STATUS: Happily looking at the big blue skies of Colorado on a 65 degree day. It’s good to be home.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? FAIRGROUND by Simply Red
For a paperless office, I must say I was overwhelmed by the sheer piles of stuff that needed reviewing on my desk. So much in fact, I ended up not having a minute to blog between phone calls, handling stuff, and then an evening appointment that ran late last night.
Tomorrow will be my first day where I can actually handle new stuff that needs my attention. I have three lovely contracts lined up and ready for evaluation. Since each contract takes a good 2 hours for me to review, I guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow and the next day.
So was my month in New York worth it? On the whole, I’d say so.
What Worked:
1. I scheduled 40 meetings and I never felt overwhelmed or rushed. That was definitely worth it.
2. I got editors excited about two upcoming submissions. Hooray.
3. Remote office. Network was pretty much worth every penny I paid for it. I held an auction while in NYC and negotiated three different contracts. I also kept on top of most of my daily emails etc. Sara and I also stayed on top of email queries, partial requests, and I did read a good portion of two full manuscripts (at the start of my stay I have to add though—any other time wouldn’t have worked) that I ended up passing on.
4. Living in the Village. I can give you all the names of the great restaurants in my hood that’s for sure. It’s very central to reaching all the publishers in town easily.
What Didn’t:
1. The flu. I didn’t catch it (thank goodness!) but several editor meetings got derailed because of it.
2. With all those lunch meetings, not surprised that I weigh about 4 pounds heavier than when I left. I’m getting on that right away let me tell you. Overall not bad I guess.
3. Some normal business operations. All bills etc. got paid on time but there was very little time to do serious client editing. Thank goodness the two projects that needed tackling came in during the last week and a half of my being away so the clients had a little delay in my getting started but nothing too egregious.
4. Despite the month spent there, I still wanted to have meetings with about five different editors that didn’t happen. That’s unfortunate but will have to wait until my next trip or Book Expo.
Overall, I think I would do it again. I would schedule my appointments differently so there were a little more grouped. I might also create a more formal game plan with a list of goals and objectives to achieve (but that’s because I like to be anal about these types of things).
I envy you your Colorado skies. I bet that would be a great place to write. Uh, unless I stared out the window all the time.
Glad things went well in New York.
Welcome back!
There’s something to be said for coming home and being surrounded by mountains after being in a city environment.
We moved from London back to the States a year or so ago, and I’ll never forget touching down in the morning, the snow falling lightly.
snooze
A productive and enjoyable working vacation, then coming home to warm blue skies…doesn’t get much better than that, now does it?
: D
With all those lunch meetings, not surprised that I weigh about 4 pounds heavier than when I left.
I understand this can also be the result of the time zone changes and the changes in elevation. At least that’s my excuse when I see similar results after protracted business travel.
All that, a plane flight back, and you’re already blogging! Wow. Girl, you are amazing.
Is Book Expo the next conference you’re going to?
All very interesting, but how did Chutney survive the trip?
I love your energy! WHY don’t you rep mysteries??? Sigh…
I like that even though you live in Colorado you go out and actively work the editors/publishers. I hope your clients appreciate you.
Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care. Bored now.
There’s this newfangled invention called the “back button.” Anonymous 5:05 and 9:09 may want to look into it. Works wonders for me whenever a post starts to bore me. Oh, but then I couldn’t make a clever, snarky comment in an attempt to bring negativity to someone else’s day.
Anonymous 12:24, there’s an old bit of Internet wisdom that goes something like, “If you don’t feed the trolls, after a while they’ll get bored and go away.” It doesn’t always work, but that might be a good next step. Just a thought.
hello dave.