Where Are They Now: An Intern Success Story

I began my internship with Pantera Press in November 2017 and finished in February 2018. Since the end of February, I have worked at Penguin Random House as a rights administrator. This is the story of how I went from a forever-intern to a fully-fledged publishing professional.

When I started at Pantera, I had two retail jobs – one at Dymocks and one at a souvenir gift shop. On top of that, I had just launched my very own book subscription box service that I still co-run, Bookcase Australia. Throw in a two-day-a-week internship, and I was essentially working seven days a week. It was intense but so rewarding.

My internship started off with a bang with two launches. The first, Warren Mundine’s book In Black and White, and the second, the launch of Pantera’s first imprint Lost The Plot. But this internship was much more than attending killer parties. My day-to-day tasks involved working with all departments, from editorial through to rights and everything in between. A quick snapshot of my favourite moments would be:

• Reading submissions and writing mini reports for the editorial team.
• Research tasks, from social media to writing groups.
• Rights work – selecting Pantera books that could be pitched to international publishers based on what the publishers are currently looking for.
• A photo shoot for the Lost the Plot Instagram page.
• Putting together and wrapping give-away prizes!
• Writing press releases.
• Updating editorial databases.
• Attending team meetings – the snacks were always on point!
• Finding new and talented authors to read and rave about!

Every single person at Pantera is passionate about the books they produce and are more than happy to give recommendations based on your tastes. I have discovered one of my new favourite authors from this internship – Lynette Noni. I cannot recommend her series The Medoran Chronicles enough. The fourth instalment left me with a book hangover that lasted at least a month. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with the world and the characters. I’m high-key excited for the next book, We Three Heroes, being published in September this year and I eagerly await the fifth and final instalment coming in 2019.

 

 

Source: Jordan Meek

 

The team at Pantera Press were extremely encouraging and supportive of my budding book business, which made the whole internship even better. They were genuinely interested in me and my passions, and along with the tasks they had me doing, this made my intern days my favourite of the week. At Bookcase Australia, we were very lucky to collaborate with Pantera and Lost the Plot for our February Hopeless/Romantic box and we are looking forward to many more collaborations with them.

And so, after four months of a whirlwind internship, and a crash course in rights, I managed to land my position as rights administrator at Penguin Random House! I would love to say I did this all on my own, but truth be told, without the good people at Pantera, I wouldn’t be where I am now. They arm every intern who walks up their three flights of stairs with the tools they need to succeed in the industry. I am so thankful they took a chance on me and extremely happy to have had this experience.

 

Guest Blogger: Jordan Meek