Internships and Assistantships

About Our Internships

The University of Georgia Press offers a number of paid internships. These positions allow students who are interested in a career in book publishing to learn about scholarly and trade book publishing and to gain valuable on-the-job experience.

The University of Georgia Press is a strong advocate for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the university press community. Students who are members of groups underrepresented in academic publishing are encouraged to apply.

Application deadlines for all internships: Apply by March 31 for a summer or fall internship, and by October 31 for a spring internship.

College credit may also be available for internships (consult your major department). Interns are eligible for Experiential Learning credit.

Acquisitions

Wormsloe Foundation Acquisitions Internship

The UGA Press is looking for a paid intern with a passion for books and publishing to work in our acquisitions department as our Wormsloe Foundation Acquisitions Intern.

  • Interns work 8–10 hours per week providing ongoing support for proposed book
    projects; sending letters to prospective authors, readers, and blurbers; drafting and
    sending decline letters; preparing and shipping manuscripts to reviewers; maintaining project information in the Press database; performing online searches for small research assignments; and helping with image and permissions inventories.
  • Interns will work on illustration-heavy manuscripts for the Wormsloe Foundation book series and gain experience researching and logging permissions, communicating with authors, and learning how to evaluate, organize, and prepare art for publication.
    Interns are encouraged to attend in-house meetings with staff and authors.
  • Candidates must be comfortable using Microsoft Word and capable of writing clear,
    professional correspondence.

To apply, send résumé and cover letter by March 31 for a summer or fall internship and by October 31 for a spring internship to Nate Holly (nfholly@uga.edu).


Ralph Haygood Stephens and Eugenia Doughtie Stephens Undergraduate Internship

The UGA Press seeks a paid intern with a passion for books and publishing to work in our acquisitions editorial and marketing departments. Honoring Ralph Haygood Stephens, the third director of the UGA Press (1950-78), this internship focuses on the Press’s creative list (poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction).

  • Interns work 8–10 hours per week providing ongoing support for proposed book projects; sending letters to prospective authors, readers, and blurbers; drafting and sending decline letters; preparing and shipping manuscripts to reviewers; maintaining project information in the Press database; performing online searches for small research assignments; and helping with image and permissions inventories.
  • Interns will work on books in our creative list (poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction) in both acquisitions editorial and marketing. Interns will gain experience researching and logging permissions, communicating with authors, and learning how to evaluate, organize, and prepare art for publication.
  • Interns are encouraged to attend in-house meetings with staff and authors and local author events when possible.
  • Candidates must be comfortable using Microsoft Word and capable of writing clear, professional correspondence.

To apply, send résumé and cover letter by March 31 for a summer or fall internship and by October 31 for a spring internship to Beth Snead (bsnead@uga.edu).

Editorial

The manuscript editorial department at the University of Georgia Press, the oldest and largest publisher of scholarly and general-interest books within the state, is seeking paid interns. The Press, which has a staff of 24 publishing professionals, produces 80-85 books a year and is located in the Main Library.

The interns in manuscript editorial will learn the basics about the editorial process as texts accepted for publication move from manuscript to bound book. They will work closely with project editors, who coordinate the work of freelance copyeditors and authors to provide a final manuscript to production and then shepherd the project through the design and production stages. Interns will study crucial sections of the Chicago Manual of Style and learn to apply it to ensure consistency and correctness, and they will also learn the basics of coding design elements and tracking track art, permissions, and other materials on a given project.

Tasks will vary, but the interns will aid the department with such things as the following:

  • reviewing various stages of page proofs and coordinating page proof corrections
  • proofreading some books
  • editing and proofreading indexes
  • reviewing advance copies of books
  • filing and closing files

The candidate must be a full-time student at UGA and should have a minimum 3.00 GPA; a working knowledge of Microsoft Word; a thorough understanding of grammar, spelling, and punctuation; an ability to attend to detail; and an interest in publishing. A proofreading test will be required.

To apply, send résumé and cover letter by March 31 for a summer or fall internship and by October 31 for a spring internship to Jon Davies (jdavies@uga.edu).

Design and Production

The Katharine and Alan Elsas Internship in Book Design and Production

The University of Georgia Press seeks a paid intern to provide support for all aspects of the book design and production process. Ideal applicants will have demonstrated potential in graphic design and an interest in book design and typography.

  • Intern will have the opportunity to work with design and production professionals and will learn:
    • basics of book design, including cover design and interior design
    • typesetting conventions specific to bookmaking
    • illustration program management, from analysis of reproducibility to prepress preparation
    • quality control measures for different stages of proofs and samples
  • Under the mentorship of staff designers, intern will create at least one book cover to include in student’s professional portfolio.
  • Intern will assist cover designers with finding appropriate art for book covers and with obtaining permission to use chosen images.
  • Intern will prepare print-ready interior and cover files for restocks and reprints.
  • Intern will provide some clerical support for design and production staff, which may include filing and entering book specifications into press-wide database.
  • Intern will be expected to work ten to twelve hours per week in flexible but predictable shifts from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated potential in graphic design and experience using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and Acrobat and Microsoft Excel and Word are also preferred. Good communication skills and attention to detail are required.

To apply, send portfolio (weblink or PDF), résumé, name and contact information for two references, and cover letter by March 31 for a summer or fall internship and by October 31 for a spring internship to Rebecca Norton (ranorton@uga.edu).

Marketing

The UGA Press marketing department is looking for paid interns for the Summer and/or Fall 2024 semester. The Press publishes more than 70 national trade, regional trade, academic impact, and scholarly monographs a year and there are opportunities to work in a variety of areas to market those titles, which include: publicity, social media, email marketing, content creation, author events, bookseller outreach, and more. Experience from these internships can translate well to marketing jobs in other art and entertainment industries. This position is only open to full-time students at UGA and is eligible for an experiential learning credit. Interns typically work 10 hours per week. Areas of emphasis for the internship include:

Publicity, Sales, Social Media, and Direct Mail:
    • Will work with the publicity manager to research and carry out publicity campaigns for new books.
    • Create mailing lists of potential reviewers for books among trade media and scholarly journals.
    • Manage and send review copy requests for new titles.
    • Help book, plan, and coordinate author events and signings.
    • Mailings of ARCs (advanced reader copies) and other materials for forthcoming titles to select booksellers.
    • Help manage and execute course adoption campaigns to professors for select titles.
    • Institutional or professional experience posting to social media a plus.
    • Familiarity with Hootsuite for scheduling social media posts a plus.
    • Will help create social media and email marketing campaigns around specific titles.
    • Opportunities to contribute original posts to UGA Press’s blog.
    • Design skills (Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva, etc.) a plus.
To apply for this internship, please send résumé and cover letter by March 31 to Jason Bennett (jason.bennett@uga.edu).

Assistantships

The Georgia Power-Grady College Assistantship

The Georgia Power-Grady College Assistantship at UGA Press introduces interested graduate students at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to the world of book publishing through the Press’s marketing department.

  • The successful applicant will be an individual with excellent organizational and communication skills, who is detail oriented and has the ability to work independently. A good working knowledge of graphic design and social media is a plus.
  • A commitment of at least two semesters is required.
  • Student receives tuition waiver but still has to pay student fees. UGA Press will pay student by the hour.
  • Assistantship involves 13-20 hours of work per week.