Johnson & Alcock

Yes, this is another internship-related post. I was actually at Johnson & Alcock a couple of weeks ago, right at the start of the month, but I've been a bit quiet on all fronts lately and forgot to do any kind of follow-up post.

I was there for two weeks, in their offices in Clerkenwell Green, London. I'd actually worked in the same building with another literary agency last summer, so it was nice to know the commute and the area (and the Krispy Kreme doughnut stand in the Tesco at the end of the road!) before I started. This was another unpaid position, though they did make a contribution of £10/day towards travel expenses.

Johnson & Alcock is the smallest company I've done any work experience with. I've had the opportunity to work in a small team before, during my time at Oxford University Press, but obviously it's very different working in a small team that's part of a much larger organisation, to working in a very small team. There were six members of staff at J&A, one of whom only worked half the week. The office had a very nice feel to it and you could tell that everyone got on well with each other, making for a very pleasant work place to go into.

The majority of my time was spent reading unsolicited manuscripts, sending out rejections and passing things I thought were good onto the agents. I also got to read something that one of the agents was considering, and provided her with a report on it giving my thoughts. I helped sort out some rights reversions, and wrote a couple of pieces to go on their website, which provided a nice break from the reading!

One of the best things, though, was that I got to sit down and properly read through a contract, and then I had a short, sit-down meeting with one of the agents where I had the opportunity to ask about anything I didn't understand. It was a very valuable morning, and gave me a much better insight into how a literary agency functions at the business end. We also had a chat about e-books, from which I came to realise that actually, no-one really has a clue about what they mean for the future of the industry..!

So while this placement involved doing lots of things I'd done before, it also gave me lots of new opportunities. I really enjoyed my time at J&A; the staff were friendly and welcoming, and I was sad to leave after only two weeks.

A big thank you to everyone at J&A - it was wonderful to have the chance to work with you, and hopefully our paths will cross again in the not-too-distant future.