Dear Geist,

I must take issue with your advice to Tiana in Yarmouth (see the post Intern Plus), a writer who hopes to volunteer at a publishing company for a few months. Her idea is to learn how publishing works from the inside, meeting skilled and influential people in the business, while helping out here and there, in order to make her writing more publishable. I’m the marketing manager for an independent non-fiction book publisher, and the last thing I need is some wannabe writer hanging around asking questions, when I can barely find time to train junior staff who passionately want to work in publishing all their lives. No one in the business has enough time for comprehensive training, but we find it—for those who are keen to be publishing lifers, not for tourists. I’m sure Tiana means well and doesn’t realize how close to the bone most book publishers work. But you do!

—Roxanne in Cyberspace

Dear Roxanne,

Thanks for your spine-stiffening note. Our advice for Tiana stands, but we could have made it much clearer how precious training time is, and what any good publisher’s priorities are, and what etiquette an onlooker ought to observe.

—The Editors