Pub Rants

Category: New York City

New York City—What Worked, What Didn’t

by Kristin Nelson

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).

Agent In New York

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Well, I was doing fine (despite the incredibly odd weather here in Manhattan) until my wireless internet went down last night before I blogged. Didn’t come back up until this morning. Sorry about the blip yesterday.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? LET’S STAY TOGETHER by Al Green

So what does an agent do when she comes to New York? Lunch of course. Lots of publishing occurs over business lunches. It creates a personal and intimate setting on neutral territory to discuss either issues or needs of current clients, get the update on what that editor is currently looking for, and to generally catch up on each other’s personal lives. This is a business of personal connections and trust.

So my last two days have been frantic emailing so as to set up all my appointments. Right now it looks like I’m going out to lunch each day for the entire month I’m here in Manhattan. Saves on groceries..

Since I can only do so many lunches, I’m scheduling a few coffees and evening drinks so I can squeeze in a few more appointments.

Didn’t I say I wanted a leisurely meeting time in New York?

Chutney Takes Manhattan

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Absolutely frantic as we tried to wrap up the 1099s (need to be off to the IRS before the end of the month) and get everything else in order.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? ONE by U2

Why the big rush? On Sunday, I’m heading to New York City. That in itself is certainly not news. I tend to go there often as my office isn’t located in the big Apple and I need to do my editor meetings and face time. This year I wanted to try something different. Hence the title of this entry.

This year the whole fam is going to New York City and I’ve rented an apartment in Soho for a month. Now we’ll find out if that state-of-the-art network we installed last year is worth the money we spent on it. Supposedly, I can work seamlessly from any place in the world and still tap in to everything at my office. But never fear, if that fails, Sara will be holding down the fort.

I’m just in love with the idea of a leisurely, non-stressful time meeting with editors without cramming everything into five days with five meetings a day.

I have no desire to live in NYC but I certainly love the town when I’m visiting. And to me, this might be a nice trade-off for being in Denver for the rest of the year (although if all goes well, I might look at doing it again come fall. Let’s wait and see).

So, I’ll have lots of interesting news to post as I give you a daily report from the publishing capital of the world.

And I just might throw a pic or two of Chutney’s first time there as well. Because really, isn’t that what this blog is really about?