Ever wanted to know what we get up to on the RSC graduate scheme? In this blog, members of our graduate scheme describe some of the interesting (or unusual!) activities and projects they are working on, as well as what it is like to work in a variety of departments across the RSC.

Find out more about the RSC Graduate Scheme here
 

Books Department


The first two months of the graduate scheme have flown by in my rotation in Books.

As I had absolutely no previous experience of book publishing, this was an exciting place to start the scheme. It came as quite a surprise to find out I’d be in Books as this is a brand new rotation that I hadn’t heard about before. It’s been a good experience being the first graduate to work in the department, and figuring out with my very friendly line manager Leanne how to manage my work flow and how I should be getting involved in a range of different projects.

My aim for this rotation is to get involved in as many aspects of book publishing as possible from start to finish. First of all this meant a whistle stop tour of the publishing process and meeting with everyone in the team, which covers editorial, production, marketing and sales, to learn about what they do.

Since then I’ve been involved with the early stages of the publishing process, such as assessing proposals for books and sending the proposals out for review. The next stage is getting the team’s feedback on the proposals at the Books Department’s version of Dragon’s Den - at the moment I'm preparing my first pitches for the meeting next week.

The later stages of the publishing process come into play when the contributors submit their work and the book goes into production. This means finding a copy editor to read through and correct mistakes, and several rounds of proofreading. One plus of this stage is dipping into a lot of interesting books!

At the end of production the book is published and becomes available for purchase, and the marketing and sales teams (which have already started work on the book during production) really get to work. I’m looking forward to working at a book launch in January for one of our popular science titles The Science and Commerce of Whiskey, at the beautiful Burlington House. And yes, I’m told there will be a tasting session on the night!



Martha Henriques is a Graduate working in the Books team on the Royal Society of Chemistry's Graduate Scheme.  To see if we are currently recruiting for the RSC graduate scheme click here.

Posted by Martha Henriques on Oct 22, 2013 10:27 AM Europe/London

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