This morning my MacBook had been given to another intern because it has QuarkXpress and Indesign on it which she would be needing and I wouldn't apparently! This is not a good sign.. So I spent about 4 hours today saving all of my e-mails onto the server then saving them into my new laptop as each e-mail address is computer-specific; you can't use your account on a different computer. It felt like such a waste of time because my internship is due to end next Wednesday and I have so much to do! But I bit my tongue and did my duty.
I was getting bored of dragging the e-mail folders over so after an hour or so I took a break and went downstairs into the production room to continue doing the stock check and packing away extra copies of each print for storage before we move office.
Then I had to check with the current tenants of our new property who their service provider was for phone and internet and check if they were keeping their number etc.
I also had to phone First Great Western Trains because we discovered that a receipt was missing whilst doing the weekly credit card expenses so I was trying to get them to re-send the e-mail confirmation for the booking. Unfortunately we had no record of a) who made the booking, b) which account was used and c) what the booking confirmation code was. The first guy in customer services was clueless how to help us but the second one was much more helpful and we figured it out together.
The new intern was still working on making the changes to the layouts in QuarkXpress (the project which had been taken from me) and I suddenly remembered that I'd been asked to proofread one of the chapters and keep it for later, which I had done. I asked the Editorial Director if perhaps the new intern should take in the proofreading mark ups and she flicked through what I'd done briefly and said that it was a good idea. I was so pleased, hoping that I'd redeemed myself slightly after the disappointment of yesterday!
At around 3pm I was asked to join the Director, Editorial Director and Designer as well as 2 other colleagues for the production meeting. They ran through a spreadsheet of all live books (ie about to be published), getting the latest news on if the other publishers had paid their invoices (they spread the payment into 3 throughout the publishing process), if the printers were meeting the deadlines, if the contracts were ready, if we'd secured another co-publisher for a foreign print of the book and so on. It was sort of interesting to listen to but I must admit that this side of publishing really doesn't appeal to me.. The 2nd book project which I'd been told at the beginning that I was to work on (but hadn't yet been given any work for) was given away to the new intern. Just as I was feeling thoroughly disheartened, the Editorial Director said that she'd like me to work on a vegetarian book that they're publishing! She wanted me to check the number of recipes as there was a discrepancy as well as to proofread the entire book! I was so happy as this is what I really enjoy doing. I'm certainly going to do my best and even work from home in the evenings if this is what it takes to finish it in time!
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