The best quote from a conference I was at this week came via Linda Cannell. She cites Mark Yudof, president of the University of California:
Continue reading “The Technical Term for No Change”
Month: March 2010
What Publishers DO Know
In my last post I exposed the awful truth that there’s a lot publishers don’t know. They just don’t have the ability to predict the future, unfortunately. But there’s a lot they do know too. Such as?
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What Publishers Don’t Know
Many people seem to have a notion that publishers somehow are (or should be) a superior form of human being. It’s nice to be so highly thought of–until you find out what they mean. Like the question many of us have heard. “I thought you guys were smart. Why don’t you just publish bestsellers?”
So, true confessions, we’re not omniscient. And I’m here to dish. What don’t publishers know?
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Not an Exact Science
Since I’ve been an editor all these years, many people assume I have a degree in English or journalism. They are wrong, of course. I have a degree in mathematics.
That may seem an odd thing, but studying mathematics has helped me tremendously as an editor in at least two ways. First, it trained me to think logically and rigorously. Second, it means I’m not totally lost when it comes to thinking about the numbers side of publishing. And there are a lot of numbers to think about: profit, loss, expenses, budgets, sales rates and projections, price calculations, spread sheets, and more.
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