I've worked in publishing since the age of 20 in a variety of roles, but perhaps the job I enjoyed most was working for two years as an assistant at a literary agency. Not only because the agent and I shared the same taste in books, but also in strong coffee and chocolate.
I had decided to pursue a job in an agency because I wanted to not only learn the rudiments of the trade, but also because I wanted to witness, first-hand, authors' experiences of gestating a book from its embryonic beginnings to eventual publication.
One of my daily jobs was to assess the unsolicited manuscripts. We had a template rejection letter which I would sometimes annotate briefly. Occasionally we'd ask for the full manuscript. (In one instance, we asked the author for his full manuscript, then read it and rejected it, though I did eventually go on to marry the author - but that's a story for another blog!)
