Taking the "Story" Out of "History": How a Literary Agency Benefits from a History Student Intern

Nervous, excited, curious: these were the feelings that I had as I stepped into the McDermid Agency's office on the first day of my internship placement. Bittersweet: the feeling that I had as I stepped out of the agency on my last day of placement. Seven months passed by before I knew it. As I have written in my blog posts of the past, my internship has bestowed me with many gifts: better writing from the dozens of manuscripts that I have gone through, relationships with the writers and professionals that I have met, and new hard and soft skills that can be applied to all situations. Thinking about how much this internship has been of benefit to me, I started to wonder how I, an undergraduate history student, benefited the agency. And, let me tell you, my reflections have helped me to understand the value of historical studies and they acted as a validation for the skills I learned throughout my university career.

Historical art showcasing a hand holding a bookPicture located on Pixabay and licensed via Creative Commons.

“Fact-checking is so boring comparing to writing fiction.”

Novelist Francine Prose said that. I would beg to differ. A large part of my role at the internship involved editing and fact-checking (which I actually really enjoyed!). My history background was the reason I was able to do this job so well. My numerous history courses have taught me how to read and analyse critically, how to understand individual issues within a wider context, and how to locate inconsistencies in any piece of writing. I have strong research skills and I can pick up biases in most manuscripts that are handed to me. Because most agents studied English literature, their skills are developed in a different way than my own. The way that I have been trained to read and think allows me to determine fact from fiction in a different manner.

An open book, with a computer screen featuring that exact same book in the background.Picture located on Pixabay and licensed via Creative Commons.

Fabulous Feedback

Anyone can guess that as a history student, I have done a whole lot of essay writing throughout my university career. Therefore, I have gained the ability to develop and articulate constructive feedback that is clear and persuasive, and I know how to use substantial evidence to support my claims. This is exceptionally useful to a literary agency because I have to be able to provide feedback to writers. This communication with authors is crucial to the development of an agency, because the feedback has to be well thought-out and convincing enough that the writer chooses to better the book, but not so demanding that it takes away from their original ideas.

Books piled on top of one another, with papers, pencils, and pencil crayons sticking out of them.Picture located on Pixabay and licensed via Creative Commons.

Important Interpretations

Though a lot of a literary agent’s job comes from their educational and professional experiences, sometimes their work really comes down to opinions. The greatest way that I helped out the agency this semester is that I brought a new set of opinions, ideas, and values to the agency. Part of these stem from my personal and cultural identities, but others come from my history education. History students are taught from the onset of their university education about the world. We learn about cultures and countries, peoples and prejudices, oppressions and overcoming them. Because we are more aware of these, we pay attention to how it plays a role in the literature that we read. As a result, we bring opinions to the table that students from many other disciplines may not have. 

A picture of me, SelinaIn the McDermid Agency's Office, March 2017.

So, this is it! The seven months of my internship have finally come to a close. I am more than lucky to have been a part of the publishing world for so long. Perhaps the greatest lesson I've learned in this all is how invaluable my history knowledge is. It is transferrable to any workplace, even when the workplace may seem to have little to do with history. And to me, this was the best surprise and discovery of them all.

Thank you for following along this year!
For more on what you can do with a history background, check out this article by Maranne Rhett of the World History Association!