A Day in the Life

Today was a somewhat-typical day for me (although, as Mark Long said, there is no such thing as a typical day in publishing). I didn't get to do a lot of "product manager" stuff today because I have several books in the production stage that required immediate attention. In a nutshell, here was my day:

• 6am: Get up.
• 7am: Wake and dress preschooler.
• 7:20am: Leave for preschool.
• 7:45am: Pry crying preschooler from leg and fight rush-hour traffic to get to work.
• 8:10am: Arrive at work (happy that the new office is much closer to home).
• 8:15am: Check and field e-mails. Forward chapters from author to freelance copy editor.
• 9am: Review and edit index for book that's going to the printer today. Send to layout, along with endorsement quotes for the inside front cover and final corrections to the interior.
• 10am: Fulfill two requests for pre-publication galleys from college career centers (the publicist usually does this, but she's in Cabo this week).
• 11am: Forward request to author from sales department to write an instructor's guide to go along with a new trade title.
• 11:30am: Put finishing touches on two chapters that I ghost-wrote for the new edition of our former owner's top-selling resume book. (Someone call Fox News--some authors don't write their own books!)
• 12pm: Walk to lunch at Chile Verde with four coworkers (a birthday celebration).
• 1pm: Resign myself to checking layout's work on proofreader corrections to another (messy) resume book going to the printer before month end.
• 3pm: Another birthday party--Ritter's frozen custard in the break room. No wonder we're all fat.
• 4 to 5pm: ??? Tie up some loose ends. Maybe call some of the wannabe authors that I owe a call. Maybe wait until Monday. Maybe just send passive e-mails instead.