The Picador Book Room

In honor of her last day at Picador, we asked intern Kaci Hamilton to write about what her day to day experience in our office was like. Without further ado, we present…

A Day in the Life of a Picador Intern

8:57 am: Grab a small coffee from the cart man on the way over to the Flatiron, arrive panting and puffing to a queue of 20 other Macmillan employees, all eagerly eyeing the elevator dials, which indicates the elevators are all on the 20^th floor.

9:10 am: Safely in the office drinking delicious dollar coffee (it’s all I can afford people!), I check my email, see that there any many things to mail. Paul Auster, Michael Cunningham, Edward St. Aubyn…review copies, contract copies, giveaway copies, author mail…one of the best parts of my job is having that one degree of separation from some of the biggest contemporary authors.

10:18 am: Continue to package crisp copies of new books to go out to reviewers and critics. Wonder what Jeffrey Eugenides is doing right now as I wrap up a book to send to him personally (!).

11:11 am: The senior editor asks me to read a submitted manuscript that has promise. Today is Monday, he asks if we can meet on Thursday. I think of my three grad classes, the untouched homework in my bag, and my other internship…but in my mind, when the senior editor asks, the answer is always yes. (And that includes, “Can you rappel down the side of the building from the 19^th floor, for no apparent reason?”)

12:35 pm: Take a quick stroll through Madison Square Park, resist the temptation to devour the entire Shake Shack. Wonder if Jeffrey Eugenides likes hot dogs.

2:15 pm: Meet with James, the director of publicity (technically my boss) with a list of questions about whatever I’m curious about today. It’s pretty awesome, I go in his office, and anything I don’t know, I get to ask him about it. I try to keep these questions publishing-related, like, “With an author as big as Jeffrey Eugenides, do you need to promote him, or do his books just sell themselves?” Occasionally, errant questions like, “Are narwhals real?” pop in.

3:00 pm: Raid the company vending machine. They sell Bugles and White Cheddar popcorn for like, 65 cents!

3:20 pm: Run on a contract hunting binge for the editorial department. I slip the contract in the slot of the copier and it scans in three seconds and sends it straight to my computer. Get to my computer, realize most contracts are double-sided. Repeat.

4:45 pm: Pack one last box of books, this time a donation for Housing Works. That’s another perk: I score mega Karma points doing this. And I even get to keep some of the excess. So far I only have copies of The Marriage Plot.

5:00 pm: Done for the day, I head outside, with a parting look at the Flatiron, majestic, stately, iconic. Sometimes I can’t believe I work there. Get ready to come back the next day and do it all over again.