers of America. Going to these sites will help you search for an internship that you are interested in.

Another way to find an internship is through networking. Your college professors, family, and friends may all have excellent suggestions about where to do an internship, and they may have contacts within the industry that would put you at a significant advantage.

Another way to find a publishing internship is the one where you pay a fee, similar to what you would pay for tuition, and you go to a city like Washington DC or San Francisco. You live on a college campus, attend classes about publishing, and you are guaranteed to get an internship while you are there. The University of Dreams is one company that offers internships like this. This is a more expensive option, but you are guaranteed to get an internship for the summer and there is a more structured, classroom like feel to it.

Finding and getting an internship in publishing is not easy. Be open minded about searching; look at small companies, big companies, and make sure to network!

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