Sara Loy spent her summer interning at Benjamin Press, an independent publishing house focused on tea texts. Her major project was editing The New Tea Companion, where she redesigned content and layout. She also traveled to research a Japanese tea jar in Washington D.C. and completed a part-time internship summarizing manuscripts for the University Press of Kentucky. Through her varied roles editing, designing, researching, and assisting, Sara gained experience in the publishing field and feels prepared to pursue a career in editorial work.

1. Benjamin Press: a
division of Elmwood Inn
Fine Teas
Editorial Intern
Sara LoyIntroduction
I spent my summer in Danville as an Editorial Intern at
Benjamin Press, the US’s chief independent publishing house
for texts about tea. This was my second summer at Benjamin
Press, where I expanded on my duties from last summer to
include doing research in Washington, DC, copyediting, and
leading editorial meetings in London. I worked as editor for
The New Tea Companion, for which I was in charge of leading
major and minor edits.
In addition, I completed a part-time internship with the
University Press of Kentucky in Lexington. I worked in
Acquisitions, compiling summaries of submitted manuscripts
and shadowing business and editorial meetings. Together, my
summer internships allowed me to achieve my goal of
experience of the business of editing and publishing, my
career field.
Major project: The New Tea Companion
This was my largest project for the summer. I started
by rereading and reviewing the book, which is
comprised of the history of tea and a guide to
understanding over 100 teas from around the world. I
changed the grammar and style to US instead of UK
(think “color” instead of “colour”) and made
suggestions for the overall layout and flow. My
boss—one of the co-authors—and I redesigned how
the information should be presented, both in content
and form.
Travel to Washington, DC
In DC, I went to the Sackler Gallery to research Chigusa, a
Japanese tea leaf storage jar from the 1300s.
For this research, I
• Read publications/the history of the jar
• Interviewed the Sackler Gallery curator
• Took photos of a tea ceremony .
• Ghostwrote the Benjamin Press article about it
Internship at the University Press of Kentucky
My part-time internship in Lexington had me read both
manuscripts and proposals to the Press. For each of these, I
wrote a summary or review that would then go to the
committee that decided to accept or deny the submission.
I also
• Shadowed business meetings
• Researched the various departments
Centre College
Overview of Benjamin Press
Benjamin Press is the publishing house of Elmwood Inn Fine
Teas, a retail/wholesale shop on North Second Street here in
Danville, The front of the shop sells tea, and the back of the
shop is devoted to offices and my tiny desk.
My duties
• Copyediting magazine articles
• Watering flowers
• Take photos for possible publication
• Recreated spread layout
• Updating trip itineraries
• Changing UK style to US style
• Proposing edits to that book there
The New Tea
Companion,
Left: cover
Below: an older design
of the tea guide
Minor Project: Thé Vert
Thé Vert is a book written in French by Canadian
publishing house Maison de Thé Camellia Sinensis. I
started my summer by reading the English translation
of a chapter and doing minor edits to that text before
placing the translation in an identical spread to what
was in the book. This meant I had to entirely recreate
the page layout from the physical book in InDesign,
the spread software.
Travel to London
My trip to London allowed me to meet Jane, Bruce’s co-author
of The New Tea Companion. The editorial meetings I led
allowed the co-authors to agree upon what edits to make to the
book and what their timeline would be. I also acted as personal
assistant to my boss; photographer, researcher, and luggage mule.
Ask me about…
Tea!
I wrote/read a lot about it.
Since Benjamin Press was proposing to
publish the English version of Thé
Vert, we had to create the rough draft
of how the translation would lay in
order to move on to business negotiations.
Above: Kew Palace
Left: Tea at the Athenaeum
Conclusion
My summer project focused on my goal of working in the
editing/publishing field with an eye to pursuing this as a
career. I was able to take on multiple roles as intern: editor,
spread designer, photographer, researcher, shop assistant, and
writer. Thanks to my Brown Fellows summer, I have the
know-how and experience to take on an editorial position after
graduation.