bookpublishing

I’d like to take a small break from the book publishing biz–and what better day to do it than on Halloween, when clearly nobody in my office is getting much work done in anticipation of the annual Halloween parade of costumed children?

So here’s a little background to my story. I live in a building that contains three units–a deli/market on the first floor (which my landlord manages), a lawyer’s office on the second floor, and my studio apartment on the top floor. It’s a very old building; I’ve even been told it was once the home of the Guilford Silversmith. The entrance to my apartment is through a side door that has no access to the deli/market, but does lead up to the lawyer’s office. I had gone out after work and was returning home at about 8pm. The place was dark, as it usually is when I come home at that hour. I unlocked the door on the ground level to enter the stairwell up to my apartment when I heard a woman’s voice. It seemed to be coming from the floor above me, and it was loud enough that I thought someone was in the stairwell. This didn’t frighten me but was a little surprising. The lawyers who work on that floor are a married couple and I had heard the female lawyer in the office that morning and seen her car in the parking lot when I went to work. But what was she doing working there so late? I tried to make enough noise to alert the woman that I was coming in when I realized the stairwell light was not on. What was the woman doing on the stairs in the dark? As soon as I switched the light on, the voice stopped. I wasn’t able to make out what the voice had said, but it was casual and conversational, and it sounded like she was either on the phone or speaking to someone else nearby (perhaps someone in the office). As I climbed the stairs, I expected to meet someone on the second floor landing but when I turned the corner, there was no one there. Again, I wasn’t frightened by this–just confused. I stopped when I was next to the lawyer’s office door but I didn’t hear any noise coming from inside. I climbed up to my apartment and flicked off the light. I waited… still no noise. I entered the apartment and thought about what just happened.

If the lawyer was there, where was her car? There were no cars in the lot except for mine.

Then I remembered something that had happened the night I first moved in. My mom had come to help me move and stayed with me overnight. When I awoke in the morning, the first thing she asked me was if I had heard the voices downstairs. I had not heard anything that night and was very surprised that she would bring it up. I had grown up thinking my mother was a real skeptic and didn’t believe in ghosts. When I mentioned my surprise, she insisted she had always believed in ghosts (and UFOs, claiming she had seen one before!). This was such a shock to me, but after weeks passed and I heard no evidence of the voices and had debunked all the other odd sounds I heard at night (including a clucking chicken, which ended up being my refrigerator), I wrote it off as a vivid dream my mother must have had or noises from the road where I lived, which happens to be a busy area with a gas station across the street that is open fairly late.

But the voice I heard last night made me think twice about her experience. At the time, we had considered the possibility that one of the lawyers was having an affair. It would explain why she heard two voices–a man’s and a woman’s–and why she heard them so late at night (around 1am). It would also explain, in my recent case, why there was no car; it makes some sense that they would choose to park across the street at the gas station or at Walgreens next door. I’m certainly not ruling that out. There is a chance that the voice I heard was coming from the street; but because the door is so close to the street, you’d think I would have seen someone approaching before I entered. Futhermore, none of the windows in the stairwell were open, so there wasn’t a good chance that a noise from the street would sound like it was coming from above me and was actually coming from a window.

So I’m not about to say that my apartment is haunted. I’m not even sure I believe that ghosts exist, although this is the closest I’ve come to considering it. Because only 3, maybe 4, people have a key to that stairwell (which was locked when I entered), that narrows down the suspects: either of the two lawyers or my landlord (whose truck was not in the parking lot so I feel safe ruling him out, also because he doesn’t have a feminine voice). It does seem strange though, and I hope to hear these elusive voices again to obtain more clues!

It is not uncommon for book publishers to stumble over themselves to get Oprah’s attention. Although it’s difficult to find individuals who have such a large impact on publishing as a whole, Oprah Winfrey is clearly one of those people. We throw books in front of her in the hopes she gives them a second glance, our publicity crews anxiously court her to get her to mention our books (with lofty hopes of getting an author on her show, and the ever-elusive fairy tale of having her choose a book of ours for Oprah’s Book Club). Last week, Winfrey did one thing that made publishers everywhere very happy: She endorsed Amazon’s Kindle. An ebullient Winfrey called the e-reader “life changing” and her “new favorite device.” Now we can only sit and hope that women find out about the endorsement, that they follow it up by purchasing the Kindle (available with a $50 discount with the keyword OprahWinfrey), and start buying up books we publish. For publishers who haven’t gotten their books on e-readers yet, now is clearly the time.

What are the realistic effects of her endorsement though? Well, buyers are already buzzing. According to a commenter at CNET who monitors the Kindle user forums on Amazon:

The activity this weekend on the Forums was through the roof - I actually had to turn off the subscribe option because my inbox was flooded with Forum posts. The daily forum posting volume easily tripled. My guess is that the Oprah recommendation was what trigged all of the activity from new users or potential new users with questions.

Consider the other advantages of the Kindle that fit so remarkably with the concerns of our time:

It’s a cheap hobby. In this economy, people are looking for things to do without spending tons of money. Considering the value of wireless Internet everywhere (save some dead spots, much like cell phone service), access to Amazon’s full library, and a reasonable cost per book (cheaper than paperback), it’s very inexpensive.

Learn more. With better access to books, it’s going to make you read more. And that helps develop brains.

Hmm, maybe I should get one, right?

I’ve considered discussing the topic of freelance writing for some time now, although it may seem very tenuously related to book publishing. The truth is there are slews of book publishing professionals who take up freelance writing on the side. Furthermore, many of these publishing professionals hire freelance writers, so the connection between the two lines of work often intersect. I do some freelance writing on the side (in addition to this blog), but not a great deal so I am curious about how freelance work has been affected by the economic recession we’re in.

I know that a popular site for freelance writers to earn some cash is eHow.com, owned by Demand Studios. This is one site where I’ve submitted multiple how-to articles since late August. There are two ways to write for this site: to sign up via Demand Studios, which pays $15 per article, or to sign up via eHow.com, which pays based on how many hits the article receives. I chose to sign up via Demand Studios, and just the other day, I received word that Demand Studios will no longer pay $15 per article for a user-suggested title and will only pay that rate for titles they request. Instead, they will pay a variable rate (which common consensus states is now most often $5) per article for a user-suggested title. This is a deep blow to their writing pool, and I imagine it will skim off the top level of their best writers, who already make better rates on other sites. Why should they waste their time writing articles for one third of what they used to make per article? It seems like an odd tactic and may really hurt the quality of the articles they receive. I’m told they also made cuts to their pool of regular featured writers, saying they do not have work for those writers–undoubtedly, that will also be a blow to the quality of Demand Studios’ and eHow.com’s content. But what else can they do in this economic climate?

Have you had experience with employers that have made similar cuts when paying for freelance work? How have you responded? Do you simply take the cut or do you seek out better rates from other sites?

According to Publisher’s Weekly today:

Amazon continues to out-perform most bricks-and-mortar stores, but its third quarter results showed that the e-tailer is not completely immune from the declining economy. Total sales rose 31% in the period, to $4.26 billion, while total media sales increased 19%, to $2.49 billion, and North America media revenue rose 15%, to $1.24 billion…. Net income jumped 48%, to $118 million.

Despite gains, Amazon does not plan to release a new Kindle “until 2009 at the earliest.” There seem to be lots of suggestions for improvements and updates, including color, a brighter backlit screen, and a touch screen. It seems unlikely, though, that it is profitable for Amazon to create a new Kindle for a while. Amazon is notoriously hush-hush about the sales data for the Kindle or Kindle books. Although they were selling out of stock upon arrival, they are now certainly in stock. I think the general outlook for e-reader sales is about the same though.

So today is my one year anniversary at the book publisher where I work. It doesn’t seem like long ago that I was getting settled here and beginning to learn the ropes. It’s astounding on days like today just how much I have learned here, especially about editing techniques and facets of the book publishing industry. Despite the current economic crisis, I’m feeling really positive lately. Two of my close friends were promoted this month; one of my friends got a new job where he will be much better appreciated and has better opportunities for advancement; and my brother got a great starting job at a university with some nice perks. It’s true that I constantly grumble about the fact that I’ve been here a full year, which included a recent promotion, without having a salary increase (in fact, I’m still making less than my last job). But at the same time, the longer I’m here, the more I like it. And that’s really the most important thing about my job. I began a part time job (which means I now have 2 part time jobs plus some other freelance writing gigs), yet I still have time for myself. I can still travel (although it’s difficult to get time off and I’m still avoiding airplane travel altogether due to the cost) and see my friends and family; what else could I want? I’m sure I will eventually get the salary I deserve as long as the company pulls out of this economic slump. Only time will tell… but, again, I’m feeling positive.

EDIT: Thanks for the Today.com administrators for making BookPublishing their Featured Blog today, 10/22. Check out Today.com to see.