Today started out not particularly busy, what with my having handed over the manuscript I’ve been working on since Friday and moved it off of my desk. But then this thing that I’ve been waiting to happen, a fix of a book record in our system that would allow me build the record for a new edition of the book (and two other accompanying books), happened. And so I had to build the records for those, probably getting half of the data entry and tabs I need to select wrong, while I pulled information from the proposal and reviews, building a proposal I can share with the group, and a profit and loss estimate, and all the things that need to be done before we can actually offer a contract. Plus, there were a few other projects that needed tending to, and a brand new one to add to the mix.
I’m unlikely to finish any of it tomorrow, not least of all because the office is closing early for the long weekend. But hopefully I can make a sizable dent in it and have a contract out to the author before the middle of June.
By which point that other book record that needs to be fixed for the same reason, the one that’s been keeping me from working on it, will be fixed, and I’ll have to start working on that as well.
Making books isn’t always fun.
You’re totally dismantling the illusion I have of book-selling being like Mad Men but without the cigarettes and with, well, more books.
Our office used to be just a couple of blocks from the (nonexistent) address of Sterling Cooper. But that’s probably as close as we get. No jet-setting lifestyle, nary a martini lunch. It’s mostly just an office job at a computer all day. Though I occasionally get to edit manuscripts.
Not even one typewriter?
Well, one, but it’s just there for ambiance.