Publishing Careers

The Future of Book Publishing for Freelancers

2011-03-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today I had the honor of speaking to the Indianapolis Freelancers Group on the future of publishing. My co-presenter was Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director, Dummies Tech, for Wiley.

Mary and I have both been knocking around the local publishing scene for more than 20 years, but we managed to never meet one another before today. No matter. Our approach to the subject was in sync (“Great minds…,” she told me later). She expanded on and reinforced my points below and added the perspective of a much larger publisher.

As promised, here is the outline I developed beforehand:

1. The current situation is difficult for some freelancers.

Economic contraction has caused some publishers to reduce their title counts—trying to publish smarter, not harder.
Everyone is still recovering from the massive publishing layoffs in December 2009.
Publishers are keeping more work in-house and asking for more productivity from employees—especially in the third and fourth quarters of the year.
Nonfiction book sales are declining overall because people can get “good enough” information online for free.
People who have had a steady gig with one publisher are suddenly finding themselves without work.
Employment for editors, writers, and authors is expected to rise by 8% by 2018; however, competition for these jobs is expected to be fierce (see the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook).

2. How will the shift to e-books affect freelancers?

40 million people will have e-readers in 2011.
Penguin’s e-book revenues were up 182% in 2010.
Borders bankruptcy means fewer opportunities for people to find and buy printed books.
Content still needs to be edited and indexed.
More proofreading may take place in PDFs.
Book design for text-heavy books will be simplified and more utilitarian for easy conversion to e-books. It will pay to be familiar with XML, Mobi, and how to convert PDFs to other e-book formats.
More advanced apps and readers (iPad, Blio) will require richer content, with animation, embedded videos, audio, and so on.
Everybody thinks they need an app, but nobody seems to be able to recommend a good iPhone app developer!

3. Networking is still the key to finding freelance work.

Publishers are reluctant to hire someone they have never worked with before. It takes time to evaluate and train new freelancers. Most have their tried-and-true favorites and don’t need more help beyond them. It’s really a buyer’s market in Indy!
Look to people you worked with when you were in house.
Find people for whom you formerly worked who have moved to other publishers. (The “Macmillan Diaspora” has produced an amazing array of connections all over the country. Find them on LinkedIn and Facebook.)

4. Look to nontraditional markets.

Custom publishing divisions (Pearson, Wiley).
Self-publishing companies (Author Solutions).
Book packagers.
Company websites and blogs.
Content farms (Demand Media, Associated Content, HubPages, Answers.com, About.com).
Individuals (self-published books, doctoral theses, resumes, other small projects).

5. Follow the experts online to see where they think it’s all headed.

Joe Wikert: Publishing 2020 blog
Jane Friedman: There Are No Rules blog and her personal blog
Kassia Krozser: Booksquare
GalleyCat

Mary urged freelancers to go out and get their hands on the various e-readers and familiarize themselves with how text looks in them. She also provided this great list of resources for editors:

Obviously, nobody can tell you exactly how this tumultuous time in publishing is going to pan out. My former next-door neighboor Andy Harris, a Wiley author, suggests that things in publishing might seem like they are out of order, but it's really just the beginning of a new order. It's exciting (and a little scary) to think where it all might lead.

Frankfurt, Komme Ich!

2010-10-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair is in full swing. By Friday (as it starts to wind down), I will be in its midst for the very first time. My excuse for never having gone before is that my company does very little international rights business. Most of our material does not translate well to other economies. So it hasn't been worth the effort to pursue translation deals.

I wouldn't really be going this year, either, if it weren't for my husband, the FBF veteran, who thinks I need to see it. This is his 11th year at the fair. It does seem strange that he has inhabited this world for so long and I know nothing of it first hand.

Frankfurt, however, is just a Teutonic appetizer to the real dish of my trip: Athens and Santorini, baby! I have always wanted to visit Greece, so finally I get my chance.

I have been driven to frenzied distraction trying to make sure everything back home is taken care of in my absence. I'm thankful for my mom and my mother-in-law, who make my biennial Euro-jaunts possible by looking after my kiddo and my home. Just a few last-minute details tonight (like, ahem, not living out my recurring nightmare of leaving my passport at home) and I should be ready to go.

You know the best part? I am not taking my computer! My iPod has a few Community and 30 Rock episodes on it, and I loaded up the Kindle with some Nick Hornby (and I still need to finish Eat, Pray, Love--am almost to the love part!). But I am hoping to break my Facebook dependence cold turkey. It will all still be there when I get back. (Won't it?)

Auf weidersehen und αντίο!

The Top 10 Most Important Things I’ve Learned from Editing Career Books

2010-07-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Last week I spoke at the monthly meeting of the Indianapolis chapter of the ExecuNet business networking group. When I was invited to speak back in January, I decided that my particular expertise on the subject of job hunting is that I have been reading the collective wisdom of the top minds in the careers business for 11 years. Ten things stood out to me as being the most essential but overlooked secrets to all aspects of job hunting. For your reading pleasure, here's my outline for the speech:

1. Keep your network in good repair.

Don’t wait until you need help to reach out to your network.
Networking should be a constant reaching out to people you know (former coworkers, family, friends, service providers) and people you don’t (people you share something or someone in common with).
Networking is about giving, too.
Networking yields up to 80 percent of all jobs landed.

2. Treat your job search like a job.

Spend 40 hours a week on your search.
Get up on time, get dressed, and work in your “office.”
Make a search schedule and stick to it.
Don’t underestimate how long it takes to find a job.

3. Write a customized cover letter for every opportunity you apply to.

Resumes can still be more general, but the cover letter must be very specific.
Write to a specific person—get a name (hiring manager, not HR).
Show, point by point, how you are a fit for the job.
Show your enthusiasm for the job.
Close actively rather than passively.

4. Emphasize accomplishments on your resume rather than job duties.

Just one or two lines for your job duties. Use bullets to emphasize accomplishments (six for current job and three for past jobs).
Accomplishments show how you affected the bottom line: How you made money for the company, saved money, grew customer base, created products, developed procedures, won awards.
Accomplishments must be quantified with numbers.

5. Build a professional and appealing online presence.

Get on LinkedIn, create a professional profile, reconnect with your colleagues, and get recommendations.
Make Facebook settings as private as possible; still, don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mom to read. Untag unflattering photos.
Use Twitter to show your industry knowledge, connect with decision makers, and find out about job openings.
If you are good at writing and information sharing, showcase your knowledge in a blog. Again, show some personality but don’t ever say anything that makes you look like a bad employee.

6. Use the Internet the right way in your job search.

Professional networking
Company research
Applying for jobs directly with companies

7. Don’t waste a lot of time chasing job postings.

Competition dramatically increases once a job is posted online or in the classifieds.
Use your network to find the opportunities before they are posted.
Don’t spend all day hiding behind your computer. Get out of the house and make connections.

8. Be prepared to back up anything you say about yourself in an interview with an example.

Behavioral interviewing: Tell me about a time when you…
Develop a success story to illustrate your top qualities and skills.
Challenge, actions, result format.

9. Put off talking about salary as long as possible in the process.

Most employers that ask for a range in the ad will still consider you without one (except those who state explicitly that they will not).
Whoever mentions a number first, loses.
You might name a number that is out of their range, and they will not consider you.
You might name a number that is lower than they were prepared to offer.
Defer the question by saying you want to focus on whether you are a fit for the job first. Can talk salary later.
If you have no choice, name a range.

10. Hiring experts to help you with your search can be worth the investment.

Trying to write your own resume is like cutting your own hair—difficult, and it probably won’t end up looking great from all angles.
Professional resume writers can be objective and cut what needs to be cut, prompt you for accomplishments, and present you in the best light.
Career coaches help you get to the truths inside you, promote what’s most impressive about you, show you the best ways to search, hold you accountable, and offer encouragement.

My Resume, Revised

2010-07-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

I mentioned many weeks ago that I was in the process of dismantling and recompiling my resume. Here's the preliminary result (click on the images to enlarge them). I reserve the right to change fonts again when I settle on a font for the business cards for my resume writing business.

Also, I know full well that not all of my accomplishments at Macmillan are quantified. I suddenly have more empathy for all those people that I've cajoled into adding numbers to their bullets. It was so long ago, and I was so not privy to the numbers. I'll keep working on those bullets.

But you have to admit that this is a lot more streamlined than my old resume. There's still more I could do away with, but this is a big improvement.

I also struggled with my objective and summary at the top. There are many directions I could take my career that would be fulfilling. But until specific opportunities present themselves, I settled on the one I think about most: being a freelance writer and editor, which includes copy editing, development editing, resume writing, and book proposal critiques. If I wanted to switch employers or industries, I would focus the summary and title differently and might add, remove, or rearrange items in my experience sections.

So, what do you think?

In Defense of Prince

2010-07-07T09:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we all got a good laugh from an enchanting little story written by Peter Willis for the Daily Mirror (UK). In it, he is allowed exclusive access to secretive pop star Prince's enclave and paints him as a modern-day musical Willie Wonka. No such story would be complete without revealing some of His Purpleness' quirks (of which there are many). But what emerged as the main thrust was this quote:

The Internet's completely over.

Prince's statement was, of course, met with as much derision as when Al Gore purportedly said he invented the thing. Yes, it's rather absurd today to try and imagine life after the Internet. But what I think he might have been saying was that as a music-delivery medium, the Internet is over for him. Obviously, he's got some contractual problems with Apple and some copyright issues in general. I always root for the underdog, so I'm hoping he can find a way around it all.

Prince goes on to say that

All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.

Again, hilariously unhip, right? But isn't a nagging voice in the back of your head telling you that he might have a point? Whatever the gadgets are filling your head with (in my case, so many words and thoughts and conflicts that my cerebellum fairly buzzes) is disruptive to society. People are finding it harder and harder to relate to one another IRL. It's easy to sit behind your computer and pull the strings, blaming others for our own problems. I fear we will forget how to get out there and live life and be responsible for ourselves.

Another of Prince's documented quirks that I think has merit is his status as a "teetotal vegan." Drinking still water and eating raw fruits and veggies is about as pure as it gets. I will probably never break away from my fondness for the occasional seared cow flesh and fermented grape. But if I can eat just a little more like Prince, it sure wouldn't hurt anything. Maybe I'll start asking myself "WWPE?" (What Would Prince Eat?).

Bottom line: Yes, Prince prances to the beat of a different drum than most of us. But it's that eccentricity that fuels his genius, and I admire his spunk.

Is It Time for a Resume Makeover?

2010-05-10T08:49:00.001-07:00

If you're like me, your current resume has probably been evolving since you applied for your first job (and for me, that's been more than 20 years—ouch). I've added jobs and tweaked the presentation for lo these many decades, but it's all still based on that first document.

For a couple of years, I have been writing resumes professionally in my "spare" time. Along with writing, editing, and marketing skills, I've been able to bring my clients something rare and valuable: Brutal objectivity. "It's great that you used to groom poodles. But that has absolutely nothing to do with manufacturing engineering, so let's cut it!" In the back of my mind, I've always known that my own resume could benefit from some of that, too. But something (lack of time, sentimentality, laziness, whatever) has kept that task on the back burner.

Last week something finally clicked, though. I had just done a couple of elegantly streamlined resumes for friends whose careers have been longer and much more illustrious than my own. If the highlights of their careers can fit on two pages without having to resort to two columns and tiny type, why can't mine?

Another contributing factor was the arrival of a volunteer resume writing mentor. Just hours after I woke up from a dream with the words "I need a guru!" on my mind, I was contacted by a longtime professional resume writer who offered to mentor me toward formal certification. It was truly cosmic. Her edits have shown me that I am still too profligate with words—most especially on my own resume.

So I'm doing it now: I'm starting over from scratch. Here are some things I'm changing:

Adding more white space. This means, of course, that I'm cutting words. Lots of words.
Letting go of some earlier jobs. Although I might mention my experience as a newspaper reporter to support my writing ambitions, it won't get more than a phrase (and certainly not a date).
Not listing a bunch of specific book projects. My current resume lists a half-dozen example projects for each job. I think I will instead mention only a few that are particularly impressive in terms of their sales and scope. Maybe I'll create a separate, more comprehensive list of books I've edited and call that an addendum. But maybe adding the quantifying phrase "edited more than 300 books" in my summary will suffice.
Dropping education details. I don't need to mention my 20-year-old activities and internships. I'll just give my degree, my major and minor (because it was PR), and the fact that I graduated summa cum laude. I won't be giving the date. I'm not quite old enough to be discriminated against because of age, but it won't be long until I am.
Tightening job descriptions. My guru says they can't be more than three lines long. This is tough.
Quantifying all bulleted accomplishments. If I can't attach a number to them, I can't use them.
Adding social media contact info to the header. My resume now contains my blog address and Twitter handle because the content I've put out there is devoted to professional topics.

Of course, my work on my all-new resume has ground to a halt in favor of a new freelance editing project. But I vow to complete, polish, and post my new document within a month. What about you? Have you got the objectivity to trash your resume and start over from scratch? I challenge you to start it today! It's something proactive you can do to make yourself feel better in an unsteady economic climate.

What If They Had a London Book Fair and the Americans Didn't Come?

2010-04-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I was all set to send out another ho-hum blog post about how my husband was once again heading off to the London Book Fair for the 11th year in a row. But as most people know by now, something happened.

The car service picked Jason up at 3:45am yesterday and took him to the airport to catch his Chicago flight, and from there on to London. At 7am, as my daughter and I were getting dressed, the Today show came on with the news of the volcano eruption in Iceland. I gasped. As my brain was processing how absolute the Heathrow ground halt was, the phone rang. Indeed, Jason had been advised to get off the Chicago flight (which was delayed) and go home. He rebooked through Paris for today, thinking things might improve. (Meanwhile, I drove about 100 miles round trip to fetch him, take him home, and then go to work.)

By this morning, of course, the ash situation worsened, and e-mails were flying back and forth among him and his colleagues here and in Upper Saddle River. The group's annual rights summit was scheduled for tomorrow in Dame Marjorie's private dining room overlooking the Thames from The Strand. There was no way they'd make it in time for that. So they decided to cancel it. And they also decided that the travel situation would make it nearly impossible to get there in time for the fair itself on Monday. So they surrendered to Vulcan and cancelled their trips altogether.

Jason has spent the entire day undoing all the work and plans that he's been making for months: cancelling dozens of publisher meetings, hotel rooms, flights, trains, dinners, and more. He's absolutely devastated and feels out of sorts to be here and not there. But many of his publishers responded that they, too, would not be able to make it to the fair. What can all of humankind do when Mother Nature kicks over our intricately constructed societal anthills?

Fair officials are still planning to go ahead with the event. But periodic searches of the #LBF10 hashtag on Twitter indicate that the British will likely end up doing a lot of talking to one another because even their European counterparts can't get across the Channel in time. Still, it will be a great economic loss to everyone. Such a shame.

To Tweet or to Blog?

2010-04-07T10:58:00.001-07:00

For several months, I've been kicking around the thought that the current Twitter craze is hurting blogs by enticing their writers to take the easy way out and just tweet instead of crafting a more substantial blog post. I know that's what I've been doing.

And back in November, Publishing 2020 blogger Joe Wikert admitted that Twitter is cutting into his blogging frequency:

The time I used to spend reading (and writing) blogs has shifted to Twitter. I find myself less attracted to the long form writing in blogs and more to the short bursts of Twitter. FWIW, I used to write 4-6 posts for this blog every week and now I typically only write one, but I also write anywhere from 3-10 or more tweets per day. Despite that, traffic continues to grow modestly and nobody has complained so it seems like the right approach.

Yo, Joe, aren't you the one who told me I needed to blog every day? Seriously, that was good advice. Posting frequently catapults your content to the top of search engine results because they like to index frequently updated sites. Like Joe, I've seriously cut back my posting frequency to about one post per week. But last time I checked, this blog was still the number-one result on Google and Yahoo for the search term "Publishing Careers." So maybe the new advice is blog every day for a couple of years, and then you can rest on your SEO laurels?

I've noticed a similar trend in readership, too. My "backlist" usually gets a lot more action than my new posts (exceptions being this post about Butler coach Brad Stevens and this post about DC Trawler blogger Jim Treacher/Sean Medlock), anyway. And my daily readership stays about the same as it's always been, but without the big spikes I used to get when I got a good mention elsewhere.

So then Monday on Twitter, I ran across this post by Adam Singer on The Future Buzz listing 19 reasons why bloggers should resist the urge to merely pass along information, but to continue creating it in the form of blogs as well. And it must have hit a nerve. I retweeted it and got tons of high-profile retweets to my own fifth-hand retweet. It's as if somebody finally said what we all didn't want to say but knew was true: Creating compelling content does more for you and your brand than if you just share links to other people's content. What a great post.

Always the catastrophizer, I also wonder whether the decline of long-form blog posts will lead to a shortage of ideas. Will it lead back to old-school journo model of the few writing to the many, and the many just echoing their words in short tweets? And those of us who started blogs just to keep the words flowing will find ourselves with a new case of writer's block.

Don't get me wrong. I still love Twitter. I learn so much more, so much faster. I've expanded my network and shared laughs with people I have never met. I've got my finger on the informational pulse of the gadget-addicted world. Love it. Can't get enough of it. It fascinates me. But people who can write and who have something to say shouldn't squander it all on tweets. So I promise I will make an effort to write more long posts like this one.

How Brad Stevens Got His Dream Job

2010-03-29T10:57:00.001-07:00

It's going to be hard to think about much besides basketball in Indianapolis this week. We already knew we'd be immersed in the Final Four hullaballoo by virtue of the fact that March Madness, as it often does, ends here. But little did we suspect we'd be cheering for the home team--the Butler Bulldogs--as well.

It's an irresistible story: A small school (4,500 students) led by a young coach (33-year-old Brad Stevens) defies the odds and makes it to the NCAA Final Four—just miles from their own campus. The national media has already begun to tire of its own parallels to the movie Hoosiers (part of which, of course, was filmed in Butler's home arena). But perhaps the most fascinating element is the coach himself.

Brad Stevens played high school basketball in Zionsville, where he is still the all-time leading scorer. (My brother-in-law Andrew Hand played on the high school team with him, but I haven't yet managed to parlay that into an introduction.) Brad went on to play basketball in college at DePauw while majoring in business. Upon graduation, he joined Eli Lilly in a marketing capacity. But his heart was still on the basketball court, and he volunteered as a high school coach and also in administrative roles with the Butler team.

Within seven years, he had been hired by Butler and moved up the ranks to head coach. And now, just a few years later, he's led the team to its first-ever Final Four.

I can't help but think of the book I edited, Your Dream Job Game Plan, in which sports agent Molly Fletcher puts forth the five tools you need to get your own dream job:

Passionate style
Fearlessness
A game plan
Flawless execution
Managing choices

I haven't met Brad, but it's obvious that he used all five of these tools to reach—and excel in—his dream job. Imagine how scary it must have been to give up a secure and lucrative business career for a shot at coaching. He had a passion for basketball, he managed his career choices, he had a plan, and he executed his plan flawlessly. And now all of Indiana is cheering him on as his team faces Michigan State (ironically, Molly's alma mater) in the first game of the Final Four.

Reached for comment this afternoon, Molly had this to say:

Brad Stevens is a “5-tool-plus-some coach." Getting to the final four--as Brad Stevens has done--requires passion, game plans, fearlessness, execution (married with a little luck sometimes). Brad gets it. He is a heck of a x and o coach--but an equally good motivator--and has gelled his guys together to find himself home in Indianapolis living out a dream. But, as a former Spartan, I must add, so has Izzo. Go Green!

Brad and his team are already winners in our eyes, regardless of what happens on Saturday.

Wiley Posts Summer Internships

2010-03-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

Looks like Wiley in Indianapolis will once again be offering several editorial internships this summer:

The IT posting mentions a stipend but the others don't (that doesn't mean that they won't pay something; you'll have to ask to find out for sure). Each posting says that the internship is "structured" and lasts 10 weeks. (I'm an ISTJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, so structured is really good in my mind.)

I've said it dozens of times on this blog, but I'll say it again: An internship is an excellent way to get valuable experience, paid or not. It also can sometimes get your foot in the door for something permanent once you graduate.

Integrating Twitter into Your Blog

2010-03-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

I'm probably the last person to figure this out. But it's still so cool that I have to share it.

For the past year or so, I have been so enthralled with Twitter that I have neglected this blog. I found it easier to tweet helpful bits of advice there than to write up a few paragraphs about it here. But I know there are people who read the blog but don't follow me on Twitter, so I worry that they are missing out on a lot.

I was poking around on Twitter yesterday trying to verify some stats for an upcoming book. Then I noticed a link at the bottom of the home page that says Goodies. And well, far be it from me to pass up goodies of any sort. The Twitter goodies are buttons and widgets you can put on your site. I clicked on Widgets and found a button that specified that I wanted it on my website (I can't seem to find it today, though!). I was able to pick a widget and customize the colors. Then there was a Blogger button that put it right into my blog. I went into my customization settings and moved it below the AdSense ad (because heaven knows I make a killing off of that! ).

So now, voila! Blog readers can see my most recent tweets. One thing I learned, though, is that things I retweet with the Retweet button do not show up in my widget. So I'm back to doing manual RTs for a while. It takes more time but it also facilitates networking because people can see that I am retweeting them.

And I am deliriously happy with myself!

Want to Be a Marketing Assistant/Coordinator?

2010-03-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Coincidentally, I ran across two different postings today for marketing assistants at publishing companies. The first is at EMC Publishing, our parent company in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Educational publisher seeks Marketing Communications Coordinator. This person will be responsible for working with the Marketing Communications Manager to coordinate the implementation of the EMC Publishing marketing plan through the design, copywriting, production, mailing, and tracking of all marketing projects through multiple channels. Assist the Marketing Communications Manager with special projects as assigned. Duties include:

Develop, execute, and evaluate direct mail marketing materials (including catalogs, brochures, flyers, and letters) for new and backlist titles that generate sales leads and product orders, and support the sales representatives.
Collaborate with all internal teams involved in the product development process to determine the conceptual and copy direction of branding and advertising initiatives.
Develop online web content for emcschool.com including new product copy, promotional pages, and event announcements
Write and conceptualize emarketing campaigns including emails, web site landing pages, and social media platforms.
Proofread and fact-check product information in all EMC marketing materials.

Bachelor's degree required in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or related degree. Must have at least two years of marketing communications experience with a demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and effectively primarily in written form. Must have knowledge of mailings, project management, and promotions. Must have very good knowledge of technology to include computers and software programs such as MS Office. Requires exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail to coordinate phases of projects with others under tight deadlines. Apply here.

The second marketing job is at Wiley in Indianapolis:

Provides general administrative support to marketing department, including processing bills and monitoring promotion expenses, special sales events [workshops, author tours, conventions, and book fairs], and advertising schedules. Assists in the implementation of marketing plans, including coordination of author promotion initiatives, preparation and distribution of sales tools, including sales sheets, product kits, and competitive information. Provides back-up copywriting [space ads and sales letters], proofreading, and basic design support.

Requirements: 1 year of marketing or publishing experience. Proficiency on MS applications. Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment. Excellent communication skills required. Apply here.

These two jobs are at slightly different levels and have different entry requirements. I found these two postings informative (not to mention encouraging, from an economic standpoint) and thought you might, too.

Twitter Job Search Guide Publicity Wins!

2010-03-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

If you're following me on Twitter (and you should be!), you're probably sick to death of my tweets about The Twitter Job Search Guide. But I swear it's not calculated and shameless self-promotion. I truly adore this book and am so very excited that it's now available in stores.

The book is packed with novel and vital tips for maximizing Twitter for your career purposes. Pick it up, turn to any page, and I guarantee that you will learn something.

A week or so ago, the authors did an interview for the Associated Press that has received wide distribution and iterations of it are turning up all over (for example, here on the ABC News site). That has helped push the Amazon rank to a respectable spot for a new book and is spawning new exposure every day.

The authors are spearheading an energetic and innovative PR campaign, beginning with a book launch party in New York on Monday. We've never really tried that for any of our other books, mainly because the subject of careers is not usually thought of as glam. But throw in the hottest social networking trend and suddenly, things get interesting.

But here's where it takes a turn for the surreal. Original gossip girl Liz Smith just happens to live in an apartment above the restaurant where the launch party is taking place. And today, she gave it a very nice preview in her online column. This is where I got a little woozy. Finally, finally, we've got a book going viral. I am so excited to see what happens next!

Libraries and the Job Hunt

2010-03-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm back from Charlotte and have much more that I want to say about what I learned at the Baker & Taylor vendor summit. As you know, B&T is a major library wholesaler. So as I worked the vendor fair yesterday, many of the people stopping by the table were librarians or people who sell to librarians. I cannot count how many people said "Oh, resumes and job search are hot right now. A lot of libraries have job search centers in them." Of course, we've been reading that in the media. But it's good to hear it validated over and over again.

After the fair, Tom (our rep) and I had time to kill before our flight. So we drove to downtown Charlotte and hit the streets. Serendipitously, we walked right to the main branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library (love the reading-related quotes from Samuel Johnson and others on the pillars outside). Immediately we saw a sign pointing us to the career center. It was a huge space with lots of resources and computer terminals, as well as a medium-sized collection of job search books (including a good representation of ours, thank goodness). It wasn't overrun with people, but it was being used.

We walked around a bit more and found another area with computers for public use. Standing behind 36 users and looking at their screens simultaneously drew a gasp from me. "Tom, they are all on Facebook," I said. "I think we've got a national epidemic on our hands. I can't wait to go tweet about this!"

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw; maybe only that Facebooking was a more popular activity than job hunting in Charlotte yesterday. Certainly, there is value in any sort of networking. But there are so many distractions online. Hopefully all those people already have jobs.

Baker & Taylor Vendor Summit Meeting

2010-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hello from North Carolina, where library distributor Baker & Taylor has spent the day filling me (and hundreds of other publishers) with good food and great information. Our trade sales rep, Tom Doherty, invited me to come along to the summit to learn more about doing business with B&T, and to talk to librarians about our books at tomorrow's vendor fair.

Baker & Taylor is the #1 distributor to library and academic markets, retailers, and international accounts. They do business with 82% of all public libraries, 95% of academic libraries, and 15% of school libraries.

The first two hours were overall introductory remarks from the senior management team, where we learned about trends in the library business ("flat is the new up"), value-added services that B&T offers (such as collection development), and other branches and initiatives of the company. Among nonfiction topics, they cited Business & Economics (our category) as the second-largest-selling category. They even went so far as to point out that "Resumes and job search guides dominate, with emphasis on social network[ing]."

Later we learned about their new e-book reader software, Blio, which works on all hardware platforms and enables publishers to easily and cheaply add video, links, and other amazing interactive features to their e-books. I think it might be just what we have been looking for. So when I get back, I'll start working to get approval to get some of our titles converted and distributed on Blio.

It was very interesting to see how they have ramped up their marketing efforts to push our titles into the hands of libraries. This apparently new strategy seems aggressive and sharp, and it was interesting to hear the steps they took toward rebranding the company.

Then tonight was the vendor appreciation dinner, peppered with 10 best-selling authors, with David Baldacci topping the bill. His books really aren't my preferred genre, but he was highly entertaining and charming, telling stories of what happens when a best-selling author goes out in the world, mingling with Italian mayors, presidents, and more than a couple loonies. Top it all off with some Baked Alaska and you've got a really great day.

Looking forward to meeting our customers directly in the booth tomorrow. I scoped out the exhibition hall earlier and we will be among the who's who of trade and academic publishers. Should be entertaining.

Wiley Seeks eContent Conversion Specialist

2010-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

I keep Wiley's job postings on my RRS feeds and ran across something very interesting this morning. The Indianapolis office is seeking someone to convert its print materials to electronic formats. Check it out:

Responsible for assisting with the production of all eContent produced by the Indianapolis Composition Services department. This will include conversions from the page layout application directly to eContent such as XML, ePub, Kindle, etc. It will also entail the usage of XSLT to transform exported content into the appropriate format for compliance with Wiley’s version of XML and other eContent requirements. In addition, this position will assist with training people in eContent conversion methods as needed.

Requirements include a working knowledge of XHTML, HTML, and CSS and an exposure to XML (including schemas and DTDs). Knowledge of XSLT would be ideal. Prior work in a publishing environment would be a plus. Must also have a minimum of a 2-year technical degree. The successful candidate must also be self-motivated and have the ability to multi-task in a deadline-oriented environment. Written and verbal communication skills must be a strength, especially the ability to clearly communicate technical ideas to non-technical colleagues.

I have been thinking for a while that the brave new world of publishing will begin to require people who can do conversions like these. Now we know what a job like that would look like. The fact that Wiley is hiring someone on staff to do it instead of outsourcing it indicates that they understand the importance of making content available in multiple e-formats--and that they realize there's enough work to keep someone busy all the time.

This looks like a good opportunity for a tech/design whiz to get in on the ground floor of something big--and something that is likely to evolve and change a lot in the coming years.

Got a Fever for the Olympics? I Prescribe "State of the Skate"

2010-02-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

The winter Olympics are almost upon us in snow-challenged Vancouver. So what better time to introduce you to a blog on figure skating?

If you want to get some expert analysis of the competition from a true fanatic and meticulous historian, check out State of the Skate. This week, blogger Kelli Lawrence has been running a series to help us "every four years" fans get up to speed.

In the interest of full disclosure, Kelli is my longtime friend and former JIST coworker. As our video manager, she let me do some cameo appearances in her films (you won't want to miss my turn as the caring older sister giving career advice to an earnest teen...). We bonded over '80s music trivia and had our babies within 2 months of each other. She even took me to Stars on Ice one time.

We'll check in with Kelli again in a few months when she finishes writing her book, Skating on Air, about the history of media coverage of the sport (for which she already has a publishing contract). I'm sure she'll have lots of tips and insights from a first-time author's perspective--not to mention great stories of all the skating legends she's been interviewing.

Good Connections and New Experiences at the Wisconsin Careers Conference

2010-02-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel north for the University of Wisconsin's Careers Conference in Madison. Now that I think about it, after nearly 11 years at JIST, it was my first conference aimed at the people who serve institutional job search customers--such as students and workforce development clients.

My main purpose in going was to watch several of our authors in action: Dr. Laurence Shatkin, Dr. John Liptak, and Dr. Richard Deems, in particular. Dick Gaither and Dr. Bob Orndorff presented pre-conference workshops; and sadly, I didn't get to see much of them. But it was great to see three of our authors doing well-received presentations. I also enjoyed the two keynotes and several other featured speakers.

For the first time ever, I decided to live-tweet this conference (since I finally have a laptop with a battery that lasts all day and working wifi). What an interesting exercise that was! It was hard work keeping on top of the most relevant and interesting points from each speaker, packaging them into tweets, and trying not to make any errors of fact or grammar. I think I'd give myself a solid "B" for my efforts. I realized that it takes a lot of skill to do it well. And I wondered whether there might be a market for freelance tweeters to go around publicizing conferences. I think I would enjoy doing that. You can get a feel for what I learned by taking a look at my Twitter stream from last week.

A side benefit from the firehose of tweets I was sending out was that it raised my Twitter profile. A dozen or more people retweeted my tweets, asked questions, and made jokes while I was in the midst of reporting the conference. It made it an interactive exeprience for me, and it informed a lot of others who couldn't be there. I think I even got a few more followers as a result.

Unlike the other conferences I've been to, people were not as open to networking and didn't necessarily know who I was. That was kind of nice. Sometimes letting a bunch of professionals know that an acquisitions editor is in the house is like throwing chum on the waters. But I did make one new friend: Leslie Bell, associate director of the career center at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Coincidentally, Leslie is starting a blog for her career center; so I was able to offer some tips. She said I inspired her; and if that were the only good thing to come of my trip, it would totally be worth it.

I also connected with at least one potential author and talked about book ideas with an existing author. And you know what else was fun? The six-hour drive to Madison with my co-worker Bob Grilliot. He was there to connect with customers at our booth, so he had to rent an SUV to haul the books. It just so happened that the SUV was equipped with heated seats and satellite radio. So we cruised in comfort while reveling in New Wave tunes, deliriously oblivious to the certain death that would await us should we break down or slide off the road in the frozen tundra of Minonk, Illinois. For me, an enduring image of the trip will be watching the wind turbines turn to the rhythm of the Smiths's "How Soon Is Now?" Pure poetry.

Indiana Blogger Gets Discovered; Loads Up Truck for D.C.

2010-01-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

Today I write to offer hope to the millions of us who labor in obscurity on our blogs. One of our ilk has just hit the big time. And he's my co-godparent.

For close to a decade, Sean Medlock anonymously (and unbeknownst to us all) wrote a right-leaning political blog under the pseudonym of Jim Treacher. Then one recent day Tucker Carlson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, came calling. The grapevine has it that he flew to Indy to meet Sean, liked him, and then immediately flew him to D.C. to meet the staff.

So as of January 10, Jim Treacher has his own column, "The DC Trawler," on The Caller's site. Nobody is more amazed about his good fortune than Sean himself. "Isn't this crazy?" he asked me over Twitter last night. "It's happening to me and I don't even believe it."

I asked Sean to share a tweet of advice for all of the bloggers who aspire to go big with their writing, and he responded in classic Jim Treacher style:

Write every day. Or as often as you can. Okay, at least once a month. If possible. Maybe. Crap, I'm no good at advice.

But it sounds solid to me. I look forward to reading more of his adventures as the self-dubbed "Farmy McRube" acclimates himself to the beltway. But I don't plan on talking politics with him at Zack's next birthday party. Looks like we've got a Carville/Matalin problem going on (in which I am the scary cajun Jack Skeleton lookalike).

Gearing Up for the Wisconsin Careers Conference

2010-01-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

A week from today I'll be hitting the road with my coworker Bob, bound for Madison and the Wisconsin Careers Conference. This will be my first time at this conference (nay, my first time to even set foot in the state), even though it's been buzzing along happily without my presence for the last 24 years.

The thought of heading north in January has always made me seize up. But ever since I took over our workbooks a couple of years ago, I have felt that I wasn't quite in touch with the people who use those books. This conference is aimed at K-14 teachers, HR professionals, counselors and guidance staff, college and university educators and advisors, career counselors, career center personnel, and many others. So this is a great opportunity to immerse myself in their community.

JIST will be well represented there in addition to Bob in the booth and me in the sessions. Coworker/author Laurence Shatkin will be one of the featured speakers, sharing his research on the Best Jobs for Renewing America. Author Richard Deems will be leading a roundtable on his Job Loss Reaction Cycle (which is featured in his book, Make Job Loss Work for You). Our assessment guru, John Liptak, is hosting a roundtable on integrating spirituality into career counseling. And authors Bob Orndorff and Dick Gaither will be presenting preconference workshops. I'm looking forward to taking them all to dinner or lunch at some point in the conference.

I'm planning to bring along my laptop and tweet up a storm about what I'm learning. So look for me on Twitter next Tuesday and Wednesday (@loricateshand).

Why I'm Now Moderating Comments on This Blog

2010-01-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

I'll start by saying that this blog has never been a hotbed for comments. Sure, there have been some great comments by loyal readers and many good discussions have arisen. I also enjoy the occasional anonymous tipsters who drop by with a little inside info on the industry--very illuminating. And some of the best discussions have occurred over e-mail and Facebook with people I met through this blog that I now consider personal friends (Katharine, Mark, and Krisan, I'm talking about you!). So comment moderation really hasn't been much of an issue.

Right off the bat, I did set up a captcha so that only real people--and not spambots--would be commenting. That has helped tremendously. But what I didn't count on were the so-called SEO bloggers who are real people that go around comment-spamming relevant blogs. For a long time, I just went in and deleted these types of comments.

But back in November, an industrious spammer in Mumbai took a fancy to Publishing Careers and was daily posting the same spam on different entries. One day he or she was posting them faster than I could delete them, and we were doing battle in real-time. I decided to turn on comment moderation, which means that I get to reject comments before they are posted. Immediately, my spammer went away. I might never find and delete all of that spam, but at least I've stemmed the tide.

With this new "power" comes responsibility, of course. Do I go ahead and allow comments that are critical of me? And what do I do in cases where I really can't tell whether the commenter is sincere or just a very sly spammer? I promise to post all but the most obscene criticism, and to do my best to separate the spammers from the true commenters. And I promise not to let comments sit too long in moderation limbo.

Thanks for reading. Sorry I have been a lax poster as of late.

Don't Forget Your Clients at the Holidays: Eight Tips for Freelancer Gifts

2009-12-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

One of the happier moments in the work days leading up to Christmas is when a package arrives from a freelancer or vendor. Coworkers swarm in like termites to snatch a sugary goody before they're all gone. Everyone gets a sugar buzz and thinks happy thoughts about the contractor who took the time and trouble to show how much they care.

We have a faithful indexer who always sends us something fun from Harry & David, and a printer that never fails to send yummy cookies from Cheryl&Co. In fact, it was while I was happily munching a chocolate cookie with peppermint buttercream frosting that it occurred to me: I did a lot of freelance work for Frommer's this year. Perhaps I should show my gratitude.

And so I did. Online ordering made it relatively easy (despite a couple of bugs in the site). Within three days, a big box of little cookies found its way into the hands of the grateful Wiley production editors. Before I even got arrival confirmation from UPS, they were e-mailing me to thank me. Now I'm not saying that this is going to guarantee me more work next year (doing a good job, of course, is more important); however, maybe it makes them smile a little when they think of me. And that can't hurt.

Here are a few tips on freelancer gifts, from someone who both gave and received this year:

Time it right. Make sure your gift will arrive before most people take off on vacation. You still have a little time to get a gift out to your best clients--but not much. There won't be a lot of people in offices past next Tuesday.
Avoid perishables. I've gotten sausage and cheese a few times and wondered whether it had been refrigerated adequately. It kinda ruined it for me.
Don't be too chintzy. If you file Schedule C, you can deduct the cost as a business expense, anyway. So why not get something nice?
Packaging isn't so important. The adorable gift towers are fun. But people are really just interested in the food. Opt for more food over fancy packaging.
Tie it to your personal or company brand. If you have a logo for your business, send a gift or card that communicates it. DeBrand's Chocolates will even make custom candy in the shape of your logo. (I'm not sure I followed this rule. Maybe my brand is traditional, dependable, and sweet. And what says that better than cookies?)
Be sensitive. Don't send something that will offend or exclude anyone. If you know that any of your recipients has allergies, avoid sending them something they can't eat. And those packages of sockeye salmon are always revolting-looking to me.
Don't forget a note. Make sure they know who it's from and that you are grateful for your working relationship.
Keep it up. If your gift is a hit, send the same thing next year. Your client will look forward to getting your gift as the holidays approach.

Indiana Historical Society Holiday Author Fair: A Whole Lotta Awesome!

2009-12-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

A while back I mentioned my intention to drop into the Indiana Historical Society's Holiday Author Fair, in which 80+ local authors were on hand to autograph copies of their works. Could an event be more tailor-made for me, who lives in the past and subsists on books? The event was Saturday and it lived up to all my expectations.

Immediately upon arrival I was asked whether I would like to join the society. As a matter of fact, I did want to. I want to support history in Indiana; but I also want to learn more about the historical society's press, which seems like a dream employer to me.

The next stroke of good luck was running into my longtime friend Gayle (yes, just like Oprah, I have a friend named Gayle), whom I hadn't seen in some time. We did our catching up as we weaved among the many authors, asking about their inspirations and their publishing experience.

It was an interesting mix of the self-published and those with the backing of major publishers. Our first mandatory stop, of course, was to meet Terry Border, author of the quirky Bent Objects. We'd already corresponded via Twitter, so he knew I was coming. We enjoyed hearing about his creative process later during his presentation. He's a former commercial photographer and baker who went from the mundane to doing what he really loves: Making funny scenes with everyday objects and taking photos of them. I predict big things for him.

We also visited with Larry Sweazy, the Noblesville author of The Rattlesnake Season with Penguin. He's got a four-book deal, so he's working on the next installment. (He then chided me for not keeping this blog updated lately. Duly noted.) Next to him was another fellow Macmillan/Pearson alum, Chris Katsaropoulos, who told me he is serializing his entire novel, Fragile, over Twitter to promote it. Wow.

We enjoyed chatting with Scott Sanders about his Arcadia-published book devoted to the history of Burger Chef. Cool! I also had a nice discussion with Andrew Stoner about his book, Notorious 92, chronicling the most heinous murders in each of Indiana's 92 counties.

It was also great to finally meet Julie Young in person after having some online interactions with her last year. She's the author of an Arcadia book Historic Irvington, and A Belief in Providence, about Mother Guerin, Indiana's only saint. Turns out, Julie is writing a video script for my company and invited me to be her Facebook friend.

Last but not least, I had a private audience with Philip Gulley, author of I Love You, Miss Huddleston (and quite a collection of other highly successful books with Harper). I'm sure he wondered at some of my questions, but I was sizing up his book's appropriateness as a gift. He convinced me. I bought it.

Looking back, I enjoyed that the event wasn't overrun with people. But now I hope they had enough book buyers to make it worth their while. I know I came away some $200 lighter in the pocket.

Spotting Kindles in the Wild

2009-11-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went on a little family trip to Puerto Rico. At the last minute I decided to take along my neglected company Kindle, just to give it a trial run. I charged it up and downloaded Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, thinking it might be hedonistic and fluffy enough reading for such a trip. I also discovered that you can download the complete works of Shakespeare for 99 cents, and a fairytale tome for free. So those came along too (maybe in case we ended up stranded on an island and I needed reading material for a decade or so? and the Professor [or Macgyver] would also be there and charge up the battery with coconuts and pennies?).

We also brought along my new laptop so that Cate could watch videos. A trip to the lavatory revealed that close to 75% of my fellow passengers were also passing the four-hour flight with an electronic gadget of some sort. But the only Kindle I saw was a first-gen model in the possession of a guy sitting just ahead of us in first class. (And he used it for nearly the whole flight.) Personally, I felt more like listening to my iPod and looking at the clouds.

One day at the hotel beach/pool, my husband asked: How many people here do you see reading Kindles? Practically everyone was reading something, but it was always a battered paperback thriller or a hardback borrowed from the towel kiosk. Of course, I thought. Who would risk getting sand in their Kindle or having it swiped while they were out being buffeted by the relentless waves?

One night Cate was horrified that I had not brought along any books to read to her at bedtime. Jason stepped in as the hero with the Kindle full of fairy tales. (She found Hansel and Gretel somewhat upsetting, as did I.)

Going through security on the way back home, the TSA agent in San Juan was quite taken with the Kindle, noting how handy it was. The implication was that she didn't see many of them in a day's time. Switching planes at the purgatory that is gate E35-A-F at Miami International, I saw a guy reading a Kindle DX. Now that was exciting!

Our last flight of the trip was again consumed with DVDs and iPods (as well as leftover Halloween candy I had taken along to appease our young traveling companion). So the Kindle got only brief usage. Maybe if I were on a business trip and had a different mindset, I might have used it more.

JIST Book Gets Library Journal Review

2009-11-12T08:48:00.001-08:00

Nothing dulls the pain of having to return from a beach resort vacation to the frigid Midwest like a big publicity coup. I was excited to learn just now that one of my books got a coveted review in the latest edition of Library Journal. You can read it in its entirety here (scroll down to the third review). But the money quote is this:

Covering all the basics, this work is recommended for job seekers, including those who have been laid off, and is especially appropriate for professionals and management-level workers.

Many thanks to Diana Lekus of the Queens Library for her excellent insights!

It's been quite a while since we got a Library Journal review. It will be interesting to see whether this will translate into increased sales. This really is an excellent book and the authors (father-daughter duo Richard and Terri Deems) have a distinguished history of helping people get jobs and deal with the emotional aspects of losing a job. Plus, they are so very nice! I'm thrilled to see them get this recognition.

Book Review: Bent Objects

2009-11-02T13:59:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, after finishing my freelance editing project for Frommer's, I ran out to B&N to buy (oh the irony) a travel book. See, we are leaving for Puerto Rico in less than a week and I have done very little in the way of preparation. (Note to my Frommer's friends: I gave all the competition proper consideration and still walked out with a Frommer's book.)

But once I get into a bookstore, I get lost among all the wonderful ideas, colors, paper textures, and trends. On a table near the middle of the store, I happened to see the picture book Bent Objects. I was drawn in by its cuteness (ha--a cheese doodle with arms and legs!). But when I started to absorb the jokes behind each photo in the book, I realized its true subversive and many-layered genius. There was even a most wonderful scene involving a Kindle and Gulliver's Travels--but you will have to look for that yourself.

I vowed to find the author, Terry Border's, blog (and here it is) and to come back to buy the book as a gift for someone (or maybe more than one person) on my list.

As I rifled through Terry's posts, I made the startling realization that he is a fellow Hoosier and lives someplace nearby. And then I saw that he will be signing books and doing a hilarious presentation on December 5 at the Indiana Historical Society's Holiday Author Fair (details here). Oh, what could be more fun? I love Indiana history and authors and books and shopping! So I plan to be there. Can't wait!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-10-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

So, Facebook made some changes to its interface. Now instead of seeing everyone's updates in the same place in real time, there's the News Feed with just the highlights (determined how?), or the Live Feed, which (presumably) has everything. And you've never heard such an outcry. People are whining and joining groups to protest.

I, too, was befuddled. But then I remembered that yes, change is hard, but I can quickly adapt. So I decided not to protest, and rather to just go with it. And it suddenly dawned on me that I can hide all of those Farmtown, Mafia Wars, Yo-Ville, and whatever else notifications without hiding the people themselves. So my experience just got better.

And then suddenly today, Twitter adds the "lists" feature. People can now make lists of related tweeters and follow them all on one screen, filtering out the tweets that come from other categories. This is probably a cool idea. Instead of switching gears all the time while looking at a mixed bag of tweets from, say, career experts, local thought leaders, publishing people, and Pee-Wee Herman, I can sort them out using the lists feature. It's also a way to discover more tweeters that I might like to follow.

Happily, I've been added to four lists myself already:

@bibliojunkie/library-librarians
@SusanWhitcomb/career-jobsearch-wisdom
@kristina64/indiana
@CFOcoach/colleagues

I have become a follower of these four lists. And maybe when I get back from vacation, I'll take some time and make a few lists of my own.

So see...change is not always bad!

Of E-books and E-mail

2009-10-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

This morning I happened upon a tweet from Chris Kubica, an author and FileMaker Pro app developer:

How come everyone isn't pining the demise of mail and the death of the postal service like they are for paper books?

I had immediate flashbacks to my youth and young adulthood, when I was the best little letter writer there ever was. I corresponded faithfully and laboriously with all manner of relatives, pen-pals, teachers, school chums, general acquaintances, and (the best) boyfriends. It was nothing to fill 17 pages of notebook paper with lively discourse, all ground out the hard way: with a pen or pencil. Then I would stamp it, post it, and sit back and wait a week for a response. Seriously.

Since the early 1990s, e-mail has gradually been supplanting my handwritten communication. Think of all the positives: Immediate gratification, less time spent writing, added legibility, and a writer's callous that has all but disappeared (to be replaced by a "mouse shoulder," though). So I was compelled to respond to Chris' tweet thusly:

Because getting letters faster trumps the intimacy of pen-and-paper correspondence.

And it's true. The very heart of writing letters remains the same regardless of the medium. And being able to correspond in real time enhances the experience and the connection between the writer and the reader, I believe.

Chris responded:

But u cn get books on a Kindle/Nook in 60 seconds or less. Even if ur nude sitting on the toilet. Still paper books better?

He must have thought he had a real Luddite on his hands. I responded:

Yes, for now--until we get used to the idea. I'm never in as much of a hurry to buy a book as I am to hear from a loved one.

And I'm not. I'm used to there being a lag between the time I decide to buy a book and the time I get that book in my hands. I'm used to driving to the store or waiting a few days for Amazon to put it on my doorstep.

Chris responded again:

So you aren't sad to see US Mail go. Would you be sad to see paper books disappear, replaced by ebooks?

Here is where I realized that paper books are just further behind on the extinction continuum than letters. I thought of my old boxes of sweet letters with their postmarks, colorful stamps, and tear stains. I don't want to let go of them--or the shelves and shelves of paper books lining the walls of my "library." All of this paper is my ephemeral link to the past. And I like the past. So I clarified my position:

Actually, I am sad about both. But I realize that's overly sentimental, so why stand in the way of progress?

So this is my position: Eventually I will get used to e-books. But because books aren't as urgent as letters, it's just going to take longer for the practical to overcome the sentimental.

Chris said there would always be paper popup books. True dat.

Job Opportunity: Book Acquisitions Editor, Sigma Theta Tau International

2009-10-22T11:25:00.001-07:00

Are you a nurse in Indianapolis who's always wanted to work in book publishing? Have I got a job for you! Check out this posting with Sigma Theta Tau, the nursing honor society:

Sigma Theta Tau International

Reports to: Publisher

Time: 20 hours per week

The Acquisitions Editor will work closely with STTI staff, authors, and reviewers as well as the top nurse leaders, CNOs, researchers, and clinicians in the field of nursing to acquire books for the STTI publishing program and support them through publication.

Working under the guidance of the Publisher and in close cooperation with the book editors, the acquisition editor's responsibilities include timely collaboration with key STTI marketing and sales staff members and commitment to internal deadlines. The acquisitions editor will also:

Seek out, research, conceive, and champion approximately 13-15 books per year, consistent with the interest areas set forth by the Publisher, market conditions, and sales and guided by the Sigma Theta Tau International Board of Directors.
Guide authors through the proposal and publishing process.
Research, write, present, and otherwise prepare business plans, financial statements, tip sheets, book summaries, outlines, and other relevant information for each book, under the guidance of the Publisher and in collaboration with authors.
Compile ongoing research on nurses and the nursing profession to assist with long-term publications planning.
Serve as an author advocate, managing and guiding authors through the proposal and publishing process.
Manage and review content prepared by authors and editors to ensure manuscript submission on schedule and in the agreed-upon format.
Contribute input to the design and functionality of each book.
Contribute editorial input regarding the writing, organization, and content for each book.
Implement the long-term and short-term editorial plan for Publications in collaboration with the Publisher.
Identify and facilitate the creation of critical author relationships around the world.
Provide ongoing communication with authors on book performance, marketing opportunities, and speaking and signing opportunities at STTI conferences, etc.
Solicit manuscripts for publication, as well as assess the potential for new and revised editions of existing STTI titles.
Ensure that all necessary intellectual property permissions have been obtained prior to publication.
Negotiate financial and contract terms with authors on projects as directed by the Publisher.
Coordinate the work of a panel of reviewers and/or international editorial board by the STTI President and/or CEO.

In addition, it is the responsibility of the Acquisitions Editor to:

Review proposals and manuscripts submitted for Publication and those solicited by STT.
Oversee the review and market survey process.
Serve as a primary contact and support for authors.
Evaluate user satisfaction and needs periodically.
Prepare marketing copy, summaries, book reviews, author letters, and other collateral material for books as needed by publishing, marketing, and sales.
Send author questionnaires and other marketing related documents to authors and coordinate their return.
Submit an editorial report to STTI at the end of each quarter outlining primary activities (including, but not limited to the number, nature, and status of all proposals), and accomplishments of the Acquisition Editor for the quarter ending and plans for Publication for upcoming quarter.
Submit an annual report summarizing the accomplishments of the year and outlining plans for the upcoming year and other reports as requested by STTI.
Submit the biennial report for inclusion in the House of Delegates biennial report.

Some travel required to key STTI or other nursing meetings, nursing schools, or other centralized locations to meet with several current or prospective authors;

Compensation based on experience and degree.

Nursing and publishing experience are recommended. A minimum of a bachelor's degree is required.

To apply, send resume or CV and cover letter to Laura Thurman, STTI HR at laurat@stti.iupui.edu. For questions or more information, contact Renee Wilmeth, STTI Publisher, at renee@stti.iupui.edu.

Calling All Twitter Fans

2009-10-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

I've been keeping this under my hat, but now that the book has been launched to the trade buyers, I can officially annouce one of the exciting additions to our spring list: The Twitter Job Search Guide. You'd be amazed at how you can make connections and establish your career brand on Twitter. I'm excited and proud that three of the foremost career experts and social media evangelists will be sharing their wisdom in this new book in March.

Meanwhile, they are looking for people just like you to contribute helpful tweets to the book. See their call for contributors. And while you're on Twitter, go ahead and follow all three of these expert authors:

Tips for Getting the Most Out of the Frankfurt Book Fair, by Jason Hand

2009-10-13T06:19:00.001-07:00

Greetings from this week's global center of publishing, Frankfurt, Germany. I am here to attend my tenth consecutive Frankfurt International Book Fair (FIBF). As an international rights manager for a sizable global publisher, FIBF is the perfect opportunity for me to meet past, present, and future business partners in person.

And my days at FIBF are usually full of 30-minute (and sometimes 15-minute) back-to-back meetings from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. But I am not here to complain about a grueling schedule, or whine about what it is like to spend so much time in the limelight of promoting my company and its products. I remain grateful for the many opportunities I have had to make long-term relationships and friendships with so many people from around the world.

It is almost a cliché to offer tips and tricks to first-time FIBF attendees. There is a small brochure published every day at FIBF informing everyone of a schedule of special events, as well as industry gossip. And on the first day (Wednesday), that brochure has a small article that typically provides in witty fashion things to do and things NOT to do.

But I will offer here ten of my modest suggestions… some are common sense, and others have been gained by experience:

You should be familiar with the website www.frankfurt-bookfair.com. As the official site, you can learn all the basics here.
If possible, study in advance a map of the Messe (the fairgrounds where FIBF is held). And get to know how the publishers are distributed at FIBF (for example, English-language publishers are typically located in Hall 8.0).
Expect to be walking long distances, so wear comfortable shoes. This is a book fair, not a fashion show. You can navigate the entire fairgrounds in the covered walkways, or you can choose, as I often do, to walk outside (where it is generally cooler and less congested with foot traffic).
Should you be fortunate enough to have a FIBF pass that permits you to stay for the duration of the fair, remember that this pass also serves as a free pass to climb aboard all public transportation in the RMV for the duration of the fair. It is often difficult to escape from the Messe via taxi at the end of a long day, but the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains are convenient and nearby.
Try to attend at least one "event," as you never really know what celebrity or semi-celebrity you may encounter. Yes, there will be many German politicians walking about, but you may just run into someone like Dr. Ruth (as I have more than once, with much hilarity, in the past).
Expect Saturday at FIBF to be very crowded, as the general public is permitted entrance to the Messe.
The Guest of Honor usually has some sort of grand spectacle at least once during the fair. This year's Guest of Honor is China. You should make a note to attend at least one of these events.
Underneath the overhead walkway and near the entrance to Hall 5, there is an outdoor flea market that is full of unusual trinkets and gifts. I have seen some interesting items for purchase here, but never bought a thing.
Near to the entrance to the U-bahn stop Messe and near the main entrance of the book fair is a used book market. Granted, most of these used books are German-language trade books, so you may not have an interest in such things. And, as it is not in my overall interest and livelihood, I am not supposed to advocate the purchase of used books (especially used textbooks). So maybe this tip is a simple FYI.
The Antique Book Fair in Hall 4 is worth a look, if you are interested in old books. There are some for sale (and some simply for display).

And what happens should you make plans to attend the Frankfurt International Book Fair in 2011? Here are some things I suggest to do in advance of next October's fair:

I heartily recommend www.inyourpocket.com as a travel website for fairly unbiased, basic information. There is a nice summary about visiting Frankfurt, with some recommendations and reviews for hotels as well as restaurants. You will want to book your hotel room in Frankfurt as early as possible.
Make dinner reservations four to six weeks in advance of the book fair, if not earlier. Most restaurants now have websites in both English and German. In most cases you can e-mail a reservation request and receive confirmation via e-mail soon after.

Everyone's Heading to Frankfurt

2009-10-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

The annual Frankfurt Book Fair begins Wednesday and the publishing world is en route as we speak. Por ejemplo: Wiley's Julia Lampam said on Twitter that there was hardly anyone on her flight from London that wasn't in publishing. Pearson people are Facebooking their flight departures.

My husband has been in Cyprus visiting customers (and enjoying it way too much), but is now awaiting his own flight to Germany. He promises to send a guest post tomorrow: Tips for first-time visitors to the fair. He's promised us guest posts before, hasn't he? But this is his 10th year at the fair and it sounds like he really is writing something to commemorate it.

Meanwhile, you can follow updates from various attendees on Twitter by searching for the #fbf09 hashtag.

How Do You Discover New Music?

2009-10-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been pondering the question: If nobody listens to pop radio anymore, how do they find new music?

The need to find an answer became more urgent last night when I was watching The Simpsons. Middle-aged and cynical Mrs. Krabappel was driving to work and singing along to McCartney's wistful 1971 hit, "Another Day." I was with her so far, since I've probably done the same thing at least twice in the last month. Then, blammo! Some teens in the next car yell, "Look at that old lady, singing a song that's a million years old!" Gah.

At this point you might be asking what this has to do with publishing, as opposed to my midlife crisis. The answer is that the music business should serve as publishing's canary in the coalmine. We need to watch how they handle the impact of technology (so far, not great) for clues on how publishing will face similar issues. Or even better, I need to understand how younger people perceive content consumption in the digital age.

So, I'm asking the younger readers: How do you discover new music to listen to? How many times do you need to hear a song before you decide to buy (or steal) it? I have so many more questions, but let's start with those.

Now, for my fellow oldsters. How do you break out of the musical time warp you've created for yourself with your iPod and your satellite radio and the retro programming on traditional radio? It's quite possible for us to go through an entire day and not hear a song that was released after 1989. So how do we break out of that and find new music to enjoy? (A corollary: Is my interest in Death Cab for Cutie as embarrassing as when my mom got into Mellencamp?)

Don't Miss Digital Content Day @ Your Desk

2009-10-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

At a time when company budgets are being slashed, resulting in a world of hurt for conference organizers all over, here's an idea that makes sense: The Publishing Business Virtual Conference and Expo (aka Digital Content Day @ Your Desk) on October 29. Not only do you not have to spend money on a flight to New York and a hotel room, but the conference itself is free, too.

There's a full slate of sessions related to the brave new world of online content, including topics such as digital rights management, e-book pricing, print on demand, and the Book Rights Registry resulting from the Google Books Settlement (see the full agenda here).

So how does this virtual conference work? You just register ahead of time and then log in from the comfort of your own office on the morning of the conference. And the coolest part? Just like any live conference, there's an exhibit hall. You can browse the offerings of various vendors and even possibly win donuts and ice cream. And what's better than that?

Story of Hope: Marian Uses Online Social Media to Land an Awesome Job

2009-09-29T12:47:00.001-07:00

I met Marian Schembari through Twitter last week. She discovered my blog and was excited to find someone else who has been writing about getting a job in publishing. So she followed me on Twitter, I followed her back, and we ended up chatting over e-mail. I checked out her blog and was mightily impressed: Here was someone who had used online networking sites in an innovative way to break into the publishing industry—at a time when, let's face it, jobs are hard to come by.

So I asked her to tell her story here. Check it out and get inspired!

I really wanted to get into publishing. Like, a lot. Never mind that the industry is slowly dying, the economy sucks, I had zero experience and the pay is (and always will be) crap. No, I'm a book lover, and in my naïve - but enthusiastic - mindset, I thought that was all I needed.

So I spent the three months after my May graduation carefully editing my resume, crafting the perfect cover letter, and applying for every single job at every single publisher in New York. I stalked mediabistro and bookjobs, made a ton of contacts and... well, that was pretty much it. I had one interview in 3 months.

I got bored of that real fast. Even though I was working all day every day, I just felt like I was waiting... So I took out a ton of books (of course) from the local library on finding a job, marketing yourself and personal branding. I designed a website with my resume, references and writing samples. Then, with Facebook's enormously helpful targeting options, I was able to post an ad on the profiles of people at places like HarperCollins, Random House, Penguin, Rodale, Macmillan, etc.

And I got responses! At least one person from every publisher I focused on emailed to say they passed on my resume, wanted to meet, or even just to say they liked my idea. The encouragement was fantastic, and within a week I had four interviews and a freelance gig.

Of course, advertising yourself to get a job is a little weird, I have to admit. It's one of those stories you hear about people wearing their resume on a t-shirt or taking cookies to an interview. No one wants to be that person.

Except I was that person. And an article written about my search on the HarperStudio blog resulted in a lot of lovely and encouraging comments (many of which said they weren't hiring. Figures). Only two people were cynical, not much liking my use of wording, but the ad generated much more positive feedback than negative, so I'm over it.

After the novelty of the ads wore off, though, I knew I needed something different to get people's attention. So I started a blog, chronicling my search and talking a little about publishing and where it's headed. Then I (reluctantly) signed up for Twitter, which 1 week later landed me a sweet interview at Penguin.

One month later and I'm employed. Long story short, a woman at Rodale saw my ad, emailed me and thought I should consider book publicity. She passed my resume on to an old employer who ran a book PR firm. One thing led to another and I'm now in my third week as associate publicist.

I couldn't be happier now that I'm officially "in" publishing. I also know I'm enormously lucky. The thing is, I don't actually know one person who's gotten a job the old-fashioned way. Sorry HR, but it's true. Plus, it makes for an interesting story. My campaign made me consider a career I had never considered and now I'm loving it. All in all a pretty successful endeavor.

The Week in Review

2009-09-25T06:36:00.001-07:00

My, what a long week it's been. My little girl was home sick Monday through Wednesday. I took a sick day Monday, Jason worked at home Tuesday, and I worked at home Wednesday. Even with taking time to take her to the doctor, I still got more done than I would have in the office (I reviewed third pass of a 450-page book and first pass of a 370-page book). That disruption in my routine really stressed me out, though, so it's good to be back in the office and gazing at the prospect of a free weekend with a well child.

Meanwhile, lots has been going on in the publishing careers world. Let's see if we can get up to speed now:

DOJ Gives the Google Book Settlement the Thumbs Down: In a nutshell, the Department of Justice is urging the New York court to reject the Google Book Settlement and have the parties modify it to comply with antitrust and copyright laws (see a good compilation of news reports on the subject here). This is actually good news. Even though I had put some work into getting my company ready to claim its rights, it was still a daunting task that I don't have time to tackle now. Also, I had reservations about whether the settlement was fair to publishers. So it's all good.
O'Reilly to Distribute Microsoft Press Titles: See the press release here. Microsoft Press, which has long suffered as not much more than a marketing tool for Microsoft, will get a big leg up in the trade and e-book markets. It's unclear what ramifications this will have for the editorial staffs in Redmond and Sebastopol, but it bears watching.
Professional Resume Writers Converge upon Annapolis: The annual National Resume Writers' Association conference is wrapping up today. I decided not to attend this year due to budget issues (and with a sick kid, I might not have been able to go, anyway). But I have been able to follow several people tweeting notes from the conference.
National Punctuation Day Excites the Twittersphere: In celebration of National Punctuation Day, throngs of grammar gurus (and plenty of wannabes) tweeted punctuation song titles (like "Comma Chameleon"), made question-mark-shaped meatloaves, and made the day a trending topic on Twitter. I especially enjoyed this confession of an ellipsis abuser.
Frankfurt Is Coming Up Soon: My husband leaves in just over a week for his 10^th trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair. As usual, he's tacking on a side trip to an exotic locale. This year: Cyprus—his 40^th country to visit. (Next year might be Sicily, and I might actually be invited!) Meanwhile, he's keeping up the annual tradition of torturing me over how many customer account sheets he needs to do and how little time he has left to do them. He always gets them done right under the wire, but the drama is almost too much for me.

So, that's the big stuff. Next week I'm looking forward to introducing you to another blogger who has been writing on the subject of careers in publishing—and scored an awesome job as a result. Meanwhile, my resume writing business is picking up now that school is back in session and people are getting serious about their careers again. Have a great weekend!

Be Nice to Everyone, Because You Just Never Know

2009-09-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I went to my salon to get a long-overdue haircut. I've gone to my hairdresser, Kevin, for over a decade. He does a good job; however, the reason I keep coming back is that I like him. He's smart, he's funny, he's edgy. He's also got two little girls, one of them my daughter's age, and we share stories of their precocious escapades.

During the conversation he asked whether I could recommend any good DVDs to rent ("Uh, 'Monsters vs. Aliens'?" I offered). Later he mentioned that his wife, also a stylist, had just returned from New York. She was styling hair for a photo shoot related to Fashion Week.

"Funny thing happened," he said, almost casually. Jen had spent the shoot getting chummy with an older woman whom she didn't recognize. They hit it off quite well, so at the end of the shoot she asked the woman, "So, what do you do?" "I'm the editor of Vogue," she returned.

At this point in the story I nearly jumped out of the chair. "Anna Wintour?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I guess that's who she was," Kevin said, somewhat surprised that I knew anything about the fashion world.

"Holy cow, do you know who she is?" I yelled. "She's the one they wrote 'The Devil Wears Prada' about." (Suddenly I did have a video-rental suggestion for him after all.)

"Well, she did have a herd following her around," he said.

Anna was fresh in my mind because I have been reading about "The September Issue," which is a documentary about her and a day in the life of Vogue. Various reports have said she's been showing a nicer side lately, possibly related to the movie release. But I never thought she'd spend a moment being nice to a hairdresser from Fishers, Indiana.

My point? I guess I already said it in the title of this post. You just never know who you might run into in the course of doing your job or looking for work. Being consistently nice might help additional opportunities come your way.

Post-Launch Euphoria

2009-09-09T12:13:00.001-07:00

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you've been hearing tweets and squawks from me about our big trade launch meeting today. Well, it's over now and I am taking a second to catch my breath.

I instituted the tradition of biannual launch meetings at JIST 7 or so years ago. It's a chance to get everyone around one table and talk about the new books that will be coming out the following season. I do my sales job on the salespeople and try to get them as pumped about the books as I am. We critique the working covers. We bounce marketing ideas off one another. It's a good thing--but somewhat stressful in the run up to it.

The day after a launch, I have to start thinking what I'm going to present at the next launch. First I plan the revisions--new editions of our best-selling books. I have to time the releases to coincide with stock depletion and optimal market conditions (it's best to avoid times of the year when people aren't thinking much about their careers, like summer and Christmas).

Next I look at existing series and see whether there's room for another book in the series. Since our topic area is so narrow, I've already maxed out most of the slots, though, so this gets harder each year.

The icing, then, are the totally new books on edgier topics. I've got three of them on this list. (I'm going to wait a few more weeks before I get too specific about them here, though.) These are the ones that are the biggest risk because they don't have a sales history behind them. They could stick and become mainstays. Or they could sell 2,000 copies and fade away.

Meanwhile, my boss is going through the same process for her reference list, which we also sell into trade.

There are myriad details to attend to before these ideas can be presented as books: contracts, paperwork, competitive research, sales research, outlines, author schedules, cover designs, catalog copy...just a lot to do. Finally we get it all nailed down and ready to present at the launch (and usually without more than a few days to spare).

After doing these presentations for so many years, I'm no longer nervous about them. But I'm still an introvert, and it still zaps my energy to be "on" for three hours like that. So right now I'm feeling quite a sense of relief--until tomorrow, when the whole process begins again. And that's not to mention the fact that now that I have signed all these books, I have to make sure that they get done!

Looking for Me? Try Twitter

2009-08-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

Oh, I have been quite remiss in my blogging as of late. It's not that I've written everything that I know (although that's a distinct possibility). It's just that my attention span is shorter these days. If you still want to catch some great career and publishing tidbits, follow me on Twitter: @loricateshand.

I am constantly amazed at all the great links and information that people pass along there. I don't retweet everything I see--just the things that pass my "gee-whiz" test. Occasionally I even write some original stuff. I must say, having to keep things to 140 characters is a real test of my editing abilities. But it's fun.

So, come follow me on Twitter. If your avatar is G-rated and you don't look like a spammer, I will probably follow you back.

Putting One Foot in Front of the Other: More on the Google Book Settlement

2009-08-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

If you are sitting there stunned and wondering how to tackle this Google Book Settlement thing, I have some good first steps for you.

Go to the settlement site.
Do yourself a big favor and don't scare yourself silly by downloading the PDF versions of the forms that are used to claim your company's part of the settlement. Instead, go ahead and set up an account for your publisher by clicking the "claim books and inserts" button. It's pretty simple to do, but it takes Google several hours to activate your account.
Next, search for your company's name in the database. You'll then get an option to download all of your titles as a spreadsheet (and it's a WHALE of a spreadsheet). As it turns out, we had many more books in there than I was able to spot from the outside (more than 800!).
Find the titles that have a "yes" in the column marked "Digitation Status...." As it turns out, only 60 of our books have been digitized, and a good percentage of those are long out of print and their rights have been returned to the authors.
Resave the spreadsheet with a different name and delete all the "no" books.
To get an idea of how involved the claiming and registration process is, I selected one of our "yes" books that is still in print and was written by a coworker. The settlement requires that you get author consent to set the different access levels, so I e-mailed him for his quick consent.
Proceed to claim, register, and set access levels for the book. There are many options with radio buttons, but there are also semi-helpful links to explain each of them. For example, I was stopped dead in my tracks over the pricing option--set your price or let Google do it, using its secret price-optimization algorithm? My first impulse was the set the book at its retail price. But then I remembered all the backlash I'm reading about publishers that price their Kindle books at the same price as the actual book. I decided that maybe Google knows better than I what will help it sell. I think we'd be able to change that later if we needed to.
I intend to send letters to the authors of the other 20 or so in-print titles that have been digitized and get their consent to set their access levels. At that point, I will be done with everything that absolutely must be done by January 5 in order to get our chunk of the settlement. Then I can go back at my leisure and claim our other in-print titles that have not been digitized.

It took me about 30 minutes to do the first title. I presume this will be much faster on subsequent titles because now I (sorta) know what I'm doing. You can also upload a spreadsheet of all your titles and claim them that way, which is something I might also investigate doing.

A Small Publisher Tackles the Google Book Settlement

2009-08-13T06:48:00.001-07:00

Did someone say "Google Book Settlement"? La-la-la, I can't hear you because I've got my hands over my ears and am humming loudly. This has been our company's official stance on the matter since we got the settlement notice in March. But it has begun to dawn on me, if not on anyone else, that we've got to react.

To get everyone up to speed, for five years, Google has been taking books out of libraries and scanning them into its own database. They've now got more than seven million titles on file. The object, it said, was for people to be able to locate information within these books and then to decide whether they want to buy them. But the publishing industry saw it as a violation of their copyrights and dismissed Google's claim that the scanning was protected under the Fair Use Doctrine. So the industry, represented by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, sued Google. And before it could go to the Supreme Court, which is where it was surely headed, the parties settled. Johnathan Kirsch, a publishing lawyer, has an excellent summary of this whole matter here.

That settlement has not yet been finalized (and the DOJ has started an antitrust investigation); however, publishers and authors are being directed to get online and claim their books from the database. Then they will be eligible for a cash settlement ($60 per book) and can get their cut of Google's future proceeds from making the content available online. Publishers can also decide how much of their books they want available to people who search online--from nothing at all, to snippets, to 20% of the book, to the whole shebang.

But oh, the burden this puts on small publishers who have been in business a long time and have a huge backlist. First and foremost, they've got to wade through all the information of the settlement itself and make decisions along the way, such as whether to opt out or participate in the settlement, which levels of access to allow, and how to inform their authors. (They aren't getting much guidance from the AAP, and there are so many strong and conflicting opinions from the experts.) Then filling out the necessary forms will take untold hours of research and labor, which really can't be spared when everyone is working with a skeleton crew these days.

Some may decide that the settlement money isn't worth the effort that will go into claiming it. However, I believe publishers still need to get out there and claim the copyright to their titles. Otherwise, Google will use the content for its own ends and make money from it, and will not owe the true copyright holders a dime.

And so I begin the process of slogging through 678 of my company's titles that Google has in its database and prioritizing our next steps for each. I'd love to hear other small publishers' experiences and opinions on this whole mess.

Blog (and Cook) Your Way to a New Career

2009-08-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Kansas City career coach Meg Montford (who not too many years ago joined me for a dinner of "Hot Brown" sandwiches at Louisville's Brown Hotel while we were at a conference) today blogs about a new movie that will inspire career changers. The movie is Julie & Julia, based on Julie Powell's book of the same name.

Meg shares how the movie shows Julie stuck in a miserable career. Then she gets the inspiration to cook every one of the more than 500 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking--and blogging about it--in just one year. Of course, her husband thinks she's nuts. But followers flock and before long Julie has found a new career as a writer. Meg believes you'll find some career inspiration from this delightful-looking movie.

I have to confess that I read Julie's book when it was still in galley form (I picked it up at Book Expo). And it turned me on to the magic of blogging. Seeing what it did for her, I resolved to start my own blog. And although I don't anticipate it being made into a Hollywood production anytime soon, it was still a good decision that has opened doors and made great connections for me. Best of all, it's gotten me into the discipline of writing regularly instead of always fixing other people's work. Both are noble occupations, but they take different skill sets. Keeping both sharp has been a blessing.

You'll note that publishers Little, Brown and Knopf have taken advantage of the movie's release with special editions of both Julie and Julia's books with covers that call attention to their connections to the movie. They will get a new sales boost as a result.

Of course, I want to see the movie. But I used up my "one theatre movie per year without the kid" allowance this weekend on Johnny Depp (and I do not regret it). I might have to wait for the DVD.

Inside INdiana Business Internship

2009-08-07T13:05:00.001-07:00

A coworker let me know about the following internship posting for Inside INdiana Business, which produces TV, radio, and print reports featuring business news and interviews with Indiana's movers and shakers (and yes, we have some):

Indiana's business news leader is looking for an intern for our content team. This self-starting individual will assist the IIB newsroom on a variety of market-leading business news products, including the INside Edge Morning Briefing and Mid Day e-newsletters, Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick television, Inside INdiana Business Radio and InsideINdianaBusiness.com. Please forward a cover letter and resume to Assistant Managing Editor Wayne Pratt at wpratt@growindiana.net.

O'Reilly's Data Gurus Report on Online Job Market

2009-08-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

I have it on good authority that the people at O'Reilly Media are a bunch of stone cold geniuses. So it was a thrill to see Ben Lorica analyzing trends in online job postings in this blog post.

Click through and just take a gander at that first chart. The number of jobs posted online ticked up a bit in July. But look how this entire year is lagging below the preceding three. It's dramatic.

His entire post is full of other good insights, especially the last chart, which shows the percent decline in job postings by state. Places like Oklahoma and Virginia look best, whereas Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and DC show postings declining by as much as 58%.

What Ben and the rest of us know, of course, is that not all job openings get posted online--or posted at all, for that matter. You'll fare much better if you can use your network to root out the jobs that haven't been posted yet. But his statistics are an interesting snapshot of one aspect of the current job market. Thanks for sharing, Ben!

Use a LibraryThing Widget to Showcase Your Projects

2009-08-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Freelance editor Katharine O'Moore-Klopf generously shared a stroke of brilliance via Twitter today. She suggests using LibraryThing, an online book-cataloging service, to put a widget on your blog or website that features the covers of books you have edited. This is kind of an off-label use for the site, which was meant to catalog the books you've read, share them with others, and find new people who have "eerily similar" libraries. But how perfect for the publishing professional, whose accomplishments consist primarily of finished books.

As you'll notice, I put her advice to work immediately. To do the same, follow these steps:

Go to LibraryThing and register (it's free).
Search for books you've edited and add them to your list.
Go to the widget-making page.
Select your widget preferences.
Copy the "Embed this widget" code.
Paste it into your blog or website. (As Katharine tutored me, in Blogger you have to go to the Customize page, open one of your gadgets, and paste the HTML into the window.)

And there you have it: a rotating display of your bookly accomplishments. Thanks, Katharine!

Friday Field Trip!

2009-07-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

At lunch today, I got an offer I couldn't refuse. My coworker needed to go to the Pearson offices to pick up something for her spouse. She invited me and another coworker along for the ride. Of course, I've spent plenty of time there bugging my hubby. But he's not even there today--along with a good percentage of the employees, who were enjoying their privilege of working extra hours during the week so that they can take off summer Fridays. (Quite honestly, it's the thing I miss the most about working there.)

This time I was struck by the cool professionalism of the place--more than just a notch or two above the small company where I work. Covers of so many exciting books were all over the walls. For a moment, I was envious (okay, maybe I still am).

As we went down the rows, I read the name tags: some unfamiliar, but many I had worked with before. The names even included some of my blood relatives and a guy I knew in elementary school. Familiarity is nice; too much, however, is not.

Soon, the object of our quest was retrieved and we were back in the parking lot. We dined at La Margarita, one of my favorite haunts when I'm on that side of town. It was nice to get out of my daily routine and shoot quickly down memory lane.

The Bookless Bookstore

2009-07-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Through a circuitous Twitter path, I discovered this blog post from author Moriah Jovan. In it, she shows a sketch of her vision of the bookstore of the future: a coffee shop with ordering kiosks and instabook machines (called Espresso). Order the book and then it will be printed on demand while you sip your espresso. Astute readers already know that this magical machine is not fantasy. Several Espresso machines are already in operation in several libraries and universities throughout the world.

I think this could very well be one of the ways we are headed. Think how many problems it solves, such as the one we struggle with daily: whether to reprint a marginal-selling book or to let it die. Instead, we'd just make the PDF of the book available to Espresso and anyone who wanted it could just print themselves a copy. No more worries about getting stuck with too much stock or paying exorbitant unit costs on small print runs (granted, the unit cost is probably pretty high for an Espresso edition, but maybe the price to the consumer goes up as well).

The benefit to authors (longer availability of their books) would have to be weighed against the negative of maybe never being able to get their rights back from the publisher because the books would never be declared out of print.

I have a suspicion that Moriah isn't thinking about big reference titles and glossy, four-color coffee-table books. I don't think any quick-print machine is going to be able to match the quality and feel of a really nice offset-printed, heirloom-quality book. As long as we all recognize that going in, that's fine. Maybe the manufacture of those books will be left to specialists.

Of course, this is just one path our industry is likely to take. There's still the issue of e-books and which reader/format combo is going to emerge as the book version of the iPod. There will always be people who prefer their books printed (at least until we die off in about 40 years). But growing numbers of people will prefer getting their content electronically. So maybe eventually even the espresso/Espresso store will fade away as well.

Papalicious

2009-07-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this yet, you might get a chuckle out of this photo of the field of contestants for the annual Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West. Very funny!

Meanwhile, I just realized that my last post was post #500 on this blog. Woo-hoo! We need a cake or something. Thanks for coming along with me on this amazing ride. I'm sorry I'm not posting as often lately. Let's call it summer mode. I promise to get back to regular postings as soon as I think of something to say that I haven't already beaten to death.

Untangling My Social Media “Strategy”

2009-07-23T12:59:00.001-07:00

On this blog, I've done a lot of talking about online social media—partly because it's an important aspect of job searching, and partly because I'm so fascinated by it. But all the options become a little overwhelming sometimes, don't they? I thought maybe if I wrote about my various online presences, it might start to make a little more sense to me (and you).

First there's the blog. I keep the blog very narrowly focused on its topic: careers in book publishing. Very rarely I'll stray into something tangential, but not too far afield. I think everyone agrees that a well-written, professionally focused blog can only help your career efforts. It can raise your profile and make you an instant "expert." And if you blog most weekdays, you can really get great search engine visibility.

Then there's LinkedIn. Every professional should have a profile on LinkedIn. It should put forward your most important experience and accomplishments and be able to stand in as your resume, if necessary, because some people will judge you by it. When choosing contacts to link to, I now skew toward job-related contacts. True, you never know where an opportunity will come from, but LinkedIn has become less of a social sphere and more of a get-down-to-business place. I'm not using the built-in apps much anymore. TripIt tells me when Joe Wikert is going on a trip (which is, like, all the time), but that's about all. The discussion boards seem to be way too busy with people who want something.

Next comes Twitter. I joined it really just to keep up on the information that the experts were putting out on it—usually tiny tidbits that might not be worth a blog post, but still quite enlightening all the same. Often Twitter is my first heads-up to information that blossoms into bigger news—for example, the recent Gannett layoffs. I occasionally retweet the most compelling info I see related to publishing and/or careers, especially if it's relevant to Indianapolis. Without even trying, I've got 123 followers (if you want to be one, find me at @loricateshand). Hope I don't bore them!

Might as well mention Plaxo here. I fixed it so all my blog posts get put into Plaxo. But I'm no longer updating my status there or actively checking it. But it's there if I need to contact any of my connections there.

Last, of course, is Facebook. I resisted joining because I knew it would derail my life. And it has. I often catch myself narrating Facebook threads to my husband and others, and wonder just how crazy I sound. All the experts warn against putting things on Facebook that will destroy your career. But here is the place where I let my real personality show—as much as I dare. Yeah, so, I'm a closet Trekkie. I like British music. I dote on my kid. If someone doesn't want to hire me because of all that, so be it. I also feed my blog posts into Facebook, and I get a lot of comments there from publishing friends who wouldn't have read the blog otherwise. But mainly, it's the place where I have found all my lost best friends and am holding pinkies with them in cyberspace.

So where does this leave us? I don't know. I'm sure I could be managing all of this better. I know that the blog has suffered from a little neglect since I found Facebook and Twitter. I'm sure there's another social media outlet that I am not using but should be. But this is where I am right now.

Roger Ebert on Being a Critic

2009-07-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, after many years of obsessively plundering his movie review archives on the Chicago Sun-Times website, I discovered that critic Roger Ebert writes a blog--a fantastic one, at that. Unlike in short reviews published in newspapers, he's allowed to write as much as he wants. And it's brilliant.

This particular post caught my eye last week, in which he discusses the viewpoints of commenters who disagreed with his negative review of Transformers 2. Roger uses the opportunity to talk about what goes into being a critic, but also answers his hecklers: "We should respect differing opinions up to a point, and then it's time for the wise to blow the whistle."

What is fascinating here is to read his thought process in judging films. To those who say he is an elitist and a brainiac, they might be right. But that's why I love him so. Let others get their movie news from tabloid T.V.; I like being able to compare my own opinions to those of another snarky smartypants--albeit one with decades more life experience (did you know that he and Paul McCartney were born on the very same day?).

Several years ago I had the good fortune to meet Roger at BookExpo in Chicago. I waited in line for his autograph on a free copy of the preceding year's edition of his movie yearbook. I was tickled at the opportunity to meet a like-minded soul and tell him how much I've appreciated him all these years. But when I stepped up to him, all I could muster was "I love reading your reviews!" The look he gave me was sheer "you gotta be kidding me."

So, Roger, if you ever stumble upon this, what I meant to say was thank you for being the voice of art, literature, and intelligence in an industry that's based on flash and cash and big explosions. You've got the world's most awesome job (except, of course, when you're forced to go see movies like Transformers 2), and nobody does it as well as you do.

Hey, Unemployed Journalists: Join the Dark Side

2009-07-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last week's Gannett newspaper layoffs were upsetting in many ways. It was tangible evidence of an evaporating career field, not to mention a blow to the quality and depth of the local news in nearly 100 U.S. cities. I began to wonder what will happen to all the journalists, left free-falling without an abundance of desirable career options. (And always in the back of my mind is the idea that book publishing is not far behind on the continuum.)

But along comes David Meerman Scott, writing for EconentMag.com, with an idea of how to use your journalism skills at private corporations, nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies (see the article here). Although media relations has always been a good tangential option, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about using your storytelling skills to create internal and web content that educates and informs various audiences. And he says your skills are badly needed now.

Scott admits that many journalists will see working for a corporation as selling out, but argues that it doesn't have to be like that if you adjust your thinking and align things correctly.

He doesn't go into great detail about how to get these types of jobs, however. But for now, maybe it's enough just to open the door a crack and get people thinking in that direction. Work your extensive networks and try to set up meetings with people in charge of corporate communications and web content at companies you admire in your area. Be open to the idea of working as a contractor for more than one company. Open your mind and explore your options.

Meanwhile, if you're feeling cynical about journalism, enjoy this modest proposal, from Richard Sine in the Huffington Post, who says we need to close the journalism schools and stop cranking out more gullible media hopefuls into a dying industry.

Pearson Now Tops List of World's Biggest Publishers

2009-07-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

My post last year on the subject of how the world's publishers stack up against one another is perhaps one of my most consistently popular posts (not because it was any stroke of genius on my part; it's just a popular subject and I have wicked-good SEO).

Last year, Pearson was #2 on the list, behind Thomson. According to this article on Bookseller.com, Pearson has taken over the top spot, with more than 7.4B in annual revenue. Here are the world's new top 10 publishers. (I've taken Bookseller's list and converted the euros to dollars.)

Pearson (UK): $7.4B
Reed Elsevier (UK/NL/US): $6.7B
ThomsonReuters (Canada): $5.1B
Wolters Kluwer (NL): $4.96B
Bertelsmann (Germany): $4.38B
Hachette Livre (France): $3.17B
McGraw-Hill Education (U.S.): $2.6B
Grupo Planeta (Spain): $2.59B
De Agostini Editore (Italy): not available
Scholastic (U.S.): $2.2B

You can see the whole list of the world's top 50 publishers here.

Gannett Delivers on Promise of Layoffs

2009-07-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I tweeted the news that Gannett was planning to lay off up to 1,000 people in its various local newspapers across the nation. Looks like it's all going down right now. Worst hit at this point are the papers in Detroit (132), Cincinnati (up to 100), Nashville (60), and Tucson (about 60), although people are also reporting that four people have been let go from the Indianapolis Star. (When I find out who, I'll let you know.)

For the very latest, check the comments at the unofficial Gannett Blog. Tomorrow that blog shuts down, though, and you'll need to visit the layoff tracker at Gannettoid.

Spellr.us Shames Me

2009-07-07T11:30:00.001-07:00

Professional resume writer Teena Rose's blog on becoming a resume writer recently featured Spellr.us, a site that will spell-check entire websites for typos. You pay for various levels of access, but can check 100 pages for free. This is useful because once you have content on a site, it's tough to go back and spell-check each document on it.

I decided to give it a try with this blog. Yikes, people. You didn't tell me I used "everytime" 27 times, as well as a couple dozen other howlers. It also looks like I have a particular penchant for "youself."

I've said before that bloggers should get a little slack because of the nature of the medium. But come on: I'm supposed to be the eagle-eyed editor, here. The problem is that I have been working without a net by composing all my posts directly in Blogger. No more, folks. From now on, I'll be typing things in Word first before publishing them into the blog. (I also just discovered, the hard way, that the new version of Word won't let you copy and paste into Blogger; instead, you compose posts in Word and then hit the Publish button.)

Responses to the Freelancing Question

2009-07-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I wrote this short post, asking what people were seeing in terms of the recent availability of freelance editing work. I had heard from too many people that they didn't have much--if any--freelance work to do. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that the majority of people saying that are people who work for Pearson.

But others wrote in with various opinions on the situation and advice for those seeking work:

Greg Albers of Hol Art Books agreed that things might be slacking up now because of the recession, but that in the long term freelancing will become a way of life for many more people. He also turned me on to his cool publishing concept, in which editors and others volunteer to work on book projects in exchange for royalties down the road. It's a gamble, of course, but one that could pay off if you choose your projects well.
Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said that in her specialized field of medical editing, things are hopping. She's still having to turn away the occasional project.
Susan Hobbs said that she learned not to put all of her editorial eggs in one basket, so she keeps a diversified client list. She's stayed consistently busy over the last several months but has noted that some publishers that used to pay in 30 days are now taking 60 and even 90 days to get a check out.
Tim Huddleston is always busy and attributes that to his flexibility and being able to do many different kinds of editing work.
Susan Cox, a lady I played in bands with back in the early '80s, recommends the Writer's Market as a good source of leads on publishers. (Tim and I concur.)
John, a freelancer in Columbus, Ohio, has seen work dry up from a major client. If anyone has leads for him, let us know in the comments.
Marc, a local writer, says the work is fairly cyclical: It gets heavy after layoffs and then gets "dodgy" again later.

Any other observations or tips?

Bad Vibes: Longstanding Hip-Hop Magazine Shut Down

2009-07-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Every day we hear of another print publication shutting down--declining ad revenue cited as the primary cause. So it was not out of the ordinary to hear that Vibe magazine is ceasing publication immediately after 16 years. But what stopped me cold this time is the fact that Vibe is owned by the same private equity fund that owns us. I'm not drawing conclusions here; I'm just sayin'.

Up to 50 people are losing their jobs. The magazine's original founder, Quincy Jones (who was already having a bad week), is making noises about buying it back and putting it exclusively online.

If I hear anything more, I'll update you in the comments section.

Hall of Shame: Elsevier and Elisabeth

2009-06-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

I really try not to be judgmental, especially because I know there are always many sides to a story and the media usually spins things way beyond recognition. But today I can't resist pointing the finger of shame at two parties in the book publishing world:

Elsevier, which stands accused of offering $25 Amazon gift cards to anyone who would post a 5-star review of one of their books (see here). Sure, we've all wanted to encourage people to post reviews of our books on Amazon because it helps boost sales. Some publishers have gone so far as to send out free books and galleys to get the general public to do just that. But to dictate that it's a good review and to offer a bribe? For shame!
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who stands accused of plagiarizing parts of her gluten-free diet book (see here). I spent one long maternity leave muting her empty-headed rants on The View. Looks like anybody can be an "author" these days. Give us a break. Her 15 minutes should have been up a long time ago.

Okay, I feel better now. I might just have to make this a regular feature on this blog.

Tale of Woe from One of Harcourt's Vendors

2009-06-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Freelance editor Katharine O'Moore-Klopf pointed me in the direction of this really depressing article from the New York Times. To sum it up, Inkwell Publishing Solutions did a lot of editorial work for Harcourt's textbooks. Now that Harcourt is in trouble, it's not paying its vendors. So Inkwell has gone belly-up, leaving approximately 50 freelancers scrambling for their very survival.

Something similar happened here in Indy about six years ago. A packager declared bankruptcy and many freelancers got just a fraction of what they were owed. (Somehow I got lucky and got my money just in time.) The lesson we all learned is to never let a client owe you too much. If they owe you money and it's more than a month overdue, you might have to refuse future assignments until you are paid. You have to go with your gut, of course. You don't want to risk being seen as a troublemaker. But you also have to be able to minimize your losses in case the worst happens, as it did for the Inkwell people.

Is Freelancing Drying Up?

2009-06-18T07:32:00.001-07:00

I've heard from way too many people recently that their freelancing pipelines are empty. Naturally, publishers that are hurting are going to try to cut back their title lists and pull as much in-house as possible. It makes me nervous for all of those who make their livings this way. Is my anecdotal evidence just that--anecdotal? Or are you having the same experience? What can a freelancer do to adapt and get more work? Will some people have to give it up and go back in-house? Will there be jobs for those people? Is the sky falling?

TitleZ Is Back!

2009-06-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

For the past several weeks I have been frustrated and in mourning over the loss of TitleZ, a site that allows you to track and aggregate your books' Amazon rankings. One day it just went down, leaving behind only a simple message that it would return. I worried that it would never happen, given that the site has been in "beta" for several years. I figured it had been abandoned by its creators.

I tried to find a substitute for it, but none of the sites suggested by other bloggers had the power, ease of use, and low price (free) that TitleZ does. So, given that my repeated requests for Bookscan access have fallen on deaf ears for half a decade, I resigned myself to having no daily barometer of sales. And I was bereft. Although Amazon sales are by no means a complete picture of our sales, they were a good indicator of how our PR efforts were impacting things. Also, our trade sales rep appreciated getting top-10-seller reports from me, so that he could compare those results with brick and mortars and look for opportunities.

Just now I discovered that after surviving a nasty virus, TitleZ is back. It lost some data and isn't functioning quite right. But I can at least see my top sellers again. Whew!

The Great Travel Book Controversy

2009-06-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of a story I might not have known about had it not been for social media. I am a "fan" of Frommer's travel guides on Facebook because I have edited their books off and on for 13 years. Yesterday Frommer's posted a link to this blog post from Arthur Frommer himself, the nonagenarian who once traveled Europe on $5 a day (these days, that will buy you a can of Pepsi). The problem? A bookstore chain in Britain has signed an exclusive deal with Penguin to stock only Penguin travel titles (including the lovely DK Eyewitness Guides and the Rough Guides).

But what makes this bad is that the chain is WHSmith, which has a monopoly on stores in all British airports and train stations, not to mention its huge "high street" presence (Brit-speak for the stores you see on the main road through towns). So you can see why Arthur is mad. His Frommer's books are being pushed off the shelves of 400 stores.

You can google it and see the media reactions, most of which side with Arthur. The public is being denied freedom of choice (and coverage of many destinations). Many publishers are being hurt and jobs are at stake. Penguin (part of Pearson) acknowledges that it's a sweetheart deal (but at a 72% discount, they are going to have to sell a lot of books to make up for such an unprecedented concession--good thing those Eyewitness Guides are expensive and are probably printed overseas, bringing down their unit costs).

As always, though, it's the comments on the media stories that shed the most light. (You have to love those Brits for their polite, insightful, and grammatically correct comments!) The point has been raised that smart travelers do their research ahead of time and don't buy overpriced books at the last minute in airports. Others have commented that by limiting their selection, WHSmith will lose sales.

However it turns out, you can bet American publishers and booksellers will be watching. None of us would like to see B&N making exclusive deals with the competition.

More Media Reaction to the New Playboy CEO

2009-06-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

Indianapolis is now officially abuzz with the news of former Macmillan CEO Scott Flanders's appointment to the top job at Playboy Enterprises. On Sunday, we saw this jaunty sketch on the front page of the Indianapolis Star's business section. What would be better, it asked: Flanders's new job, or that of a beer taster in a brewery?

And just now MediaBistro linked to yet another interview with Flanders in Folio magazine. What is striking about this is his firm belief that the print version of the magazine will rebound. I'm skeptical.

Another Winner from Not Hired Gets Me Thinking...

2009-06-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Almost daily I have to check in with Not Hired for the latest examples of job seekers who just don't get it. Today's find was a real gem: a misogynistic ex-military actor who thinks a resume is a good place to tell stories about how all his employers, girlfriends, customers, etc. have wronged him.

Wow. At first I was sad, thinking about how many people just have no clue how to write a decent resume. But extreme examples like this turn up almost weekly. It's beginning to dawn on me that people who write resumes like this don't really want a job, do they? In order to continue collecting unemployment, people have to prove that they've been applying for jobs. So what better way to ensure that the checks keep coming (and you don't accidentally get a job) than to send out resumes like this one?

Sometimes I'm slow, but eventually I catch on.

Coveting the Netbooks

2009-06-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I was flipping through the channels and saw that QVC was selling Dell netbooks. For the first time in my life, I actually watched that channel without making fun (except yelling "They're almost sold out of the green ones! Must call now!"). The thought of a thoroughly portable (and oh so cute!) computer really appeals to me. I could take it anywhere!

But I wonder whether a person could really edit on one of those things. Can you even get Word on them? Would the tiny screen drive me insane? I'm wondering whether anyone out there has used one and what they think about it. (Also, has anyone had any success actually editing poolside, or is the glare insurmountable?)

Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice that it's not much bigger than a Kindle. At what point will all of our various devices morph into one all-purpose thing?

I guess today I'm asking more questions than I'm answering...

Will the Real Bozos Please Stand Up?

2009-06-05T11:54:00.002-07:00

Here's your Friday funny, straight from my mailbox to your computer screen (see the third indented, boldfaced line):
You're a force to be reckoned with in the online retail world, Jeff, but they can't get your name right. (Wonder how often this happened to him on the playground growing up?)

The bigger point here is that although I have heard great things about Montessori schools, do you think I will be sending my child to this location? (I'm not even mentioning the random capitalizations and the notion that the young British princes have made a significant impact on our lives as a result of their Montessori schooling...)

The Top 50 Book Blogs

2009-06-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Just caught a tweet from @jwikert that led me to this: blog-rank's list of the top 50 book blogs. Blog-rank (spelled several different ways on its own page, btw) used 20 different factors to rank the blogs, including how many people subscribe in a reader, how many incoming links there are, and the blogs' popularity on social sites.

Joe himself is well represented at #14, and there are several others that I've got on my feeds. But what blows my mind is how many of them I hadn't heard of before (like, oh, the one with the #1 ranking). This either shows my spotty attention span, or it demonstrates just how darn many awesome book blogs there are. And Joe says he thinks they've missed a few.

At any rate, I guess I'll be putting a lot more on my feeds.

Scott Flanders: The New "Boy Next Door"

2009-06-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

I'm checking the calendar because it surely must be April 1st. Multiple sources, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Associated Press, and the acrid OC Weekly are all confirming that Scott Flanders, former CEO of Macmillan USA, will be taking over as CEO of Playboy Enterprises as of July 1.

Flanders, a lawyer and accountant, skyrocketed to prominence here in Indianapolis in the late '80s and early '90s as president of Que Corporation, which through a series of mergers and acquisitions he parlayed into a 1,500-employee operation that encompassed a dozen imprints under Macmillan Computer Publishing and Macmillan General Reference. It all came crashing down in late 1998 when Pearson bought Simon & Schuster and found itself in possession of Macmillan. Amid rumors of book-cooking, Dame Marjorie showed him the door. We feted him with a washtub full of beers in the lobby of the "castle in the cornfield" offices. I told him he was going to do great things and that I would be watching him.

He's spent the last decade moving among bigger media circles such as Sony and Freedom Communications, and all the while the shadow of new media has continued to overtake his efforts. So now, today, he's landed at the Playboy mansion. Sounds like the folks in the OC are glad to see him go. I continue to watch and wait for those great things.

Thanks for the heads up to my friend Linda, always the best source of inside info!

Falling: Living with Polio and a Peculiar Family in Dayton, Ohio (1938-1957)

2009-06-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've got a pile of books to read on my nightstand and precious little time to do so. But when I found out that Falling, my late college mentor's memoirs, was available, I pushed everything aside and eagerly dove into reading about his family history and early life.

His purpose in writing his memoirs was to share his experience with having contracted polio at age 8, and to show how it shaped his character. It was a part of his history that was painfully obvious when strangers looked at his twisted body, but one that those who loved him ceased to notice.

Particularly poignant were the memories of his time in the iron lung, from which some of his wardmates did not emerge alive. It was a horrible disease that he believed he contracted through the innocent act of swimming in the public wading pool. And when the vaccine came too late for him, I felt like I was right alongside his sobbing mother.

Of course, the "cheerful warrior" persona that the local media tagged him with stuck with him to the end, and so the book is not maudlin and contains plenty of charmingly odd stories of his Appalachian ancestors and his attachment to his siblings. When his father admonished him "Don't step in anything," I laughed and cried at once. He'd issued that same literal and figurative warning to his own kids--and me.

Another point at which I broke down was when he spoke of a high school teacher who "decided" that he should attend Earlham College with the same force of conviction with which Sam determined that I would attend the University of Evansville. And so I did, and Sam's influence changed my life--and those of countless others.

I am biased about this book because I loved Sam. But I do believe even those who did not know him will be entertained and enlightened by this folksy but learned memoir.

Word 2007: Am I the Only Hater?

2009-05-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Change is hard, right? This week my work computer crashed. I was due for a new one, anyway, so overnight the IT fairy set me up with a brand new Dell. What they didn't tell me was that it came with Word 2007 installed. I've been using various word-processing programs for 23 years now, and rarely have I been so stumped by a new version as I am with this one.

Oh yeah, it's supposed to be easier to use. But I think that they've dumbed it down too much for my purposes. How do I attach a template? (I figured out a work-around that will probably cause production foul-ups down the line.) It even took me way too long to figure out the purpose of the "Office Button," which is really just a glorified File menu.

I'm biting my quivering lower lip and resisting the urge to go fetal. I know that in a few days it will feel like I've been using this version forever. I just wasn't prepared to have to retool this week.

Thessaloniki Book Fair

2009-05-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

While the American book industry prepares to launch BookExpo tonight, the book fair in Thessaloniki, Greece, is in full swing, and my husband is right in the middle of it. For many years he has said that BookExpo is not nearly as important to his business as the big fairs in Europe (London, Frankfurt, Warsaw, etc.), and he does not always go to it, anyway. But this year he's far, far from the Javits Center and immersed in meetings with his Greek publishing partners.

I'm not sure how he snuck this trip under my radar, because I swore he wouldn't go back to Greece without me. But here I sit in Indiana, having to be content with a Greek salad at Panera.

Heads Up About CareerBuilder's Resume "Critiques"

2009-05-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

On its home page, CareerBuilder is offering a "free resume critique." Blogger Amber Shah decided to try it, knowing full well she'd get a sales pitch for CareerBuilder's resume writing services. What she got was "way, way worse": a canned response that made it obvious that they never looked at her resume at all (see her post about it here).

What they told her is OK advice. It also could be applied to 99% of the resumes out there. I think we can all agree that adding a summary at the top and avoiding typos are good things to do, no? Maybe they couldn't find anything else bad to say about her resume.

The moral? Be on the lookout for a similar canned response and don't fall for it. I still advocate going directly to the source--a professional resume writer whom you can talk to--over paying a fee for a bigger company to find one for you.

Thanks to @cheezhead for the heads up.

The Upside of Getting Your News from Experts

2009-05-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

I was reading the excellent Kassia Krozser's rebuttal to Motoko Rich's recent New York Times article on e-book pricing. Kassia points out in several places how the publishing-beat reporter doesn't really work in the book industry and doesn't understand its subtleties. (Of course, Kassia's post is much more complex because the issue is so complex, and I don't pretend to understand it even as well as Motoko does.)

But then I remembered a time in my short reporting career in which I was assigned the task of calling up a new plant manager, having him explain the process of extrusion to me, and then writing an article about it. I'm quite certain he found a lot to nitpick about the end result. I always felt this way when writing about something I had no hands-on experience with. How much justice was I really doing the subject?

But 20 years ago, people pretty much had to take their truths from the media gatekeepers, even if they were snotty-nosed little English majors like me. How things have changed! Now if we really want to know the facts about something, we can go straight to the experts. We'll no doubt find someone out there blogging about it who is knee-deep in the subject day in and day out.

Of course, with this access comes the need to do your own filtering. How do you determine who the experts are and ignore their occasional erroneous points? How do we know what biases are driving what they are saying? We used to be able to count on the media to do their best to avoid biases and opinion in their reporting, but I think we can all agree that's gone out the window, too. So in the end, traditional journalism is losing its advantage quickly.

As usual, I have no answers. I'm but a grain of sand on the roaring beach that is new media. Hourly my opinions on the evolution of information are picked up, tossed around, and sent back out to sea, only to wash up again, confused.

Hmmm, maybe I just need a vacation?

Wiley Is All a-Twitter

2009-05-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Just this morning I had a reader asking me about Wiley's journals division (about which I know nothing). And then I log into Twitter and see a tweet from Ellen Gerstein (@elleinthecity) pointing me to this list of Wiley's official tweeters on Julia Lampam's blog.

This is a good way for Wiley's various divisions to promote their books and their brands. But it's also a good way for you to get the inside scoop about who they are and what they do. I urge you to follow as many of them as interest you.

Chronicle Books Goes on a Press Check

2009-05-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

I've had many colleagues go on what is known as a press check: You travel to the printer (which could involve up to eight hours in a car, in the snow, while you're sick) to be there when your book (or catalog) is on the press. Then you check it for color and other errors as each section prints. Somehow I've always been lucky enough to avoid these gruelling trips--possibly because I'm not a designer, but more likely because I rarely work with four-color books. I have gone on a few printer visits, where you get to tour the facility, have a nice lunch, and be on your way. A press check is a whole different beast.

So thank heavens for Liz and Anna at Chronicle Books in San Francisco (whose catalogs I luuurve). They went on a press check and documented it with photos--so we don't have to.

JIST Is on Facebook

2009-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that JIST Publishing is now on Facebook. Our awesome publicist, Selena Dehne, has set up a page for us and is updating it with all sorts of useful information on careers, our authors, and our books. Look us up and become a fan!

DK Books Headed for a Dreaded Restructuring?

2009-05-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have long admired Pearson's Dorling Kindersley from afar. I'm a highly visual learner and their books are filled with magnificent photos. I find the photo approach especially effective in the Eyewitness travel guides because it gives me a real feel for what I will see at my destination. (No disrespect to my friends at Frommer's: When I want solid travel-planning details on hotels and restaurants, they're still my go-to.)

So it's sad to see this report from Bookseller.com regarding the possibility of a restructuring at DK.

Thanks to @mviolano for the heads up.

Apress Moves Offices from California to New York

2009-05-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Berkeley computer book publisher Apress has posted this announcement on its website:

Apress, the leading publisher of books on emerging technologies announced the full implementation of a revolutionary, scalable, technology-based publishing process that will be unveiled at Tech Ed 2009.

The new publishing system is largely based on the collaborative tools, SharePoint and Biztalk, and features document check-in and monitoring, automated scheduling, integrated financial analysis, seamless information creation and delivery, and enhanced billing, invoicing and contract controls.

Apress further announced the relocation of its offices to the Springer office in New York City to unify the Apress workforce and to implement the new workflow system. With the move to New York, Apress will be closing its current office in Berkeley, California.

If you have any questions, please contact us at contact@apress.com.

Uh, yes, we have questions. What of those people in Berkeley? Have they been laid off? And what about the freelance editors who have worked for them for many years (my friend Linda included)? Will someone from Springer be in contact with them? Will they continue to receive assignments?

ANGEL Learning Sold

2009-05-08T12:51:00.001-07:00

The Indianapolis Business Journal (and others) reported yesterday on the sale of local web-based teaching and learning tools developer ANGEL Learning for $95M to Blackboard.

On the surface, this looked like good news. Indiana University, a major investor, will walk away with more than $20M. But closer scrutiny of the story and the comments (a perpetual source of the other perspective), yields this information:

There will be layoffs, despite the fact that it's downplayed in the article.
The Indianapolis area is losing potential for future growth and high-paying local employment.
Some feel that Blackboard's products are inferior, which will in the end hurt the customers.

One of the reasons I felt this was important to mention on this blog is that more and more publishers are partnering with firms like ANGEL to get their content into schools. The other reason is that at least two people I used to work closely with at Macmillan are now at ANGEL. I am wondering how this will impact them.

Thoughts?

Are You a Senior Sales Manager in Publishing?

2009-05-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

I know of an opportunity for a top-level sales manager here in Indianapolis. The ideal candidate will have trade and school sales experience, as well as personnel management, marketing, operations, and possibly even editorial. If you are interested in knowing more, give me a shout-out at loricateshand-at-yahoo-dot-com. I will put you in touch with the right people.

Negotiating the Freelance Economy

2009-05-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

This article in today's Wall Street Journal careers section caught my eye. It substantiates my theory that a lot more people are going to be free agents in the future, getting their work on a contract-by-contract basis.

But what bugs me is the suggestion that Elance is a freelancer's panacea. The few times I have explored this site, I have seen thousands of people vying for jobs that pay ridiculously low rates. I've seen offshore freelancers underbidding to the point that no American could afford to take the job. Personally, all freelancing work I've ever gotten has been the result of carefully cultivated personal networking, anyway.

From the employer side of things, I can't imagine hiring someone I'd never met before. I just know way too many talented editors to take a chance on an unfamiliar face. I'm betting that the majority of publishers feel the same way.

What are your experiences with sites like these? How on earth can you stand out in a database like that? Have you ever gotten a job through a site like this? Have you ever hired someone through Elance or a similar site?

Meanwhile, we're chuckling here about an over-eager potential freelancer, with zero experience, who keeps desperately calling our home office and practically demanding that we send her some work.

Job Hunting? "Look to Your Library"!

2009-05-05T13:21:00.001-07:00

Hooray for the King County Library System in Seattle, which is doing its part to help job seekers by opening an hour early every day this week, demonstrating job search tools, putting together a list of job search books and online resources (see here), and responding with vigor to a community that needs help. Have you hugged a librarian today? If you live in Seattle, I think you should!

Thanks to @danschawbel via NWjobs.

Getting Your Book Proposal Noticed

2009-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

A while back I mentioned the amazing Help A Reporter Out mailing list, which connects reporters with subject-matter experts to help them write their stories. We continue to monitor it daily in hopes of finding places for our authors to be quoted. But occasionally, it yields a place for me to be quoted.

Case in point, the April BookHitch.com newsletter. I volunteered my advice on what I look for when I screen and evaluate book proposals. That advice, plus tons of spot-on information from other editors, is available by subscribing to the free newsletter (sign up here).

If you are thinking of sending me (or anyone else) a book proposal, I suggest that you read this first!

Publishers Are from Mars; Librarians Are from Venus

2009-05-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

If you've been following my updates on Facebook, you already know that my trip to the Career Management Alliance conference came to an abrupt cancellation due to an ill-timed bout with a stomach virus. I am still disappointed about all the missed connections; however, I took advantage of the tweets and followed the highlights anyway.

I wanted to be sure and share this article from Library Journal, in which a librarian attempts to bridge the gap between the people who make the books and the people who facilitate their use. I felt like the part told from the editor's point of view was a pretty accurate depiction of the challenges we face. And I enjoyed hearing about the issues that librarians deal with. All of these problems are constantly evolving. You'd think we'd figure out better ways to work with each other. Can't we all just get along?

Leaving for the Career Management Alliance Conference

2009-04-27T13:38:00.001-07:00

I'm leaving tomorrow for the Career Management Alliance annual conference in San Antonio. I'm looking forward to mingling with leaders in the careers industry, learning about emerging trends and techniques for helping people find jobs. Clearly, this is an industry in the spotlight right now.

When I return, I'm sure to blog about what I've learned. But if you want to follow along on Twitter, be sure to follow @CMA09, or search for the #careers09 hashtag. Barbara Safani and Deb Dib, two of the most respected careers professionals, will be tweeting "highlights, insights, and a-ha moments."

See you next week!

The Wild: An Indie Bookseller I Love

2009-04-24T08:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got an e-mail that looked like a tear-jerker: "RIP Little Lady." "OMG," I thought. "Somebody's little girl has died." Dutifully, I opened the message, which came from the independent children's bookstore in our small town of Noblesville, The Wild.

As it turns out, the deceased was a hissing cockroach named Louise (and yes, that is her, "lying in state," at left) who lived at the store with her partner...wait for it...Thelma. Hard to get too choked up over a roach.

The Wild is more of a happening than just a mere store. It's situated on Noblesville's historic square, one of my favorite places to hang out anyway. But the quaint and narrow space is crammed with kids' books and games and toys as well, making it a destination in and of itself. Add to that the constant stream of special events (my daughter has gone there to meet snakes and pigs, for example) and you've got a store that has won my heart and will always get my business (except today, because I have a B&N gift card to spend).

Egg on Face

2009-04-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I dutifully repeated the pronouncement of WSJ writer Mark Penn that there are 452,000 professional bloggers in the U.S. (He also implied that if you get 100,000 unique visitors per month, you automatically get a $70K income.)

Well, guess what? Lots of people are contesting his post. Most were just skeptical (with comments such as "huh?" and "I would like to think this is true, but I doubt it"). The most interesting response I've found yet was this one by Patricio Robles on the Econsultancy blog. He points out that this is an illustration of how quickly misinformation can spread if we trust the source (in this case, the Wall Street Journal, for crying out loud). Mark Twain is enjoying a good laugh at our expense.

Even our favorite train-wreck blogger, Penelope Trunk, found a constructive way to blast the report (see here). Her message is good: Don't blog for the money. Blog for the career opportunities it might produce. (I might add, also blog to help people and keep your writing skills sharp.)

Penn had to post a response to explain hs numbers further, but it reads like a lot of blah-blah to me.

Blogging for a Living

2009-04-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Nice article in today's Wall Street Journal about blogging. It quotes MediaBistro's report that 452,000 people are getting their primary income from writing blogs. Of course, that leaves 1.7 million more of us who are getting mere pocket change from it, and more than 18 million others who are doing it for free. Nonetheless, it's inspiring to me to see it emerging as a legitimate occupation. I concur with the assessment that bloggers are becoming "the fifth estate."

Comic Sans: The Font We Love to Hate

2009-04-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

I got a big kick out of this article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. It's the backstory behind the invention of the Comic Sans font, the clownish one that looks like, well, a comic book. I laughed to read all the strange places this font, which nobody can take seriously, has turned up.

To this day, people still use it on their resumes, and I can't imagine what they must be thinking:

Hire me, I'm friendly!
I laugh at you and your company.
It was either this or Times New Roman.
My emotional development stopped at age 9.
I am a clown-college graduate.
Working with me is like spending every day at Disney World!

I'm sure you can add to this list.

I hate to be elitist, but that font just doesn't send the right message in professional correspondence. I feel for the guy who invented it because he has to watch it be used in so many ways he never intended. Don't let your resume be one of them.

I Am Not Going to London--or New York, Either

2009-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Jason left for the London Book Fair this morning. Twice in the last three years, I went along with him, even though our part of the company does virtually no foreign-rights business. (I've always been hopeful we could change that, but we haven't.) I mainly went as a tourist and made a one-day appearance at the fair.

But this year I am not going. Last year I started to get the feeling that I have been going to London too often (not that one could ever tire of London--just ask Samuel Johnson). I just think it would be more special if I spaced out my visits more.

Meanwhile, my in-laws are going with him--their first trip overseas and a dream come true for them both. I can't wait to hear how they like it.

I have also decided not to go to Book Expo this year. Last year we took a big contingent and sank a lot of money into it. And I don't think we got a thing in return. So I decided to save us some money and volunteered to stay home. A lot of other publishers are also scaling back, and some are not going at all. There is talk that this show is dying out. I don't know what it will take to save it, but I do hope someone figures it out. Book Expo is an amazing experience for those who have never been: what could be more wonderful than an entire exposition hall devoted to books and the people who make them?

Meanwhile, I am instead gearing up for the Career Management Alliance conference at the end of this month in San Antonio. Seven of my authors will be presenters, and many more friends and potential authors will be there.

Amazon Stirs Controversy--Again

2009-04-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have a soft spot for Amazon: low returns and a future-thinking business model (compared to the brick-and-mortars, at least). But today they have apparently crossed the line. Are they really effectively censoring books and favoring heterosexual porn over homosexual literature? Read Kasia Krozser's open letter to them here. Twitter has been so abuzz with the various protests over this move that I saw my first "Fail Whale" today.

Last week they had independent authors in an uproar over their policy to arbitrarily start deleting any book reviews in which the writer also mentioned their own book title. Book marketing expert John Kremer called Amazon "incredibly stupid, stupid, stupid." I had to agree. How else do you establish a reviewer's credentials than to name them as the author of a related book?

And before that, Joe Wikert told CEO Jeff Bezos to turn off the Dirty Dancing VHS and open up the Kindle to content from other providers.

I don't like where this is all headed. Amazon needs some image triage--stat!

Jessica Faust on Getting a Job in Publishing

2009-04-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

BookEnds agent Jessica Faust (whom I have worked with as both an editor and an agent through Alpha Books) recently posted her advice to recent graduates hoping to get a job in book publishing (read it here). Basically Jessica says you need to move to New York City, where the big houses are, and also consider applying for jobs with literary agents. You know how I bristle at the first point, but fair enough. Your odds probably are better there--although the downturn and the digital revolution are turning all that on its head.

Commenters added another good point that I have mentioned before: Work in a bookstore. We're suckers for people who can profess to bring us knowledge of how booksellers think.

20 Books for Freelancers

2009-04-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's always been a popular aspiration--to have control of your own time and more variety in your work by becoming a freelancer. But these days, more and more editors and writers are finding themselves starting freelance careers as a means of survival after a layoff. And many of them will make rookie mistakes.

Freelance writer, proofreader, and blogger Steph Auteri calls herself a greedy consumer of how-to career books. She took a minute out from reading to share her list of the most influential books she's read on starting and optimizing a freelance career.

I'm ashamed to say that although I am aware of many of these books, I haven't read a single one of them. From this well-rounded list, I see at least a couple that I need to get my hands on (not the money-advice ones, though; nobody pinches a penny harder than I do).

20 Facebook Apps for Your Job Search

2009-04-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Oh no! Someone's trying to turn the Facebook party into a work party! Amid all the fun and games, it seems there is real professional networking value to be found on Facebook. AskBINC, a recruiter/technology blog, becomes the official wet blanket with this post: 20 Facebook Applications to Assist in Your Job Search.

A quick skim reveals that all the major job boards and aggregators will let you put a jobs feed on your page--helpful, I guess, if you use Facebook like a home page. I'll have to study all of these further; for now, the idea of adding a link to my LinkedIn profile, which I've worked much harder on, sounds like the biggest winner of the bunch.

Lest you pooh-pooh the idea of the professional value of networking on Facebook, I have to brag that yesterday I was able to connect a friend in need of legal services with a relative who is a lawyer--all because of Facebook. There is wheat among the chaff!

Thanks to @lindseypollak for her timely tweet on the subject just minutes ago!

My New Hero: Swiss Army Librarian

2009-04-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Brian Herzog is a reference librarian at a public library in Massachusetts. In his awesome blog, Swiss Army Librarian, he chronicles the adventures of an intrepid public servant on his quest for sometimes-impossible-to-find information for his grateful patrons. It's very entertaining to see the lengths to which he will go to get answers for people, and the joy he expresses upon achieving his objective.

What compelled me to finally share him with you was this post that somehow bubbled to the top today, in which he talks about the ways he learns about new books to buy for the library. Yes, he still thumbs through Library Journal and publisher catalogs, just like Miss Judy used to do at EVCPL 22 years ago. But he also has some more creative and high-tech ways of discovering new titles, including those that don't ever get reviewed in LJ (which is most of them).

Three cheers for Brian, who shows that technology plus old-fashioned information passion equals one handy person to know.

Dooce Is on the Loose

2009-04-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Dooce is Heather Armstrong, best known as the first blogger to be fired for blogging. But hey, it turned out pretty good for her: Her personal blog is so popular that now it supports her whole family. And now she's out on the road on the last leg of her book tour to promote her blog-based book, It Sucked and Then I Cried. The catch? She's seven months pregnant and hurtling toward immobility.

Heather is controversial--no doubt about it. She's got a legion of haters who have polluted her book's Amazon page with tags like "read blog for free," "people exploiting their children for money," and "get over yourself." But I love Heather because she is honest, hilarious, and brave. I am going to buy this book because I, too, had a less-than-blissful post-partum emotional experience. I never threw a milk jug at my husband's head, but don't think I didn't think about it.

As to the comments that the book is nothing more than a rehash of the blog, that's okay with me because I have only recently discovered her. I have some catching up to do, and I don't want to sit in front of my computer to do it. Besides, whatever happened to supporting artists who entertain and enlighten us? If we continue to expect to get all our content for free, eventually it won't be there.

Also, look for Heather on Oprah today. She wasn't in the studio, but she did join the conversation via Skype. The book already made the NYT best-seller list. Today's appearance won't hurt its ranking a bit.

I'm Just Sayin'...

2009-04-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying that if you're applying to be an editor, there shouldn't be a single typo in your resume or cover letter, right? Do I also have to say that you should not write your cover letter in lolcats dialect? Somebody forgot to tell this guy.

Tee-Hee: Publishing Careers Are Glamorous

2009-04-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

It's not even 9am and already my day is made: Alison Flood and Lindesay Irvine at the Guardian in the UK have put words to my own musings about how the media glamorizes a career in book publishing. Read their quick and fun summary of some well-known examples here. It seems Sandra Bullock is about to star in a new romantic comedy in the role of an editor. (I got excited, but then saw that they think it looks dreadful.)

Ah, yes, the world at large thinks what we do is so exciting. Nevermind that most of us never work with "celebrities" (and those who do often find them to be insufferable). Nevermind that the bulk of the jobs in publishing are repetitive and constrained by so many "rules" as to kill all semblance of creativity. Thanks to Jackie O, a career in publishing is deemed to be the ultimate party, and just the right place for a lady with brains and style.

Well, you know, there's still a lot to love about working with books and words and ideas and smart people, so don't get me wrong. Just know that, as with most other careers, the reality is a lot more down-to-earth than the fantasy.

But oh--what's better than a bookish movie with Hugh Grant in it?

The Most-Borrowed Career Books from Library Journal

2009-04-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

A nice surprise this morning: The release of Library Journal's list of most-borrowed career books. Of course, no surprise to see Parachute in the top spot, and all those pesky Knock 'em Dead titles hanging around in the top 6. But JIST has captured the #3, #4, #7, #8, #10, #11, #14, #17, and #20 spots with a gaggle of reference titles and a couple of our best trade hits, including

Home Gardening Is Hot

2009-03-31T05:58:00.000-07:00

I have been loving this resurgence of interest in home gardening. Not only is it good for gardening-book publishers (see Publishers Weekly's take on it here), it's good for the environment, our bodies, and our souls.

My husband and I both grew up watching our grandfathers till the soil every spring and plant backyard gardens. In fact, Grandpa Hand was still planting onions when he couldn't stand up any longer, by sitting in a chair in the yard. They would grow tomatoes, bell peppers (which my grandparents erroneously called mangoes), potatoes, onions, and other basic staples that grow well in Indiana.

Ever since we set up housekeeping, Jason and I have had a garden. I have been a sporadic helper to his tireless efforts. We've tried all sorts of things in addition to the basics, such as snow peas, cucumbers, corn, herbs, carrots, watermelon, strawberries, and canteloupe--with varying degrees of success. We don't like pesticides, so we've had heartbreaking losses to bugs, birds, and bunnies. (If we are to really live off our land, we're going to have to get medieval on the pests this year, somehow. Marigolds and chili powder just aren't cutting it.)

And then there's the composter. Sometimes I resent the fact that I'm not allowed to throw away any vegetable scrap, eggshell, or coffee ground--it has to be finely chopped and hauled out to the stinky composter. But that has paid off in terms of loamy goodness that is transforming our clay soil into the envy of our novice gardening neighbors. Now he wants to buy a $150 rain barrel.

I think that if people spent less time in their cars running to and fro and spending money, they could get a good workout in the yard, reap the benefits of the fresh air, and save some money on their grocery bills--all while eating something healthier. It's a win-win proposition, and I hope the trend continues.

10 Industries That Are Soaring

2009-03-30T12:11:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to take articles like these with a grain of salt because it seems you see a new one every day, they all conflict with one another, and they use dubious sources. But I couldn't resist pointing out that this article from U.S. News & World Report (my 101-year-old grandpa's former favorite magazine) has ranked "resume editing" right up there with home gardening, McDonald's, and Harlequin romance novels as one of the things people just can't do without during this recession.

"All I know is I don't even have a life anymore," said one quoted professional resume writer in reference to the steady demand he is experiencing. Boy, do I hear that. Of course, how can you complain about having too much work when so many people don't have enough?

Another line from the article that I must point out: "Borders says its sales of career guides are up from last year." Oh yeah? I'd like some details on that one...