Days in the Life of a Workman Intern: Part 1

Greetings! My name is Jennifer, and I’m interning at Workman for the summer. As of today, I’ve been here exactly four weeks – a whole month! For the most part, I have been with the Gift Sales department, which deals with book-selling stores that aren’t necessarily bookstores, but my supervisor has been kind enough to set up days in which I can dip my toes into the work of other departments. Those departments have included Special Markets, Algonquin’s editorial department, and, of course, the Workman editorial department. This week, I’ll be writing about my experiences in the sales departments.

In Gift Sales, I perform a variety of tasks. In anticipation of a week-long gift show in Florida, much of my time was spent putting together sales capsules (overviews of sales information and suggestions for future orders) for the accounts that would be at the show – not the most mentally stimulating of jobs, but my boss, who helped with a lot of the capsules, realized this and punctuated the long process with other assignments. Because of my work with the capsules, however, I did learn more about the range of books that Workman publishes. For example, I found out that You Gotta Be Kidding! is a huge hit. Some stores that generally order thirty copies of a title at a time order more than a hundred copies of this unassuming little 4″ x 6″ book!

This increased familiarity with Workman’s titles helps me with my other main job, which is sending samples of popular titles to different accounts. I rather enjoy selecting the appropriate books to send and composing the accompanying letters, especially since my boss has given me free rein to embellish those letters; she, like the people in Workman’s editorial department who asked me if I would like to write this blog post, is aware of my penchant for writing. Recently, I’ve been sending out lots of copies of Unlikely Friendships, which is selling so phenomenally that it’s in its fifth reprint not even two weeks after its debut (that line’s adapted from a line in the letters I send out).

I only spent one day in the Special Markets sales department, and I spent it glued to the phone on my (borrowed) desk. Special Markets, if I understand it correctly, deals with stores or other sales outlets that do not traditionally carry books. I was instructed to call the camera stores listed in an online directory to see which are still in business and which are now defunct. The purpose of this task to was to find out which stores are still around to receive a sample copy of How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck. Of course, when I mentioned “free copy,” many people, assuming that there would be a catch, said, “We’re not interested. Goodbye.” I learned ways to adapt my pitch…and got a little taste of what it might it be like to be a telemarketer – definitely not a path I want to pursue further!

That’s it for this installment. Check back next Wednesday for my adventures beyond the sales departments, when I spend some time at Algonquin Books!

—Jennifer