Posted November 7, 2008

SPRING 2009 INTERNSHIP POSITIONS AVAILABLE

DESCRIPTION: The MIT Press seeks enthusiastic spring interns in various departments. These unpaid internships are a chance for people who love books and journals to learn about publishing and see how a busy university press functions. Successful interns will make valuable contacts and gain experience at one of the nation's largest university presses.

Internships are available in Editorial, Acquisitions, and Marketing, in our books and journals divisions. These are unpaid, part-time internships from September through December. Hours will be negotiated, but candidates should be able to commit at least 10 hours per week.

REQUIREMENTS: The ideal intern candidates will have: a strong desire to learn about publishing, basic computer skills, excellent communication and organizational skills, the ability to work well individually and as a member of a group, an eye for detail, good judgment, a positive attitude, and a willingness to take initiative.

Editorial:

Books Editorial: The Editorial internship will provide experience with a variety of editorial projects including checking revised page proofs, editing indexes, proofreading jacket copy, reviewing prepress proofs, and handling corrections for reprints. The intern will also learn some support functions including applying for Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data. Miscellaneous office duties such as photocopying and filing may be required occasionally. Editorial experience and familiarity with Chicago style are preferred.

Acquisitions:

Books Acquisitions: The Books Acquisitions intern will be working in the department responsible for contracting, receiving, and assessing both book proposals and manuscripts for potential publication. This intern will be responsible for tasks such as completing payment requests, placing orders with our warehouse, mailing catalogs and other materials, general data entry into our database, possible long term research projects, and a variety of other administrative tasks. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about scholarly publishing in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Marketing:

Books Publicity: Books Publicity interns will learn about marketing and promoting books to the media. Their primary responsibilities include: scanning and distributing book reviews, maintaining and updating the reviews database, assisting with galley and press release mailings, purging and archiving marketing files, researching journals and other media, inputting reviewer checklists and requests, and other general clerical assistance. Office and/or publishing experience, as well as familiarity with Filemaker or other database software, is a plus, but not required.

Journals Marketing: The Journals Marketing Intern will primarily be performing the following tasks: market research, generating databases with statistics on college and research libraries, and supporting the journals marketing staff on various projects as needed. Interns should be Excel and/or FileMaker saavy, have strong internet research skills, and the ability to communicate professionally via email, phone and in-person.

Books Electronic Marketing: The Electronic Marketing intern will assist the Electronic Marketing Manager with data entry and maintenance, scanning and clean up of book covers for use on the website, and information updates on the website. Familiarity with Internet protocols, html, FTP clients, and Photoshop is desirable, but not required.

Journals Subsidiary Rights and Permissions: The primary responsibility of the Subsidiary Rights and Permissions intern will be to help handle institutional licenses. The intern will also be expected to help with organization and filing as well as a variety of daily tasks. Some contact with authors or editors will be required, either through email or by phone, for issues pertaining to copyright and publication agreements. The intern will also be responsible for packaging and shipping journals to the Library of Congress, so the ability to handle some light lifting is required.

How To Apply For an Internship: Please send us your resume and cover letter indicating the department(s) you are interested in applying to. E-mail application to: Internship Coordinator, mitp-interns@mit.edu, by December 1st.

Posted October 21, 2008

Publicity Assistant
Support, Grade 4
Job # mit-00006009

DESCRIPTION: The MIT Press seeks a highly organized, enthusiastic, hard-working, detail-oriented, creative Publicity Assistant to help promote our exciting trade and scholarly publications. The Publicity Assistant logs, scans, files, and circulates all media reviews and other coverage of MIT Press titles. He or she maintains a log of all media coverage and generates weekly and monthly reports on both major and minor review coverage, maintains our media and author database and sends copies of published reviews to the author. The Publicity Assistant also fulfills review copy requests from journalists, handles all publicity filing and photocopying, assembles press kits, processes publicity mailings, distributes in-house copies of new titles, manages department interns, posts excerpts from book reviews on the MIT Press website, and processes the bills for the department. The Publicity Assistant also gathers and designs covers for all advance galleys and works with our outside vendor to produce them. He or she may also assist the Marketing Director with projects as needed.

SKILLS, EXPERIENCE: This is an entry-level job in book publicity. Excellent oral and written communication skills, basic computer competency, excellent organizational skills, and the ability to coordinate and prioritize multiple task demands. Bachelor's degree required. Publishing experience a plus.

To apply for this position online, please submit a resume and cover letter through the MIT Staffing Services website.