Sydnee Monday: In Conversation

IN CONVERSATION WITH SYDNEE MONDAY

Sydnee Monday is the Associate Editor for Kokila Books under Penguin Random House. Beginning as Editorial Assistant, after two years she advanced to Assistant Editor. Sydnee graduated from Howard University in 2016 with a Communications degree and concentration in Film, Media and Video studies. After completing a few media internships, Sydnee became News Assistant for National Public Radio (NPR) before transitioning over to publishing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

I know you have a media/film background. How did you become interested in publishing?

I studied film at Howard, but I needed to pay my rent. I lived close to the NPR building so I applied to the Arts Internship three times. And on the third time, I got it only because I found someone and asked for an informational interview. I was like, "Can I come and chat with you for a few seconds?" And she ended up inviting me into the building and introducing me to the staff. I really think it was because of her that I got that internship and was able to get some face time. And so I got that internship and the entire summer I was basically sorting books. I thought it was really fun because all I had to do was organize books and not talk to anyone. And because of that I got a good sense of the market through what everyone was sending us for review, and I found myself moving towards kids books and wanting to talk about them. But we weren’t doing much coverage of kids books back then.

How did you end up at Kokila Books?

I really needed insurance and healthcare and after about a six-month contract at NPR, one day I was like,

‘I should just start looking for jobs in kids books, ' I had never known that was an option before. I thought that publishing was just that people wrote books and the company printed them. I hadn’t thought about there being a design team, a marketing team and all these teams working together to get this book out. I started looking on LinkedIn, and the job that I initially got through Kokila just popped up. I didn’t know it was a Penguin Random House imprint, I just read this mission, “made for and by marginalized people. ” I thought this kind of sounds perfect because this is exactly what I've been wanting to talk about with kids books. And so I applied and cold emailed my [current] boss… And I think it’s really because I reached out that I was flagged because I don’t think HR would have flagged me before that.

Was it hard to transition over to publishing starting later than those who typically do so straight out of undergrad?

I noticed it more so in my first year of publishing. It felt like everyone else had a leg up. They either had a couple of internships, or they went to a summer publishing course or graduate program. And I was coming from very scrappy, any journalism jobs I could get.

Publishing is an interesting industry and it’s all about who you know. For someone who really didn't know anyone in publishing, it was definitely a challenging year and a half. But I’m really lucky to be working with the imprint that I am. It’s a small team of all women of color from different backgrounds. It’s a lot different than every other publishing experience within the traditional five.

Do you have any general advice for aspiring publishers?

Definitely informational interviews. I did a few as I was applying for my job at Kokila, and they’re great if you’re not going to a course or you don’t already know some people in publishing. Just cold email and reach out to people. Get to know people, hear different perspectives and experiences. This is an industry that can be very tricky to go at alone.

A cold email is an unsolicited email that is sent to a receiver without prior contact. This does not mean it is spamming. It's just a way of saying hello and introducing yourself.

This is not the opportunity to ask for a job.