January 10th-15th, 2014
G-WILLIKERS!
I'm already a third of the way through the semester!
That's only slightly terrifying.
...but enough about my future 10-weeks-of-NYC: week five!
At DAW on Monday, the other intern and I sat with a woman who does DAW contracts with authors and agents and distributors, Oh my!
She was actually really excited about it, and only an idiot would think she didn't love her job. Also she flat out told us how much she loves her job. So there's that.
It is actually really interesting how publishing works that way. If there are two companies distributing the same book at the same time, they have to give each other really extensive lists saying which countries they get to sell to.
For example, the US might get all of North America which includes the US, US territories, Canada, and sometimes Mexico. The UK might get the British Isles, India, and a few specific European countries. (Both generally have a bit more than that, especially the UK since their territories are more plentiful than big, but you get the idea.) These lists almost look like divorce papers, and who gets which countries in the split.
But say neither specifies that they're selling to China. China is now fair game, and if they so chose to both distribute in China, they'd be in competition, but it's okay to do. But say the US is like "mmm....no I think we'll distribute in India anyway." That's the height of rudeness and leads to harsh words, name calling, and probably some lawyers and a pretty sum of money to placate the breech in the agreement. It's also a huge no-no for two publishers in the same territory to sell the same book. I mean, why would they? Common sense is a pretty big factor in the Big Leagues. Who knew?
All publishing companies apparently work like this (even though my explanation is as idiot-proof an example as I could come up with...that's why there are experts in this stuff, and it's not me!), which means they're all way more connected than they look.
The moral of all of this knowledge: writers seriously need a good agent.
There are several exciting things that occurred this week after that, but sadly they are all pretty much exciting-for-me things, not exciting-for-anyone-else things.
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Like me having a FREAKING SNOW DAY. YES.
I haven't had a proper snow day since high school.
This picture doesn't say a lot, because my phone is less good at picking up that it's actually flurrying like crazy, but it is. And my supervisor couldn't get into the office, so I didn't either.
Instead, it turned into one of these kinds of beautiful days in which I can sit in my Joker snuggie and read!
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And read I did--this is the second book of the Toby Daye books by Seanan McGuire. I finished the last half of this book and I finished all but 70 pages of the third book.
I swear I only left my bunk to eat, get more tea, or go to the bathroom. It was great. For me. Really unproductive and unexciting for anyone else. But that is my story. And more importantly, Seanan McGuire's story. As of today I am on book five. There will be ten, but there are only seven out. Winter Long comes out in September. I love binge reading, but it is extremely disappointing not to have the entire series at my disposal at once. Still felt like I had to read them since the author is supposed to be coming to the office this month some time. Glad I'm reading them, too! It's as much a Fairy-Detective story as Joss Whedon's Firefly is about Space-Cowboys. Technically true, but does nothing to do the series justice by way of description.
Before the snow day occurred, my mom came to visit and we tried to get into this thing called the Moth. http://themoth.org/
That's the website for it if you'd like more details, but from what I gather it's a story telling event held in a really cute bookshop in SoHo.
Do note my use of "tried" though. Unfortunately I was not attentive enough to buying online tickets ahead of time, because the portal to do that closed so we were going to get tickets at the door. They said they let in the first 200 people. The show is at 7:30, and they open doors at 7:00. My mom and I walked by at 5:30 and there was already a line starting. Also, it was colder than the Halls of Elsinore outside. For non of you Hamlet fans out there, the Halls of Elsinore is not only in Denmark but also haunted as all get out by ghosts and crazies, and for some reason when Hamlet movies are made there's a lot of use of blue/cold lighting to emphasize coldness and loss of love and suicidal thoughts of the kingdom...
Ironically Denmark is the happiest place on earth. Go figure. Huffington Post is supposedly just above Fox News in reliability, but you can Google Denmark being the happiest place in the world if you're not satisfied with their article about it here: http://huff.to/1khFvGm
Anyways. Cold as we were, we sought out food and afterwards attempted the line. It was wrapped around the corner. Also I have a dark suspicion that despite the Nordic winds trying to blow us away like the unwanted nannies outside the Banks's house, the doors did NOT actually open at 7:00 because the line didn't move until a little after 7:30.
I am forced here to admit our defeat. The door of champions was in sight, but soon so was the bookshop-bouncer to announce that they were at full capacity. There is no room at the inn. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect $200.
Our greatest triumph after that was fairly quickly hailing a cab and getting the heck out of the icy winds of Christmas past. At least dinner was fun.
Of course it was probably the combination of that frightfully cold night, plus walking to internships in perhaps one too few a layer on, plus being surrounded by plenty of other sick people this week that landed me with the happiest of Valentine's Days.
(Warning: contains sarcasm.)
Yes, this single-lady got a cold. I was in denial during my whole snow day, and I had god knows how many cups of tea. I finally had to face up to the fact that I was unwell. Not so unwell that I didn't go to the office--but enough that I decided it was in my best interest to come home for the weekend, especially since I have off on Monday for President's Day.
My cat may or may not have been a convincing factor to my home coming, also. I regret nothing.
Towards the end of the day, I honestly don't know if I couldn't focus on the manuscript I was reading because of the manuscript, or my distracting stuffy sinuses--whatever it was I absolutely hate blowing my nose in public places because it sounds like a dying elephant, so that meant that I was running to and from the bathroom more frequently than a woman menstruating for the first time after having given birth. Not that I know that experience, but I can logically assume that for the average recently-un-pregnant woman, bathroom trips must be quite frequent. You're welcome for the imagery. It's a gift.
Despite my irritating illness, my Valentine's Day was far from ruined because besides coming home for a few days, two of my good friends from school got me a sing-o-gram.
Translation: one of my school's a Capella groups called my cell and sang me a Valentine's inspired song from One Direction. It was unbelievably sweet, but in hindsight the sweetness of the gesture makes absolute perfect sense given who it's from.
Your internet names shall be dubbed Ms. S (the a teacher-to-be who sings like an angel of gospel and soul) and Puns of Steel (we collectively love puns more than we should).
Thank you, lovely ladies for the wonderful thought--it made my week!
Oh. And I discovered I still had a box of chocolates in my room. Not expired. If that even happens. Which was awesome.
Happy Valentine's too all, and to all a happy half-off chocolate day after that!
G-WILLIKERS!
I'm already a third of the way through the semester!
That's only slightly terrifying.
...but enough about my future 10-weeks-of-NYC: week five!
At DAW on Monday, the other intern and I sat with a woman who does DAW contracts with authors and agents and distributors, Oh my!
She was actually really excited about it, and only an idiot would think she didn't love her job. Also she flat out told us how much she loves her job. So there's that.
It is actually really interesting how publishing works that way. If there are two companies distributing the same book at the same time, they have to give each other really extensive lists saying which countries they get to sell to.
For example, the US might get all of North America which includes the US, US territories, Canada, and sometimes Mexico. The UK might get the British Isles, India, and a few specific European countries. (Both generally have a bit more than that, especially the UK since their territories are more plentiful than big, but you get the idea.) These lists almost look like divorce papers, and who gets which countries in the split.
But say neither specifies that they're selling to China. China is now fair game, and if they so chose to both distribute in China, they'd be in competition, but it's okay to do. But say the US is like "mmm....no I think we'll distribute in India anyway." That's the height of rudeness and leads to harsh words, name calling, and probably some lawyers and a pretty sum of money to placate the breech in the agreement. It's also a huge no-no for two publishers in the same territory to sell the same book. I mean, why would they? Common sense is a pretty big factor in the Big Leagues. Who knew?
All publishing companies apparently work like this (even though my explanation is as idiot-proof an example as I could come up with...that's why there are experts in this stuff, and it's not me!), which means they're all way more connected than they look.
The moral of all of this knowledge: writers seriously need a good agent.
There are several exciting things that occurred this week after that, but sadly they are all pretty much exciting-for-me things, not exciting-for-anyone-else things.
Like me having a FREAKING SNOW DAY. YES.
I haven't had a proper snow day since high school.
This picture doesn't say a lot, because my phone is less good at picking up that it's actually flurrying like crazy, but it is. And my supervisor couldn't get into the office, so I didn't either.
Instead, it turned into one of these kinds of beautiful days in which I can sit in my Joker snuggie and read!
And read I did--this is the second book of the Toby Daye books by Seanan McGuire. I finished the last half of this book and I finished all but 70 pages of the third book.
I swear I only left my bunk to eat, get more tea, or go to the bathroom. It was great. For me. Really unproductive and unexciting for anyone else. But that is my story. And more importantly, Seanan McGuire's story. As of today I am on book five. There will be ten, but there are only seven out. Winter Long comes out in September. I love binge reading, but it is extremely disappointing not to have the entire series at my disposal at once. Still felt like I had to read them since the author is supposed to be coming to the office this month some time. Glad I'm reading them, too! It's as much a Fairy-Detective story as Joss Whedon's Firefly is about Space-Cowboys. Technically true, but does nothing to do the series justice by way of description.
Before the snow day occurred, my mom came to visit and we tried to get into this thing called the Moth. http://themoth.org/
That's the website for it if you'd like more details, but from what I gather it's a story telling event held in a really cute bookshop in SoHo.
Do note my use of "tried" though. Unfortunately I was not attentive enough to buying online tickets ahead of time, because the portal to do that closed so we were going to get tickets at the door. They said they let in the first 200 people. The show is at 7:30, and they open doors at 7:00. My mom and I walked by at 5:30 and there was already a line starting. Also, it was colder than the Halls of Elsinore outside. For non of you Hamlet fans out there, the Halls of Elsinore is not only in Denmark but also haunted as all get out by ghosts and crazies, and for some reason when Hamlet movies are made there's a lot of use of blue/cold lighting to emphasize coldness and loss of love and suicidal thoughts of the kingdom...
Ironically Denmark is the happiest place on earth. Go figure. Huffington Post is supposedly just above Fox News in reliability, but you can Google Denmark being the happiest place in the world if you're not satisfied with their article about it here: http://huff.to/1khFvGm
Anyways. Cold as we were, we sought out food and afterwards attempted the line. It was wrapped around the corner. Also I have a dark suspicion that despite the Nordic winds trying to blow us away like the unwanted nannies outside the Banks's house, the doors did NOT actually open at 7:00 because the line didn't move until a little after 7:30.
I am forced here to admit our defeat. The door of champions was in sight, but soon so was the bookshop-bouncer to announce that they were at full capacity. There is no room at the inn. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect $200.
Our greatest triumph after that was fairly quickly hailing a cab and getting the heck out of the icy winds of Christmas past. At least dinner was fun.
Of course it was probably the combination of that frightfully cold night, plus walking to internships in perhaps one too few a layer on, plus being surrounded by plenty of other sick people this week that landed me with the happiest of Valentine's Days.
(Warning: contains sarcasm.)
Yes, this single-lady got a cold. I was in denial during my whole snow day, and I had god knows how many cups of tea. I finally had to face up to the fact that I was unwell. Not so unwell that I didn't go to the office--but enough that I decided it was in my best interest to come home for the weekend, especially since I have off on Monday for President's Day.
My cat may or may not have been a convincing factor to my home coming, also. I regret nothing.
Towards the end of the day, I honestly don't know if I couldn't focus on the manuscript I was reading because of the manuscript, or my distracting stuffy sinuses--whatever it was I absolutely hate blowing my nose in public places because it sounds like a dying elephant, so that meant that I was running to and from the bathroom more frequently than a woman menstruating for the first time after having given birth. Not that I know that experience, but I can logically assume that for the average recently-un-pregnant woman, bathroom trips must be quite frequent. You're welcome for the imagery. It's a gift.
<3
Despite my irritating illness, my Valentine's Day was far from ruined because besides coming home for a few days, two of my good friends from school got me a sing-o-gram.
Translation: one of my school's a Capella groups called my cell and sang me a Valentine's inspired song from One Direction. It was unbelievably sweet, but in hindsight the sweetness of the gesture makes absolute perfect sense given who it's from.
Your internet names shall be dubbed Ms. S (the a teacher-to-be who sings like an angel of gospel and soul) and Puns of Steel (we collectively love puns more than we should).
Thank you, lovely ladies for the wonderful thought--it made my week!
Oh. And I discovered I still had a box of chocolates in my room. Not expired. If that even happens. Which was awesome.
Happy Valentine's too all, and to all a happy half-off chocolate day after that!
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