Intern Spotlight: Courtney Code

By Courtney Code, FCRH '15

This semester, I interned with Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.

 Because Crown is a new imprint, it includes only an editor, an editorial assistant, a designer, and an intern (me!). This dynamic was really central to my experience. Everything I did with Crown was indicative of what it’s like to work as an editorial assistant. My main tasks weren’t mail and copies, but rather drafting copy for jacket flaps and submitting my own editorial notes. I wrote readers reports advising my editor on potential submissions and offered editorial notes for books already acquired. I did research, drafted captions, and brainstormed titles. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in just a few short months and how much I’ve been able to contribute in return. My co-workers really did everything they could to mentor me while also treating me as a peer with valuable input. I owe this experience to their attentiveness and trust.

While my voice was heard on Crown’s small team, I also got to absorb so much by working within Random House, a massive firm. I attended the annual meeting in January, where I was exposed to the complex machine that is the children’s books division. I learned about past successes and future plans, about the huge influence of Seuss books on sales numbers and Frozen’s dominance of children’s pop culture. Throughout the semester, I got to see how every division in a huge company like Random House – from editorial to marketing to design – puts individual stories into the world. For about 200 hours total, just a snapshot in the publishing world, I got to be a part of it all.

Luckily, my journey doesn’t end here. Due to an incredible dose of serendipity, I have been hired to assist the President of Random House Children’s Books this summer. After 25 years of service, her current assistant will be on sabbatical for five weeks, and I’ll be filling in. Throughout my time at Fordham, professors and counselors have always talked about the balance of luck and hard work required to break into the job market. Now, I finally understand the truth behind that theory.

A few weeks ago, one of the editors said to me, “We’re making books for kids. So, if we’re not having fun, how can we expect them to?” I’ve had loads of fun so far, working on books about dragons, time traveling iPhones, and angsty musical eighth graders. I can’t wait to see what the weeks to come have in store.