Working Windmill |Interview #1 with Nicole Dykeman

Nicole Dykeman worked on Issue #3 of Windmill.

Sabrina: Before taking the internship class, had you heard of Windmill?

Nicole: Actually, back when I worked on Windmill, it wasn’t a class. I worked it as a work study job. I had heard of it through all of the other English department programs, like the Hofstra English Society. I took a course with a woman named Melissa and also took a class with Kelly, and they suggested that I work on Windmill.

S: Wow. I had no idea. I kind of always assumed it was a class. It is now mandatory for all publishing studies majors, which makes sense to me.

N: I’m not surprised. I believe they were in the process of talking about making it a capstone requirement during my last couple of years. It definitely makes sense, as you are doing so many publishing skills.

S: I agree. I have learned a lot from this course. My next question is what were you most looking forward to doing or learning when you were first going into Windmill?

N: I was looking forward to getting my editing practice on real work. I had taken the book editing course already, but it didn’t feel real until I was working with actual authors’ submissions. 

S: That is what I was looking forward to as well. The editing fundamentals class was good but this is more real-world experience. 

What was your favorite part of Windmill? Was it the editing or something else?

N: Actually, one of the things I remember the most fondly was actually doing the book design and layout in InDesign. I didn’t get a lot of practice with that outside of the book design course, and my co-managing editor and I spent a long time perfecting it, so I was very proud of that aspect when we were finished.

S: I took the production and design class and I thought InDesign was going to be the death of me. Still, it’s cool, I just can’t do it lol. 

N: It definitely took me some time to get used to. It’s a pretty finicky program, so it was nice working on it with a partner.

S: I agree with the finicky program part. We did a group project in the design class, and I still feel bad that I was so useless. 

S: Moving on, what was your least favorite part of Windmill?

N:I think going through the submissions slush pile was both my favorite and my least favorite part of Windmill. It took quite a long time to read through all the submissions, and not all of them are good. But it was always really interesting to see which pieces people were willing to fight for, and often, the more divisive selections were the ones that made it into the issue because everybody felt passionately about them, whether it was negative or positive.

S: I’m with you on that. It was both fun and terrifying to read the submissions. Some were amazing, and some were just so out of left field that none of us knew what the message was supposed to be. 

What did you learn from Windmill that has helped you in your job search and careers?

N: I think Windmill was a great opportunity to practice working closely with a team of people that does not always agree on everything. I loved our team, but there were definitely a few times where people clashed heads. It was nice practice for the real world and managing everyone’s emotions and needs in the workplace.

S: It’s true. I definitely am learning that now, especially with some of the edits that we are doing and the opinions on what was already good and what may need to be changed. 

Finally, what advice would you give to someone trying to go into the publishing field or a book involved career?

N: Honestly I have found that one of the most important things is staying up to date with recent publications and making time to actually read the books that you are interested in making. A lot of places will ask you what you have read recently or what your favorite books are in a job interview to get an idea of the kind of taste or perspective you bring to the table. At my library, I’m one of the only people who reads YA as an adult, so that’s an asset that I bring to the table when it comes to placing book orders or doing readers’ advisory work with teens. So reading books is important!

S: As someone who has told the teen librarian that she needed to order the sequel to one of the books I borrowed, I 100% agree with what you are saying.