For every Hamline student there’s the one credit that looms there like death itself. The Internship credit, where you wonder when will you have time to fulfill it. For creative writing majors there is the Runestone class which can count towards the internship credit, but some people may want more.
An internship out in the real world can look nice on a resume, gain connections in a field that you might want to go into, and maybe get a reference that will help you further your career.
As a person who has gotten four internships in various places, I’ve scouted out a lot of the internships in the publishing and editorial industry. Each internship is different and it’s best to know what you’re looking for before applying. But sometimes looking for internships can be exhausting so here’s a list so you don’t have to do hours of research yourself.
A great resource to find publishing internships and figuring out all their due dates for applying is the Minnesota Book Publishers Roundtable. Most publishing internships are there and it’s up to date. If you don’t wish to look around here are some internships you can pick from:
1517 Media: Only accepts summer interns. They publish children’s books. With multiple different positions open from HR to Editorial you’ll have options, but make sure you don’t apply to more than one position, maybe two at the most. A lot of internships and jobs in general will cross your name off the list if they think you apply to too many positions at once. It makes it look like you aren’t really interested in any of them.
Free Spirit Publishing: Publishes social and emotional learning books for children and their caregivers. They accept interns Fall, Spring, and Summer. Their publishing internships allow you to work both on Marketing and Editorial tasks. You will need a car to get to this internship as there is no public transportation that’s easily accessible for it. There’s also dogs constantly in the office, which is a blast.
Redleaf Press: Like Free Spirit, Redleaf publishes books for early childhood and care givers. They accept interns Fall, Spring, and Summer at https://www.redleafpress.org/Employment.aspx
Milkweed Editions: One of the only publishing internships in the Twin Cities that has a paid internship. FOr there application you have to almost sell your soul to apply and everyone’s competing for it. They accept interns Fall, Spring, and Summer.
Graywolf Press: Publishes contemporary literature. They accept interns Fall, Spring, and Summer. The link within the Roundtable listing doesn’t work but the link that I provide takes you straight to where you need to go.
Coffee House Press: Like Milkweed, this internship also makes you sell your soul to apply. It’s one of the bigger presses and publishes contemporary books. The link within the Roundtable listing doesn’t work, but the link that I provide will take you straight to where you need to go for more information.
Lerner: This one isn’t listed in the Roundtable guide, but it publishes children’s books. I have heard that they usually accept mostly people who have graduated from Undergrad, but it’s still worth looking into.
GreenSpring Media: They’ve revamped their internship in the past years so now interns can go between their many magazines and work on many different projects. You’ll need a car to get to their office, but you won’t have to pay for the green line like many of the other publishing internships will have you do. If you’re into journalism or writing this is the one for you.
Tips For Applying
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Keep an eye on the deadlines for each application. They will sneak up on you and be due way earlier than you think they should be.
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Most internships wait until the last minute to interview people. It can be annoying, but don’t panic if you don’t hear anything for a long while.
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Fall and Spring semester internships have less competition to them. Also if you’re planning on counting it for school credit you won’t need to pay the $2,000 for having it as a summer class.
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Don’t put that you’ve published anything creatively on your resume. To some internships that can look like the only reason you want an internship is to get published.
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Read at least one book from the publisher that you’re applying to. In certain interviews they will ask you if you’ve read anything from them and how you like it. You’ll need to be able to talk intelligently about at least one of their books.
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Make sure you can feasibly get to the internship. Most are downtown so the greenline will have to be an expense. Others are out of town and will need to be driven to. Greywolf will give you a transportation pass.
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Make sure to follow each application instructions to a tee. If they say you need to use a specific header in an email, use it. They have hundreds of applicants. They are looking for easy ways to weed out those who aren’t paying attention.
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Don’t stress. It’s not the end of the world if they don’t accept you. It’s hard to swallow, but it won’t be the end of the world. It’s also okay to turn down an internship one semester if you can’t take it then apply again the next semester.
Good luck. Internship applications are tiring and honestly worse than applying for real jobs, for you know they are only temporary and the process will have to start all over again. Just do your research and know all will be okay in the end.