Sydney is beautiful. I hardly ever give it a fair chance, being too busy licking my Sartorialist-inflicted wounds. But its pastel/bold houses, overgrown foliage and expanses of water are kind of too wonderful to hold a grudge for long. Flying in over that winking sapphire ocean and spying the enclosed beaches' calmer waters made me long for a holiday. The Queen Victoria Building is a six-layered diamond cake of splintered colours, and a shop across the road furnished me with my one and only encounter with these Surface to Air shoes. Luckily, my boss spotted a stapler covered with pink and white rhinestones at a cafe we went to, and - bliss - there was a matching bejewelled calculator. Tacky bingo WIN.
Nothing, however, beats flying back into Melbourne at night over that cheerfully neat grid of electric lights, wound through by the dark snake of the Yarra, the city's boundaries resembling lax power lines. My ears hardly ever hurt during those descents.
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4 comments:
Ligare sounds like an incredible place to visit, and to see the inner workings of those machines...
I'm heading to Sydney tomorrow arvo (Wednesday) for the first time. Any suggestions on things to do/see?
Curious: which publisher do you work for?
Sorry S, the last time I was in Sydney I exclusively shopped, and Monday was almost exclusively work. The QVB is worth a look if you're in the neighbourhood; it has the narrowest gothic staircase in a corner somewhere seemingly ex nihilo. I don't remember loving the harbour when traipsing around it, but the view from the plane is stunning.
I am doing an internship at Oxford University Press.
Samuel - I love the whole Rocks area. and Ariel bookstore on George St is awesome, they have a lot of quirky books. Oxford St is also good for shopping and just wandering around. It's really long and goes through Darlinghurst and Paddington.
Estelle - that sounds like such a cool internship! I'm trying to get into publishing, can you give me any tips? (my email is on the contact page of my website)
Elena, it's a pretty special opportunity, and I'm very grateful for it. The internships are funded by CAL and run by the APA. They will run them again next year, so you should keep your eye out for them, because some fantastic publishers get funding to host interns.
I might comment briefly here instead of emailing you, in case anyone else finds this helpful. I feel a bit strange giving 'tips' on how to get into publishing, because I am not by any means an expert or firmly set in the gelatinous mass of the industry. The first advice I can give you is to figure out what kind of publishing work you are interested in doing. Do you want to be an editor? Are you good at organisation and getting things done? You could also consider production or starting as a publishing assistant. Lots of people also start off in different roles in publishing houses than the ones they end up in, so be open to anything, basically.
Then when you've figured that out, volunteer as much as you can if you can't find a paying job; it's a sad truth that there are more willing publishing people out there than there are jobs. For example, I have done lots of volunteer editing work for youth and student magazines. Perspective (run by UNYA) is one I've done volunteer editing for, and it's good experience. It shows you are committed and give a rat's about honing your skills.
The other things you can do are show a concrete interest in the industry, which you have done - you have a book blog! A lecturer at RMIT told me that publishers love people who have worked at bookstores, too.
The other thing is to be patient. There are very few jobs in the industry and many, many people interested in getting them. It's even worse now with the GFC - there are less than 50% jobs advertised in the main industry magazine than this time last year. It can be frustrating, but if you love it enough, are willing to learn as much as you can about the skills (e.g. through a course or by reading books), do some things for free and apply for everything, you can do it. Not a tough ask, hm? Good luck!
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