We’re delighted to feature a guest post from Laura Primiceri, who has been interning with us here at TLC on Wednesdays and Thursdays for the past two months. We are hugely grateful for her support and pleased to share this blog from her, summing up her time with TLC, and documenting what she has done and learned so far:
‘My initial reason to apply for an internship at The Literary Consultancy was because it seemed like an organisation with a unique purpose and a diverse reach. I thought that work experience at TLC would give me the opportunity to learn more about literature as a real world industry, rather than just a hobby or academic subject.
I was right, but at the time I didn’t know exactly how right.
Working at TLC completely surpassed all my expectations of an internship; under no circumstances would Aki leave me to dogsbody around, limited to fetching tea and photocopying. I have been given real tasks in the process of manuscript assessment that’s at the core of TLC’s service, putting me in contact with clients and readers alike; sending emails, writing copy, dealing with inquiries, identifying genres and whose editorial eye texts would be best suited for. Learning more about the Free Read scheme, and seeing how this particular branch of TLC is used by different organisations to provide opportunities to disadvantaged writers was a particularly valuable experience for me.
I also had the opportunity to become more familiar with the importance of social media, particularly Twitter which before starting at TLC I hadn’t used. Now I have more respect for it as an important instrument for quick distribution of information and event promotion.
And that’s only the administrative side of things. Through working at TLC my awareness of what comprises the literary industry has exploded outwards. Concepts that I was only distantly aware of— the number of pathways available to independent writers, the possibilities of epublishing, ghostwriting, copyediting, and more—came into focus as real possibilities to investigate for future experience, never mind learning more about areas more familiar to me, such as traditional publishing.
I have gained a lot from working at The Literary Consultancy, and as I go back to University I am already using many of these skills. All that’s left to say is thank you to Aki and Yen for looking after me for two months, and to everyone involved with TLC for giving me such an amazing opportunity.’
Laura’s Top Tip
‘My top piece of advice for anyone interning would be to listen to what’s going on around you, and to ask questions. It sounds obvious, but I was a little bit nervous to ask as much as I could have done during my first few days. Whichever organisation that you’re working for will be a wealth of information on the industry that they’re in, and TLC is particularly good at this.’
