Miraculous Interns, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept Unpaid Labor

by L. Andrew Cooper

I got an email from a guy who wanted to work for me at Horrific Scribblings, LLC, at which I was (and I technically still am) sole employee and proprietor. Since my company loses money and doesn’t pay me a dime, paying another person isn’t an option, but this guy wanted to work for free.

A million ethical alarm bells went off, but he wanted to do it, so I had to think about it. He and I both had the added incentive that, although I wouldn’t pay him for his time and effort, he was part of a university program that would.

My research began. I live in Los Angeles and was immediately reminded that our most famous business stands on a foundation of unpaid labor, in the studios the Production Assistants who fetch coffee and do other jobs while generally getting treated like shit and in indie filmmaking sometimes everybody. We don’t publish like New York, but we do a lot of literary production that, like the film biz, relies on an unpaid base to handle the number of people aspiring to be stars. We pioneered the concept, “paid in experience.”

However, we are also part of California, so we have laws protecting even unpaid workers’ rights. By law, the focus of an unpaid position, an unpaid internship, should be the education of the intern. Being “paid in experience” must be literal; the experience must be valuable. The intern must have a real opportunity to learn. Someone might argue, and undoubtedly has argued, that fetching coffee builds character, but as a former postsecondary (i.e. university-level) teacher, I find that such an argument reflects a weak theory of adult education.

And then I realized—yes, I’ve been a professor! Not only that, but when I wasn’t teaching about writing, I was usually teaching about horror in fiction and film! I have a lot of experience working with students at all levels (and of all ages) on achieving their goals. Not only that, but as Assistant Director of Writing and Communication at Georgia Tech, I helped design an award-winning curriculum that affected thousands of learners. I studied, gave professional presentations, and helped new teachers learn about theories of teaching and learning.

Heck, I even ran an internship program.

I’m fairly new to the world as a publisher, but I’ve been publishing my work (including a textbook) with various print and online magazines, journals, and presses for more than 25 years, and during that time I’ve had close relationships with people at publishing houses ranging from the very small to the Big Five. Combine that with my background in teaching, and I seem to be poised to turn Horrific Scribblings, LLC, a constantly evolving indie press focused on transgressive dark fiction, into a “place” (it’s all digital) with many, many opportunities for people who want to learn about writing and/or publishing and/or transgressive dark fiction.

Therefore, I offered the guy who’d emailed me an unpaid internship, and he became the first Editorial Assistant at Horrific Scribblings. In no time at all, his intelligent perspective changed the way I approached submissions (he made me much tougher!), and developing projects as learning opportunities connected to his goals made the company grow in new ways.

The second intern, whom the first recommended, didn’t have the luxury of a university program that would compensate him for his time. No one has since, actually, but since three of the six people to whom I’ve offered the job so far (all accepted–one had to back out for personal reasons, and one hasn’t started yet) approached me without even knowing a job might exist, I’m confident people actually do want to get paid in valuable experience. Especially since two people have already completed internships successfully, I’m now confident that I can pay the unpaid.

Interested in being paid in valuable transgressive dark fiction publishing experience? Read more!

When you accept the role of student and acknowledge someone as your teacher, you give the teacher power over you and make yourself vulnerable. Ideally, the teacher is trustworthy, and you’re opening your mind to be filled with reliable knowledge and useful wisdom. However, if you’re seeking knowledge and wisdom, presumably you’re not already equipped to judge whether what a teacher puts into your exposed, fragile mind is valid. You can’t even be sure it’s safe. Your mind could be violated, even broken. Learning is dangerous, but it’s kind of like breathing: if you’re going to survive, you have to do it. Horror stories about dealing with teachers, mentors… internship supervisors… remind us that learning is a battle for survival. (L. Andrew Cooper)

The Turn of the Screw (novella) by Henry James (1898)

James is arguably one of the most important writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pioneering techniques and playing a huge part in the transition from Victorian to Modernist literature. Though all of his stories are masterworks to some degree, none are as important to the horror genre as his magnum opus. The Turn of the Screw perfected the layer of ambiguity employed by the ghost stories that came before it, transforming an otherwise straightforward ghost story into a psychological nightmare. In it, an anonymous governess is caring for two orphans at the isolated Bly estate when she begins to suspect that an insidious, malicious force attached to the property is corrupting their minds.

You can read the full novella here: https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/James/Turn_Screw.pdf

“Secret Worship” by Algernon Blackwood (1908)

Algernon Blackwood got into writing through his fascination with the occult, an obsession stemming from his Evangelical upbringing. Combined with his profound love for the great outdoors, this obsession made him a significant pioneer in folk horror. His ability to capture both the beauty and terror of nature on the page is, in my opinion, second to none. His works would go on to influence both H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien, both of whom spoke highly of his nature-themed folk tales. In his story “Secret Worship,” a silk merchant named Harris returns to the German boarding school he attended as a child, only to discover its horrific new purpose. 

You can read the full story here: https://algernonblackwood.org/Z-files/Secret_Worship.pdf

Apt Pupil (novella) by Stephen King (1982)

I will not waste your time introducing Stephen King. The following novella, however, is one of many in his intensely prolific career that has fallen under the radar in recent years, at least in comparison to his newest and/or most popular novels. Troubled high school student Todd Bowden has developed a morbid interest in the Holocaust. Lucky for him, his next-door neighbor Arthur Denker – real name Kurt Dussander – knows more than a thing or two about the subject. The more time Bowden spends under Dussander’s roof, the more the two inadvertently encourage their most violent tendencies. This novella is a fantastic portrayal of the infectious nature of evil. 

You can read the full text here: https://ia601202.us.archive.org/7/items/lesatkins_epubs/Apt%20Pupil%20-%20King_%20Stephen.pdf