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?

Sara Nelson One of 70,000 Laid Off Yesterday in the U.S.

I've been restraining myself mightily from continuing to contribute to the employment-related wailing and gnashing of teeth, but this news yesterday really took my breath: Publishers Weekly editor Sara Nelson has been let go. The editor of Library Journal will be taking over both magazines. (See the low-key announcement here).

Edward Nowatka, blogging for the Frankfurt Book Fair at Beyond Hall 8, had this interesting tangent on the news, reflecting on how publishing is not a hospitable place for the middle aged. It has an appetite for the young, who can deal with working for pennies. When they start to want more from life (such as a home and family), they tend to move on. Of course, I have to assume that this is more relevant to those in New York. In the Midwest, a finanically judicious middle-ager can eventually buy his or her McMansion and a 1/2 acre of sod and do just fine.

So, folks, what's next? Reading all the comments and articles about how Sara didn't see the layoff train barrelling down upon her makes me even more circumspect.

Combating Pirated Content

Thar be pirates! Not the cute, Johnny Depp kind, but the kind that steal book content and put it online for people to download for free. Even worse, some of them charge people a subscription fee to download all the free content they want. The catch is that they don't own this content and aren't paying the publishers or authors any royalties.

It's usually not a matter of them somehow stealing our e-books, I don't think. They are actually taking printed copies of the books and scanning them in as PDFs. However they do it, it upsets my authors every time they get back their Google alerts on their names and find more of their content pirated online.

My husband works in foreign rights for Pearson, so he has seen his share of this happening. He has in the past advised me that all you can do is find out where the site owner lives and send them a "cease and desist" letter. But if the perpetrator is on foreign soil (and they usually are), U.S. copyright law is unenforceable. So the usual reaction is for them to ignore the letters.

Today when I got the latest piracy alert from an author, something occurred to me. Publishing 2020 blogger Joe Wikert is always saying that giving away content is not always a bad thing and that we need to loosen our grip a little. So I wondered what his thoughts and experiences have been with piracy.

"I do believe these piracy sites both hurt and help our industry. I have no stats to prove one way or the other though," he said. So although they are probably helping to build buzz, they're probably also hurting sales. Although he's entertained a few creative suggestions for halting this kind of infringement, Joe ultimately agrees that the cease-and-desist letter is probably our only practical weapon--and it's an ineffective one, at best.

One consolation was that when our corporate counsel was investigating a particular site, she downloaded a virus. So I guess it's comforting to think that some of the people out there trying to steal content might meet the same fate.

Do you have any experiences with combating the content pirates that you can share?

Update: Coincidentally, GalleyCat has an article today about an author who faced just such a situation and decided that if she couldn't beat them, she'd join them. I swear I had already written my post today before I read this article. How freaky!

Sneek Peek at CareerBuilder's Super Bowl Ad

Just ran across this at Cheezhead's (Joel Cheesman's) awesome recruitment blog. I'm still holding back tears of laughter over its Office Space-like premise and over-the-top situations that make my own seem just not quite so bad.

I think we can all agree that, especially in years in which the Colts are not involved (which is what, 42 of them?), the best part of the Super Bowl is the ads. Can't we?

Time Magazine on the Future of Book Publishing

Awesome article by Lev Grossman right here. It pretty much sums up all the issues that are swirling around the publishing blogosphere reagrding the state and future of the industry. Plus, it's clearly worded for the laypeople who might be thinking about these issues for the first time.

The conclusion seems to be that old-school publishing will survive alongside the new "unofficial" methods of bringing information to the people, including self-publishing. I am all for this new freedom of information that seems to defy the censorship of the priviledged few, who don't always know best what the world wants to read.

However, the article mentions often the fact so much of this material is unedited. What does that mean? Is it that people don't appreciate the value of editing? Don't have time to wait for editing? Can't afford editing? What are the implications for the future careers of editors? Any thoughts?

New Writing, Editing, and Indexing Classes from the EFA

The Editorial Freelancers Association is announcing a new slate of publishing-related courses to be offered online in the next quarter. You can see the full list here on Katharine O'Moore-Klopf's EditorMom blog. The courses last from 4 to 6 weeks each, and some of them even have (gasp!)homework. If you're an EFA member, you can get a discount on the enrollment fee.

For more information, keep an eye on this page. The courses aren't yet posted there, but will be soon.