STATUS: Ack. It’s late and I was supposed to have stats today. Till Tomorrow!
What’s playing on the iPod right now? SEXUAL HEALING by Marvin Gaye
It’s summer time and the publishing is easy. Actually, that’s not true right now. I was trying to get something accomplished on Friday with an editor until I realized that the half days are here again.
It’s such a civilized notion doing half days on Fridays for the summer. After all, we should be out enjoying the late summer nights and reading books for pleasure.
I have to admit that it’s easily been 3 months since I last read a book solely for pleasure—as in not with an eye to take it on or not, to edit it, what have you.
I have to get cracking as my book club is meeting next Sunday and I haven’t had a chance to start the book. Like normal, I’ll probably read it all on Friday night and Sunday morning. And my book club members always wonder why so many of the details are fresh in my mind…
Hi,
I was wondering if when you read a submitted ms is ever pleasurable?
Janice~
And my book club members always wonder why so many of the details are fresh in my mind…
Heh. I picture them sort of whispering back and forth over the phone. “Well, she IS an agent,” they console one another. “Books are practically read the minute she opens them…” Don’t worry, they’re just JEALOUS.
Hard to escape the sense that agents have, well, no time at all for truly recreational reading. Even the pleasures of reading a client-to-be’s full MS for the first time (which must be an honest-to-God perq of the job) must be tainted with considerations of craft, market, perhaps the fantasy of a suddenly affordable world tour…
Enjoy the summers, it’s winter here down under and whilst it’s not that unpleasant (I live in the tropics) it certainly isn’t sitting on the back verandah weather..
What are half day fridays? Is it an american thing?
I love half-day Fridays, but I’d much prefer half-day Fridays in the winter. Then you can just get home and cozy and warm and don’t have to battle the 5pm night fall. 🙂
Bethany
bethanyhensel.blogspot.com
A blog celebrating arts and entertainment!
This brings up a question I have. I am a teacher as well as a writer, so summer is my time to get serious about the business of writing, undistracted from the creativity drain and drudgery of the school year. So…most of my queries to agents are happening during the summer. Not a good idea? Actually a good idea, since agents are not as busy? Or, doesn’t really matter; just write well and you’ll find your match?
Enjoy your half-days!
Half-days are an American thing, but not many companies do them any more. My company does give us two extra days off to use during the summer, which is a nice alternative but not as nice as being able to leave at noon every Friday during the summer. The company downstairs from mine does half-days and it’s almost cruel to watch them all leave while I sit in my office for four more hours. I could use that time to write!
I would love to know what your book club is reading.
(Still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of an agent who choses to be in a book club…)
agent kristin, you spend too much time reading books. you should try playing computer chess. that’s what I do, and they say it’s one of the best things for your brain. reading bad books, however, including chick lit or YA, could actually kill your whole brain, or else do substantial damage.
I think that is such a cool idea (the publishing half-Fridays.) It’s very European: for one season, American publishing kowtows to the cultural wisdom of Europe (and Asia… and most of the world) in taking afternoon breaks. Only one afternoon break, but hey! it’s a start.
Perhaps there should be a word for it, like siesta or nap but publishing lingo. “Freedomfrommanuscript-a” or something equally noncreative. 🙂
UK places with half-day Fridays have them all year round. Only having them in summer doesn’t sound as good.
Half days on Fridays are definitely not “an American thing,” as in widespread throughout America and a “perk” or a “given.” In fact, the publishing business–specifically the publishing business in New York–is one of the few places in America where I’ve ever heard of this being a “normal order of business.”
I can assure you that here in the publishing business in Indiana, if you take a half-day on a summer Friday, you use up vacation to do it. (!)
Janny