Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BookEnds Trivia

Here is quiz full of information you have no reason to ever know about BookEnds, but hey, every blog post can’t be purely for educational purposes. We need fun too. So let’s see how well you know your BookEnds agents.

1. Which two agents started their careers as interns at Berkley?
a. Kim & Jacky
b. Jacky & Jessica
c. Jessica & Kim
d. All of the above

2. Who is Riggins?
a. Jacky’s dog
b. Kim’s dog
c. Jessica’s dog
d. Our assistant

3. Who invented the term “twitch” as it relates to publishing?
a. Our assistant
b. Kim
c. Jacky
d. Jessica

4. Who survives without coffee?
a. Kim
b. Our assistant
c. Jessica
d. Jacky

5. Who did Jessica once dogsit for?
a. Maurice Sendak
b. Elizabeth Strout
c. Miss Snark
d. Pete Hamill

6. What is the name of the BookEnds assistant (frequently referred to as “our assistant”)?
a. Holly
b. Martha
c. Your Highness
d. Katelynn

7. Who is the only BookEnds agent without an English degree?
a. Jacky
b. Jessica
c. Kim
d. None of the above

8. What year did Jacky, Jessica, and Kim first meet?
a. 1994
b. 1995
c. 1996
d. 1997

9. What is the longest time a BookEnds project has been on submission before a sale is finally made?
a. 2 months
b. 2 years
c. 2 weeks
d. 12 years

10. How many books did BookEnds sell in 2008?
a. 97
b. 57
c. 127
d. 77



Answers
1. (a) Kim and Jacky both started their careers as Berkley interns, although years apart. In fact, Jacky was the first ever intern at Berkley and later went on to actually run the intern program, hiring Kim.

2. (c) Riggins is Jessica’s fairly new rescue dog, but his name was suggested by Kim. He was named after Tim Riggins, a character on Friday Night Lights, although Jessica’s husband will swear he’s named after Washington Redskin John Riggins.

3. (b) “Twitching” was Kim’s idea as a way to launch Jessica (@bookendsjessica) and Kim (@bookendskim) into the Twitter world. Twitch Week was a contest of Tweet Pitches run through Twitter.

4. (d) While Jessica, Kim, and their assistant can’t believe anyone survives without coffee, Jacky does. Although she drinks a lot of tea.

5. (b) As a poor editorial assistant Jessica dogsat for extra money and author Elizabeth Strout (at about the time her first book was released) was one of her clients.

6. (d) Katelynn saves our butt more times than we can count. She started as an intern and landed the job when another former intern-turned-assistant, Holly, moved to St. Martin’s.

7. (b) Jessica actually has a degree in journalism.

8. (a) 1994, when Jessica started her job as an editorial assistant at Berkley and Kim started her internship. Jacky was already working there.

9. (b) 2 years: Jacky and Jessica each had a project that took two years from the time of first submission to sale, which is why we always encourage authors to never give up.

10. (c) 127 books were sold in 2008. Note that some of these, probably many of them, were multi-book deals and we didn’t count foreign sales in this number. Okay, the number is rough, but you get the idea.



Jessica

19 comments:

Rick Daley said...

I'm not cheating and reading the answers, but I'm going to use the test response methodology used by many high school students and see if I can attain a passing grade:

1. A
2. C
3. D
4. C
5. A
6. C
7. D
8. C
9. A
10. C

Now I will go back and validate my responses:

1. Correct
2. Correct
3. Incorrect
4. Incorrect
5. Incorrect
6. Incorrect
7. Incorrect
8. Incorrect
9. Incorrect
10. Correct

As you can see, the esteemed agents at BookEnds are not AC/DC fans. Alas, I am proud to say that I did better than 30% in high school (probably because I used alternative test response strategies then).

Spy Scribbler said...

Kim named Riggins and came up with "twitch:" I think she's got some great ideas! :-)

The Swivet said...

No...coffee...? Gobsmacked, I tell you. Gobsmacked.

Haste yee back ;-) said...

WOW! I got 'em all right! I mean, it was an *open book* test!

Haste yee back ;-)

Debra Lynn Shelton said...

This was so much fun! Please consider making it a regular feature on your blog!! I needed this lighthearted fun today more than you know. And, I'm with Jacky - tea, baby!

Bella Andre said...

I LOVED this mult choice quiz! ;-) And learned things too.

Anonymous said...

I got only one answer right. I guessed that Jacky might drink tea because she's from England. (And I survive quite well on the gentle release of caffeine from my tea.)

I liked this. I especially liked hearing that you sold 127 books in '08 and that it never took more than 2 yrs to sell anything. I wonder, though, how many books were given up on before they could be counted in this statistic.

Kate Douglas said...

Fun stuff, and I probably could have only answered half of them correctly!!

Robena Grant said...

127 books sold in '08. wow! Good for you guys.
Sigh. I only got four right. I'll have to pay more attention.

Charlie Rice said...

I was about to play when you showed me the answers. geez.

:)

Bethany said...

I guessed a few of them. I liked this post. It's nice to know a bit more about the company. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Nice!!

Haste yee back ;-) said...

Charlie,
How do you think I got 100%!!

Haste yee back ;-)

Angie Fox said...

Yeah, I got all of them wrong. How does that work statistically?

Fun quiz, though - I learned lots! Go journalism school grads. ;)

Sara J. Henry said...

I think you had way too much fun with this post.

KillerYapp said...

It's not like I didn't ask.
A LOT.

Aryn said...

Tim Riggins = yum

Anonymous said...

Where is your question, "Who is the most valued author services publisher?" Nope not Lulu, nope not iUniverse. According to E News Channel and the NY Times--Nautilus Press, www.thenautilusworks.com is an authentic pubilsher that allows authors to get their books brought to the marketplace with class and distinction. The only problem is that you have to pay through the nose.

glovin said...

This was so much fun! Please consider making it a regular feature on your blog!! I needed this lighthearted fun today more than you know.

--
glovin
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