Trifecta Friday: Instabook, Day in the Life, and Sick of Recession

Rather than hoard all of this good info and dole it out over the next few days, I'm going to lay it all on ya right here and now. Three very interesting items have come to my attention:

• A New Paradigm for Publishing?: First, JIST author and editor Laurence Shatkin blogs today at FastCompany about his new book on getting a job from the new economic initiatives (Great Jobs in the President's Stimulus Plan). He touches on how quickly the book was conceived and produced (a new record at JIST, and impressive by any standards): from idea to printed book in 24 days.
• BOOKSMARTS: A Day in the Life of a Book Editor: At Girl w/Pen, Laura Mazer serves up a hilarious (but all too true) account of what it's like to be a mom working as an editor. The diversity of her responsibilities might sound far-fetched, but it's pretty close to (my) home.
• F*** Fear: Juliana Aldous Atkinson, an editor for Microsoft Press, says what we've all been thinking. After years of prosperity, a few months of financial contrition is about all we can take. We're all tired of the way the media is blowing the recession out of proportion. We're tired of self-denial, mixed messages, and the stress of constantly feeling our jobs are on the line. She asks for suggestions on dealing with it all, but I haven't come up with any good ones yet. I just know that the media will soon have to obsess about something else, because we are tired of wallowing in this.

Having said that, have an awesome weekend! If my child does not come down with strep today (as I fear), I'm going to go help feed the quadruplets on Sunday!

Publishing Programs' Applications Not Declining

Somehow this article in the January 26 edition of Publisher's Weekly got past me. (You know, the infamous issue in which former editor Sara Nelson said "Call me gullible or impressionable, but I'm actually feeling kind of hopeful this week"--right before she was laid off.)

Reporter Rachel Deahl spoke with the leaders of the well-known summer publishing institutes (Columbia, Denver, and NYU) and other graduate and continuing-education programs and found that students are as eager as ever to get into book publishing. The reasoning from CUNY publishing certificate program assistant director Retha Powers: "People start asking themselves, 'If I don't have the same job security, then what do I really want to be doing?' I think one of the answers is that people are really excited about publishing."

Coworker Exposes Bad Grammar "Spree"

My coworker Stephanie is famous today on the Red Pen, Inc., blog. She noticed an egregious error in an online version of a TV news report on our city's preparations to host the Super Bowl in 2012. I won't spoil it for you: Go read it here.

We're still waiting to see whether her submission yesterday to the FAIL Blog turns up. She used her iPhone to take and submit a photo of a packet of salmon from a gift basket an author sent us. It had three conflicting expiration dates on it. Expiration date FAIL! Seriously, if you are not yet familiar with the FAIL Blog, but you like making fun of other peoples' mistakes (and who doesn't?), get over there and check it out right away! It's currently my favorite place to get a reliable chuckle (and the occasional blow-your-drink-out-your-nose guffaw) when I need one.

Tony Dungy Signing His New Book Today

It's been all over the local media that recently retired Colts coach Tony Dungy will be signing his new book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, at two Indianapolis venues today--at Borders from 3 to 5pm and at Sam's Club from 7 to 9pm. The book is already doing quite well--it's ranked #16 on Amazon now, and has been as high as #9.

You can see a complete list of his scheduled signings here. The publisher, Tyndale House, appears to be targeting his fan base: here and in Tampa, where he formerly coached (and probably because he just happened to be down there for the Super Bowl, anyway). There are also some dates in the New York area.

Tyndale also used a bit or strategy with the release date. It wasn't scheduled to be released until February 17; but when he announced his retirement, they decided to step it up and piggyback onto the publicity that he's continuing to get from that.

The TV news reporter did a live shot outside Borders, nearly 12 hours before his scheduled appearance. She said people would be limited to just three copies of the book each. Imagine how many books he's going to sell today!

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt "Teetering" in Boston

The Boston Globe published this amazing article yesterday about the fact that the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt office in Boston is on the brink of collapse. It's a comprehensive and plausible summary of how it got to this point (hint: corporate greed and endless mergers, coupled with the horrible economy and the shifting publishing paradigm).

But the true gold is in the comments section. Dozens of articulate publishing veterans, many of whom are former HMH employees, have written in with their thoughts on the situation. It's fascinating. There's even a student commenter who hurls insult at the industry for its stupid adherence to printed texts.

The article's founding premise, that school textbook publishing is in dire trouble, is confirmed in reports I've gotten from and about all the major (and some minor) players in the industry. All seem to agree: Whereas college textbooks are in better shape, the divisions that publish texts for elementary and high schools are in deep, deep doo-doo. States are going bankrupt (in particular, California), which means they don't have money to buy new textbooks.

The world of textbook publishing is twisted, indeed, as some of the article's comments hint.

Job Search Expenses Are Tax-Deductible

Thanks to professional resume writer and career counselor Cliff Flamer for the reminder that many job search expenses (such as money you pay professional resume writers and career coaches) can be deducted from your taxes. Cliff goes into some detail here on his blog about the kinds of things you can deduct. Of course, you'll have to itemize, and that's a bummer. But if you own a house, you probably already have to do that, anyway.

Cliff is a really nice guy whom I met at the NRWA conference this fall. And I'm not just saying that because, as Certification Chair, he will hold my fate in his hands when I apply to become a Nationally Certified Resume Writer later this spring!

Ellen Gerstein on Social Networking at Work

Hurray for Ellen, a marketing manager at Wiley, for her stance on allowing employees to access social networking sites at work. She says it's beneficial for the company and helps broaden people's knowledge of what their customers are thinking and doing. She cites a fellow Wiley manager in the UK, who encourages her employees to spend an hour a day surfing the Web, picking up new ideas and connecting with customers in new ways.

There are plenty of Luddites out there who think that time on the Internet is wasted time. I will allow that it's easy to get off track, and those who blog and tweet about personal things while on the clock should probably not. But how are we going to understand our customers if we don't meet them where they are: online?

Here are just a few ways that using the Internet at work makes me a better editor/product manager:

• Fact-checking: If an author uses a dubious-looking spelling of a brand name, I can go right to the source and verify it.
• Continuing education: I have learned more about publishing technology and business from publishing blogs than I have ever learned at my own company. How amazing is it that people are willing to give free advice on what works for them and what doesn't?
• Author search and credential-checking: When I'm proactively trolling for new authors, I can use blogs and LinkedIn to get leads. And if I'm reviewing a proposal, I can evaluate an author's profile by googling them.
• Polling: If I have a particularly thorny question, I can poll my network and get advice and opinions.

What ways do you use the Internet and social networking to improve your job performance?