Job opportunities and internships at the UW Press

Current Job Opportunities | Publishing Internships

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Jobs and positions, when available, are listed first on the main University of Wisconsin–Madison employment web page.

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Please inquire, or watch this page for upcoming developments. You may contact the UW Press at: (608) 263-1110, fax: (608) 263-1120, email: uwiscpress@uwpress.wisc.edu

The UW Press is located at 1930 Monroe Street in Madison, about 5 blocks beyond Camp Randall Stadium. We have about 23 students and volunteers per semester working at the Press; some are undergrads, some are grad students, some are community volunteers. Some earn course credit for their internship, some are in paid student jobs or graduate assistantships, and some volunteer to gain experience or, in the case of the community volunteers, because they find the work interesting. Interns have the opportunity to sharpen their design, research, writing, editing, and/or organizational skills and to work as a colleague in an intellectually lively atmosphere.

We place students and volunteers in several areas. Some help with correspondence and clerical work for acquisitions, including assisting editors in identifying appropriate experts to write reviews of manuscripts under consideration by the Press; sending copies of the manuscripts to those reviewers and sending the resulting reviews to the authors for their comment; helping to prepare final manuscripts for transmittal to the manuscript editor; and coordinating permissions information and illustrations for final manuscripts.

Some are trainees in manuscript editing, where they format, clean up, and code electronic manuscript files for sending to freelance copy editors; send edited manuscripts to authors; enter author changes in the electronic file, check page proofs, and edit indexes.

Some cover the reception desk while also assisting the rights and permissions manager in correspondence with foreign publishers, book clubs, the copyright office, a variety of people seeking permissions, etc.

In marketing, students help with preparing advertisements and brochures, writing book jackets and obtaining "blurbs," helping the sales manager with projects, preparing press releases and book review lists for the publicist, planning author events, assisting the Web site manager, etc.

In outreach, students help research sources for grants and prepare grant applications, assist with record-keeping, help plan special events, prepare materials for the UW Foundation, submit books for awards, etc.

Unpaid interns do not have to be UW–Madison students; they can be from other schools or, indeed, they need not be students at all. For unpaid interns, we require that they come for at least 8 hours per week; 8-12 hours is typical. Many interns come for one semester only, but others stay on for 6–12 months or longer. Unpaid interns sometimes have early notice of opportunities to move into paid positions (if eligible). If you want to earn credit for an unpaid internship, see an appropriate faculty member in your department and ask them to sponsor you for course credit. Discuss with Sheila Leary, the internship coordinator at the Press, the requirements you must fulfill to earn credit. The credit is given by your college, not by the Press. We have worked with for-credit students from UW–Madison, Carroll College, St. Norbert, MATC, etc. Typically, students from out-of-town colleges do their internships in the summer.

The paid positions vary from year to year depending on our budget situation, but in general paid students work 12–18 hours a week, and we especially look for students who are available to work for a full year or more. Only students currently enrolled in a UW–Madison degree program may be employed for wages at the Press. If you graduate, you can continue only as an unpaid intern.

To apply, prepare a cover letter and a resume. An email with attached documents is preferable, although you may also mail or deliver your application. If sending attached documents, be sure the document names include your last name (e.g., JacobsonResume.doc). Send the materials to:

Sheila Leary, Director, phone: (608) 263-1101 e-mail: smleary@wisc.edu
1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor
Madison, WI 53711

Between the cover letter and the resume, we will want to know where you are in your education, what kinds of course work you've taken, your work experience and any volunteer experience, what computer software and hardware you've learned (for example, MSWord and Quark Xpress or InDesign on a Macintosh, or MS Word and PowerPoint on a PC, or whatever), if you know foreign languages or have other special skills, your hobbies and interests, your career aspirations (if you have identified any yet). All this helps us in placing you in an appropriate position at the Press. We try to place as many applicants as we can.

We'd also like to know your wishes and expectations regarding practical aspects of working at the Press, such as when you'd like to start and how many hours you want to put in. For example, you might give us information about yourself that speaks to interests, education, skills, and availability, as in this example:

"I am a senior English major and am most interested in working in acquisitions. However, any position at the Press would be educational for me, so please consider me for any opening. I expect to graduate in May 2004, but I will be staying in Madison through August. I would like to work at the Press starting in January 2004 and could continue through August. If you are able to offer me a paid position, I could work up to 15 hours per week. If only unpaid positions are available, I could work 8 hours per week during the school year. Perhaps I could work more during the summer, but that will depend on what kind of other summer job I can get, since I understand you will not be able to pay me once I graduate. By the way, if you have paid work available, I could put in up to 40 hours a week before the spring semester starts, between January 4 and Jan 19. For scheduling purposes, you will want to know that during the spring semester, I will have Tuesdays and Thursdays free, and maybe Friday mornings."