By Theo Campbell
Amanda Gerstenfeld (class of 2020) always imagined herself in publishing: “Even in high school, I really loved books and I saw myself in that world, but I had no idea how to get there until I was at Villanova and I took a class with Professor Adrienne Perry—she’s amazing.”
While the course—Editing and Literary Publishing—was primarily about publishing journals, rather than books, it introduced Amanda to the world of publishing and gave her hands on experiences that jump-started her professional development. She landed a summer internship at Sterling Publishing, and after graduating from Villanova in Spring 2020, she was accepted into the intensive six-week publishing course at Columbia University.
Now, Amanda works at Yale University Press as an editorial assistant in the acquisitions department. Being in acquisitions means that she gets communicate with authors at every stage of their books’ development, from getting the proposals to formatting the book for production to the excitement of distributing copies to bookstores. Her favorite part? “Getting to reach out to lots of interesting people to send them pre-print copies so they can write the blurbs for the back of the books.”
Amanda credits the small size and intimate feel of her classes at Villanova for giving her the
interpersonal communication skills that allow her to thrive in the workplace: “Even in my largest English
classes, with 20 or 25 people, there were just great conversations about books and writing which really
prepared me for the workplace. Beyond, obviously, the writing skills that I learned that are a core part
of what I do now."
Her advice for current English majors who are interested in publishing? “Do your research.
There’s so many different facets of the industry—children’s, adult, academic, trade—but there’s also a lot
of different kinds of jobs that I didn’t really even know about before I took the course at Columbia.
Editorial assistant is what most people think of, getting to be hands on with the manuscripts, but there’s
also marketing, sales, production…Don’t be afraid to reach out to people in the industry for informational
interviews. Putting yourself out there to get as much information as possible is what’s going to guide
you towards where you want to be.”
