Applying for the Denver Publishing Institute

I did it! I finished my application for the Denver Publishing Institute.

DPI is a graduate certificate program through the University of Denver. It’s for those who are singularly interested in entering publishing, and will cover editing, publicity, marketing, and sales, to give a full understanding of the business. It focuses on textbooks, trade publications, reference books, and children’s books. While I don’t have a particular interest in those areas, this program is unique in that it even focuses on books. The most similar program is at NYU, but it sounds like it focuses on magazine publishing.

I’m kind of worried. I have put so much weight on this opportunity. I heard about if for the first time last summer, and immediately knew I needed to apply. My mom keeps telling me not to put all my eggs in one basket, so I have been applying for publicity and public relations jobs as well, but not nearly as much as I probably should have.

I just don’t know if I’m what they’re looking for. They expect English majors who spent their free time working on publications; the school newspaper or literary magazine. I’m a PR major. Yes, I have an English minor, but it’s not quite the same. I didn’t work on publications. I didn’t want to write for the school paper, and I had a bad experience working on one of my high school’s literary magazines. Long story short, I ended up putting the whole thing together more or less by myself the second year under the instruction of a teacher I didn’t particularly like, and by the time I was done, I no longer wanted anything to do with literary magazines.

I joined National Novel Writing Month club because I want to be a literary agent and thought that I could meet some authors and make connections. When I spoke with the Program Director in August, she informed me that they’re not looking for writers. I worry that, even though I explain that I don’t actually do much writing in the club, I’ve been keeping authors on track, promoting events, editing their work, and running exercises to improve their writing, that they’ll just assume that I’m a writer who wants to get an inside look to the publishing industry. This is not the case.

It’s out of my hands now. Well, except my personal statement. Still editing that.