This morning I started the day off by working on the London Book Fair appointments; revising the invitee list and confirming the first appointment and updating the spreadsheet. I also continued to work on the filing which I've almost finished but I was then asked to consolidate all of the folders so that task isn't quite over.
I finished working on the IT checlist where I had to go around the computers and note down which versions they had for the OS and various software programmes.
Over the weekend I had read the synopses of the 2 books which I will be working on so I also took a look at the spreads for one of them which is an A3 print out of the layout and basic design with a few sample pages of text.
The rota had been sent round so we knew who was to empty the bins, do the washing up and offer cups of tea this week! I also prepared my weekly To Do list and left a print out in the Director's in tray as required. There really is an awful lot of printing in this office! Coming from a "paperless" office it is quite striking.
I wanted to go to an early lunch so that I wouldn't have to wait so long in the post office as I had a few parcels to send, however I was asked to copy all of the Director's e-mails from German clients/publishers to my own inbox so I had to wait for her to go to lunch before I copied them over, which took about 40 minutes. I don't know if Macs are slow in general or if it's just their system!
After lunch (and queuing for 30 minutes in the aforemnetioned post office!) the Director asked me if I was ready to talk about one of the books which I shall refer to as Book-3. I wasn't quite sure what she meant about "being ready" but of course I said yes. I must've had a confused look on my face because she asked me if I had read the synopsis (yes) and read and printed out her e-mails about it (read yes, printed no as she never told me to!). I printed out the e-mails and went into her office. She asked where the copy editor's notes were and another colleague heard and found them on the old Editorial Assistant's desk in a folder. Unfortunately the folder wasn't complete and some sections were missing. The Director asked me to print them out from the server but I hadn't been explained (a) where to look, (b) what the files were called and (c) what I was looking for exactly! We found a couple together but it took a while. I was then asked to compare the different versions of one of the chapters. I had 3 documents to work with - a list of notes which should've been incorporated, the copy editor's notes which also should have been taken into account, and the latest version. However it wasn't really explained to me what the different versions were, who they were from and what I had to do so I sat at my desk rather confused for a while trying to do my best but in the end I had to ask her again for further instruction. I felt very frustrated and a bit annoyed that nothing was being explained and I was expected to be able to do it on my 3rd day of the internship without having worked at a publishers before! Maybe it was a test.. if so, I'm afraid that I failed! Afterwards, I thought I understood but when I sat down to do it, I realised I didn't understand.. so I kept having to go back to her to ask questions. Hopefully it will all be clearer tomorrow...
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