A Day in the Life...

I'm having one of those days where I'm doing nothing but business and busy work. Oh, it's very important work, but it feels like busy work sometimes.

I've just finished my expense report. Something I'll often put off for months and that needed to be done.

I'm still working on setting Linda up, our new assistant, so I ordered her a new printer (one that works) and plan on getting that together yet today.

I reviewed some royalty statements and sorted through the mail.

I booked an Amtrak ticket and hotel to Washington, DC. I'm off to meet with an author for some brainstorming, editing discussions and overall business planning. She is in the DC area on business so asked that I make the trip down so we could talk. Obviously I can't fly all over the country every week or, truthfully, all over the world since I have authors everywhere. But when an author does ask and truly feels like she needs a sit down to discuss things I will make every effort to make that happen. I don't feel that my authors take advantage of me and I will drop things when necessary. When someone calls my cell phone at 7 pm or wants to book a phone appointment at 6am it's usually an emergency or, better yet, really exciting news. And I'm willing to take that call. I think giving people time when they truly and desperately need it means that they respect your time more. I haven't been taken advantage of yet, but I'm sure I'll keep you posted.

The most interesting thing I've done yet today is read an email from an attendee at the RWA meeting I spoke at last week in St. Louis. It's from an author who I had the privilege of spending a great deal of time with. I really enjoyed talking with her and respect her opinions. So when I opened myself up on the blog to discussion points based on that talk she used the opportunity to send me a three-page email of points I should consider. The email actually came on Monday, but today was the first opportunity I had to really sit down and study it. There were times when I laughed out loud. You can definitely tell she's a professor. I felt a little like my college paper was being edited/critiqued. Don't worry though. I promise I won't call and lambaste her for her comments. In fact, I'm thrilled she did it. I printed out the email and made notes throughout. You can guarantee that you are going to see a lot of this material show up on future posts. She mentioned talking points like how to set goals and plan for contract commitments, what happens when you don't fall in love with a client's future manuscripts, and a discussion of rational disconnects in manuscripts. I hope to get to all this and a lot more before summer is out.

Now I'm off to clean my desk, continue sorting through mail and, well, just figure out what's going on.

--Jessica