Sunday, December 09, 2007

Countdown begins!

Our office closes on Friday December 21 for the long holiday. Of course I'm counting down the minutes. If you think that means I'm not working from 12/21 till 1/2, you haven't been paying attention. I will actually get a boatload of work done in those 12 days cause I won't be doing what I usually do: going into the office and yapping on the phone to my editor pals.

You might wonder what I'm doing when I'm not doing what I usually do (dobee dobee doo!).

I'm going to be reading. I've cleared out most of the partials and almost all the queries. What's left are the fulls, and there are a lot. The oldest (to my everlasting shame) is from August. The most recent was requested yesterday five minutes ago.
Mostly I try to get fulls turned around in a month but it's been a busy busy fall so I'm behind. I literally cannot stand to start the new year with a backlog so I'm very motivated to get caught up by 12/28.

Once the fulls are caught up, and everyone who wants to go to the dance gets signed up**, then its on to the fun part: planning submissions.

The only thing more fun than submissions is a big fat auction, but those are nerve wracking too. Submissions are just fun. I get to talk to people who love books about a great book and why they want to read it. I just love it.

So, let the countdown begin!


**which means if you've got a full out to an agent, don't forget that we do a lot of our reading in the last half of December. That's NOT the time to ignore your email or put your phone on no-ring.

2 comments:

ryan field said...

I work with one editor who is a genius, but he drives me crazy this time of year with something that could well wait until January. I see the subject line in the e-mail and my stomach churns. It never fails; he wants something at the most awkward time, and it's never easy. But it's also always worth it because I learn something every time.

Nancy Beck said...

No, no, it's SECONDS, you're counting down the seconds... ;-)