Each summer, Penn Press welcomes interns to introduce them to the world of academic publishing, asking them to participate in the ongoing work of at least one of our departments (Acquisitions, Production, Marketing, and Business). Their valuable contributions help keep us up and running, but we hope that we are also able to give them something back: knowledge, skills, and a more complete understanding of the publishing world. In this post, 2024 Penn Press intern Dylan Fritz looks back on his experience.
I’m a rising senior at Penn, and every day during my sophomore and junior years, I passed right by the Penn Press building without even knowing what it was. After living in Gregory College House (the dorm directly adjacent) and then a bit further down on Spruce St. (about a block away), I knew nothing about this building other than the fact that it was made of brick. Many times over the past few months I’ve been asked What are you doing this summer? and when I answer, most have had a similar reaction: I didn’t even know there was a building there! or perhaps I’ve never been inside, I always wondered what that building was, like the whole time it’s been some sort of grand mystery. In that case, this summer I’ve been something of a Nancy Drew, solving the case of what makes this building so special and such an essential part of this campus.
While I hadn’t engaged much with the work the Press does before this summer, reading scholarly books is a significant part of my role as a student. Many of my nights I spend in bed combing through a wide variety of texts, searching for quotes to cite on discussion board posts and close reading for details to mention in class. I’ve come across (and even been taught by!) some of the scholars we’ve published. I’ve read their books, but even as someone who says I want to go into publishing, I realized this summer that I hardly ever look into the publisher of the monographs I read. It’s such a key part of the process that, as students, we rarely get the chance to see and learn about. We don’t know why the books we’re holding are jacketed or “printed case,” we don’t know why exactly this particular image and layout was used for the cover, and we don’t know why this book was even published in the first place, chosen over hundreds of others. We don’t know how many hands the manuscript has passed through, how many changes have been made, or how many rounds of peer review it went through. The final product is so much more than the book we hold in our hands. It represents thousands of choices that were made, the opinions and contributions of dozens of people. I’ve been very grateful to be one of those people.
Beyond the academic importance of this campus institution, I’ve also found it a very friendly and welcoming place, filled to the brim with a passion for the work they are doing. Whether it’s Mel and Jenny discussing new books proposals at length, Walter leading editorial meetings and inquiring about new acquisitions, Elizabeth discussing cover art, Tracy finding the perfect BISAC subject codes, or Kathie setting up for a conference, everyone has found where they can contribute to this lengthy process and get each book to where it needs to be. The best part about academic publishing is that the people who work at Penn Press are here because they care about the books they are publishing. At the core, everyone here is trying to make a contribution to the scholarly community and is constantly finding new and valuable ways to do so.
This summer, I’ve learned how to prepare a dashboard in the Press’s title management system Biblio, how to assign BISAC subject codes, the difference between a “monograph A” and a “monograph B” book, and more things about Microsoft Word than I’ll ever know what to do with. I’ve learned how to pay peer reviewers through honorarium book orders, combed through our backlist to find titles in a specific topic, and had the opportunity to communicate with authors about gratis lists, marketing materials, and book reviews. What I’ll really take with me, however, is how essential this house at 3905 Spruce St. is as a member of UPenn’s campus and the wider academic community. My experience over the past few months has been crucial to my understanding of my work as a student and will change how I look at every monograph that crosses my hands. I wish this post could encompass everything I’m feeling, but all I can really say is that I’m so grateful for the editorial assistants, acquisitions editors, and the marketing and production teams for making this summer very special. Thank you all, and I hope to see you soon!
