A Fond Farewell by Rachael Stein (The Last of the Intern Chronicles)

By the time you read this, I may no longer be here¹.

Okay, let’s cut the dramatics. But it’s true. Even as I write this blog post, the end of my internship looms ever closer. This will be the last time I ever write The Intern Chronicles. Soon, I will no longer be doing mailings on a daily basis, stealing borrowing ARCs from shelves, or squinting at the bright computer screen as I copy and paste and repeat.

But I don’t want to leave!

I think we all know from my penultimate Intern Chronicles post, which was a progress report or rather love letter to MacKids, how much I’ve enjoyed this internship. It’s been phenomenal and much more than I ever hoped for when I started. This experience makes me impatient for the day I graduate college and get a real job in children’s publishing—who wants to go to class when you can work with children’s books all day?!

DON’T MAKE ME LEAVE!

Someone may have to drag me away from my desk on my last day, because I seriously do not want to go. I wish I could stay, but I’ve got classes to attend, people to meet, publishing houses to infiltrate… I’m going to have to work very hard if I’m going to take over the world of children’s publishing one day²!

But the time has come…

The time has come to say my goodbyes and bid farewell. Goodbye MacKids marketing department. Goodbye beautiful view from the 10^th floor conference room. Goodbye to the architectural wonder of the Flatiron Building.

Farewell to my first internship in a major publishing house³.

Though I will be moving on to intern elsewhere, Macmillan will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve got to say, thank goodness I go to school in NYC! At least I know I’ll probably run into the fabulous people I’ve gotten to work with again.

Footnotes

¹no, not as in permanently not here!

²look out! no seriously!

³cue the weeping and tears

A Progress Report by Rachael Stein (The Intern Chronicles, Part VII)

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I get asked one question a lot when the topic of my seasonal employment at Macmillan comes up: How is your internship going so far? Whenever I’m asked that, I’m a little stumped at how to answer. I mean, for the most part, it’s been really fantastic. But it gets a little more difficult when I’m asked to elaborate, because my lingering awe of MacKids seriously impedes my ability to articulate how exactly my internship is so fantastic.

But now, the halfway mark in the duration of my internship at Macmillan has come and passed, and I thought it’d be an appropriate time to pause, take a good look at what’s happened thus far, and really try to answer that question everyone wants answered.

How is my internship fantastic? Let me count the ways…

1. The books – A+

Okay, so this seems kind of obvious. MacKids produces a decent quantity¹ of great children’s books every year. Like the next person, I enjoy a fun picture book to read and smile over, especially if it has pictures of cute animals, but my favorite type of book to read is YA, or young adult.

As a privileged intern of MacKids Marketing, once in a while, I get some pretty exciting things.

 

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A Statistical Analysis by Rachael Stein (The Intern Chronicles, Part VI)

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When I think of publishing, I think about books and words. After all, this industry is fueled by the publication of books, which are filled with words¹.

We already know how important words are, so let’s talk numbers for a change!

Numbers are just as important in the publishing industry as words. Numbers tell us many things such as the list price of a book, its announced first print run, and its marketing budget. Numbers can also be used to describe the hours that each Macmillan employee works a day, the quantity of advance copies of books allocated to each department, and how many books The Intern mails out each day².

I was personally a little curious about the numerical particulars of my mailings, so I started keeping track a couple of weeks ago. Here are some statistics:

• Total number of work days: 10
• Total number of books mailed: 428
• Total number of packages³ mailed: 276
• Mean⁴ number of books mailed per day: 42.8
• Mean number of packages mailed per day: 27.6

Now, what do these numbers really tell us? Let me briefly return to my days in AP Statistics from years ago . . .

In reality, these numbers really aren’t all that helpful, even though everyone loves averages. Because in all honesty, I’m not mailing out forty something books and twenty something packages a day. Let’s try looking at some numbers that are a tad more useful:

• Median⁵ number of books mailed per day: 12
• Median number of packages mailed per day: 11

That seems a little bit more reasonable, right? And it’s a little closer to the truth, because while I do mass mailings every once in a while (as in 50 or more books/packages at once), they don’t really happen every day or even every other day. More commonly, I mail up to 20 books a day.

Why bring up the mean at all then? Well, to point out some other interesting info of course…

• Number of days I mailed nothing: 3

It’s true, every once in a while, a day goes by where I don’t mail out a single book or package. Those days are certainly sad days, but they are balanced out nicely and provide some respite for the days where I mail out lots and lots of books. In the past two weeks, there were days that I mailed out 86, 102, and 194 books respectively. Now, that’s a lot of mailings!

Finally, I’ll leave you with one last statistic in my pseudo statistical analysis:

• Number of packages mailed containing no books: 2

I bet you’re wondering how I would mail packages without books from a publishing house. It’s actually pretty simple, as we do have other items on the 10^th floor of the Flatiron Building that occasionally need to be put in the mail. In the past two weeks, this has included a catalog, as well as a pair of glasses.

Now, to wrap up, what does all of these mean? Basically that there is a more technical (and numerical) side of publishing. (And that every once in a while, flashbacks to high school statistics courses can be helpful!)

Footnotes

¹and the occasional illustration

²of course, it always comes back to mailing books

³packages may contain one book, multiple books, or other materials

⁴for those of you who aren’t statistically inclined, “mean” is synonymous with “average,” which in this case is the total number of books/packages mailed over 2 weeks divided by the total number of work days in that time frame

⁵another statistical mini lesson: the median is basically the middle number when the statistical data (number of books/packages mailed) is arranged in order from least to greatest

An Out-of-Office Experience (The Intern Chronicles Part V)

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There comes a time in life when every intern must leave the office¹…

I am one of those people that is continually immersed in books and publishing-related business, even when I’m not working as The Intern. It’s no secret that I am in love with books. Many of my daily issues involve where I’m going to put all the books that I own and which books I want to read next. Additionally, I often think about which author events and book signings that I need to go to.

For example, recently I heard about an event at a small children’s bookstore called Books of Wonder. Six authors would be featured, but I’m not gonna lie—my brain zeroed in on one name and one only: Caragh M. O’Brien.

For those of you not in the know², Ms. Caragh M. O’Brien is the author of the dystopian masterpiece³ Birthmarked. This novel has been a favorite of mine ever since I read it over a year ago. Its sequel Prized⁴ is just as incredible. I knew I had to go, and since Caragh is published by MCPG, I knew I could get away with writing about my out-of-office exploits on this blog!

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A Brief History by Rachael Stein (The Intern Chronicles, Part IV)

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Once upon a time¹, there was a publishing house called Macmillan. Macmillan was located in the Flatiron Building, a mighty fortress amidst the frightening landscape of New York City. It was a haven meant to shield its inhabitants from the elements and the evil outside. But not all was well in the Fortress of Flatiron, for there was an Intern trapped on the tenth floor! They said it was for her protection, but all she wanted was to step outside for a little while. But alas, she could not, until one day, a young man noticed the Intern gazing longingly out a window and called, “Rachael, Rachael, let your hair down…”

Wait a second, that’s not quite right! There are no trapped princesses and castles in New York City. And I’m certainly no Rapunzel²!

So maybe the history of MacKids can’t really be spun into a fairytale, but that doesn’t mean that it’s boring!

As you may know, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, or MacKids for short, is comprised of seven different children’s imprints: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, Feiwel and Friends, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, Roaring Brook Press, First Second Books, Square Fish, and Priddy Books.

But what you may not know is that it hasn’t always been this way.

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