In the Book Design Games: France I, Rest of the World 0. Though as usual, in the Taking Photographs Tournament, Estelle = 0.

This is what’s what about Édouard Glissant. Ditto Patrick Chamoiseau.

Later on this week, interviews with guests of Newcastle’s National Young Writers’ Festival. HELLO INTERN will return next week.

‘Oh, my God!’ screamed Estelle. ‘I am sure that this is the most televisual book I have ever read.’
‘Well,’ Ignatius J. Reilly said, three stolen hot dogs in hand, ‘I am sure that I am simultaneously the most vivid and incorrigible character you will ever come across in all of American literature. Indeed, I have been decorated for it.’
‘I have often wanted to slap you across the face, Ignatius. You are psychotic in the extreme.’
Ignatius sighed. The earflaps of his hat were folded up to facilitate his hearing. He arose from his chair, which would not depart from his elephantine body. It took an effort with both his hands to ease it from his frame. The seat looked rather different in shape when he set it down.
‘Have you read Boethius?’ Ignatius belched. ‘I am a staunch believer in Boethius. I cannot abide these new philosophers, the ignorance of whom astounds me. When I perceive the bookstore arrangements of those abortions they call books, the filth they impart to the masses, I feel sick. In fact, my valve is giving me considerable trouble now.’
Estelle paused. ‘What’s a valve?’
‘You are a maniac!’ Ignatius screamed, his voice choked with saliva and fury. ‘Get away from me! You little understand the respect due a personage of my immense intelligence, height and breadth! I would not be surprised if you were not even a human being; a phony whose molecules rejoice at the thoughts of other incompetents! I am certain that you revere film stars, those carriers of mange! You enemy of Pragmatism and Morality! False proponent of American ‘art’! Cataclysmic affront to Hroswitha’s wisdom! That Fortuna should let me spin so low as this!’
‘Oo-wee. I think I got siphlus from dat man,’ said Jones, who was sweeping the floor.

‘I was wondering,’ said Lady Tamplin, again drawing her artistically pencilled brows together, ‘whether–oh, good morning, Chubby darling: are you going to play tennis? How nice!’

Chubby, thus addressed, smiled kindly at her, remarked perfunctorily, ‘How topping you look in that peach-coloured thing,’ and drifted past them and down the steps.

Now there’s a pre-weekend question for you.

I know a few of you were interested in what went down at the IPRIA parallel importation restrictions seminar. The four panellists were proponents of removing the restrictions. I have notes, but not the time to write them up as yet. There’s a vidcast available here. I’d be interested to hear what you think.

Congratulations to the joint winners of the 2009 Vogel award, Lisa Lang and Kristel Thornell!

This is the second year the Australian Publishers Association has run their internship program, which is funded by Copyright Agency Limited. The program gives six rabid publishing ferrets the opportunity to get their furry little snouts in the door. The internships are funded through to next year, meaning that another five or six people will get the chance to experience the publishing industry firsthand around this time in 2010. Most of the current interns are just over halfway through their terms, and I thought I’d check in with them. First kid on the stumps: Stephanie Stepan, publicity intern at Text Publishing. I guess that means I’m publicising…her?

Picture on the left: Steph’s desk. Yes, that’s what the glass slipper looks like, publishing Cinderellas — Express Post envelopes.

Steph, blossoming publicity expert that she is, will probably agree that I need a gimmick for this series of interviews. I mean, who wants to read about the most lowly people on the publishing ladder? Interns? No thanks. Well, courtesy of my friend Chris, soon to appear on television in a poker game show (not joking) called The Poker Star (still not joking), I have some awesome bylines, ‘borrowed’ from the One HD website. Ready?

Stephanie Stepan is…’unpredictable, tenacious and intimidating’.

Steph, tell us a little bit about yourself.

The nutshell version goes a little like this: I’m a recent Creative Arts/French graduate who had a certain career crisis at the beginning of the year and have now, much to my delight, landed myself a six month long publicity internship at Text Publishing.

How did your interest in publishing arise, and what steps did you take to get involved? How about your interest in publicity specifically?

A Creative Arts degree sounded like a good idea at the time, but in the end I found myself in that familiar arty dilemma of no real certainty about what I wanted to do. I was a chronic dabbler. I’d worked as a photographer while still at uni, had written small pieces for magazines and tried my hand at a marketing internship with STA Travel, but still I ummmed and ahhhed (this sounds terribly Gen Y doesn’t it). At the end of last year I saw a job advertised for a publicist at Black Dog Books. Suddenly I thought: why on earth had I not thought of this before? As expected, someone with experience got the job, and I naively thought my marketing background might just stand up. So, as is the way, I thought I’d just offer myself for free, and went on to do work experience with them. From there I applied for the internship at Text and after some grueling interviews I got some very good news.

What was the interview process with Text like?

Nothing like a good interview to get your heart hammering, is there? In preparation I found out as much as I could about Text and though it was impossible to know their entire list I had a good knowledge of their more prolific authors, their overall philosophy and how I might fit into that. You get a useful hint about what you’ll be asked at the interview by looking at the key selection criteria so I had a good idea of how I would respond and why I wanted to be in publishing. ‘I just love books’ is just not an answer you ever want to use! I’ll confess that I wasn’t really overly nervous until the second round where they left me to my own devices for an hour, handed me a book and asked me to write a publicity plan and a press release as well as do a proofreading exercise and following that sat me down with the publisher for a second chat. That really got my heart thumping!

How is your internship structured?

I’m lucky enough to work with three other publicists who are all extremely good at what they do, so I’m on a bit of a mission to glean as much knowledge as possible by the end of the year. For the most part, I’m learning how to run my own media campaigns in really enjoyable bite-sized chunks. For example, I might organize a press release for one author while designing a launch invite for another. I also work in an open plan office, so I do a lot of observing, and hear some great conversations, ask questions and have come to accept that I will at times just make a buffoon of myself.

Text is a growing publisher — I’m sure it’s a pretty exciting place to work, but I bet it’s not all swanning around at Blue Diamond, either. What’s an average day like for you, and what have been the highlights?

Oh, the glamour of my coffee stained, paper-filled desk. Most of the time I leave the frocks at home and I dig into anything from writing copy for promotional material and chasing after the media to the never-ending mail outs and towers of media clippings that regularly find their way to my desk for filing.

Text is also a great size — there are almost 20 of us — to learn how all aspects of the industry work and I count myself extremely lucky to be involved in editorial and book design conversations on a weekly basis. I’m also thrilled that we publish such a large variety of local and international authors as I never dreamed that I’d be able to find a job where my love of languages would come in handy.

I’m sure you remember what it was like to wonder about the publishing world and how on earth it was possible to get the hell in. Do you have any advice for people who are interested in working in the industry?

I think it’s true of many roles in the Arts industry; there are very few entry level positions and you begin to wonder if you should be sending a box of chocolates with your applications! If you’re still in university I would suggest lining up work experience throughout your holidays. You’ll find a lot of the big publishers are booked out in advance so get in as early as possible. You’ll get an idea of where you might like to be in the industry and while you may not end up with a job at the end of it at the very least they will know who you are. Be prepared to pester a little, often follow-up calls are necessary and find out if there any formal processes each publisher requires. While it might be nice to brag that you spent your summer at Penguin Books, don’t discount smaller publishers. Often you’ll get more of a chance to speak to the whole team, and more opportunities to eavesdrop on/pester/ask questions about their day to day work! Also, do your research. If you’re lucky enough to be able to get some experience at a publisher make sure you know as much about the company as possible — Google is grand — and are able to articulate clearly why you want to work in publishing. At one point I also began making contact with course coordinators of publishing courses at various universities and asked for their advice on where to go. In a nutshell, make yourself be known!