I guess I'm a writing addict....

So, I'm a complete freak and I can't stop writing till I get this second thing out of my head.
... I hope this cures me.

So, unless you haven't been paying attention, you already know that I think I found my calling in the field of publishing, haha but since you know me, you also know that I change my "calling" about as much as I change some aspect of my room... but guys... this one feels different. I'm willing to limit myself to basing my career in NYC. and some of you may think that's a crazy comment. limiting myself to arguably, the greatest metro in the U.S. haha, but that was never me. Working in the city was never my thing... and now I'm trying to adjust to the idea... planning as usual... trying to minimize commute and costs and all that...
and no, I'm not crazyy, planning far too in advance... b/c if things go as I hope, I'm spending Summer 2010 interning somewhere in NYC. and since I already know where I'm living now till May 2011... lol, the logical next step is to atleast contemplate what town I should be searching for 2 yrs from now.
ok, maybe I'm a little crazy. :-)

anyway, yet again... not the post I was trying to write. Nicole said she had some questions about my job and about the publishing career in general, and I thought Jane would be interested in what I've learned so far and so maybe others would be interested too... So, let's see.

What I've learned about publishing in the past week:

--There will always be more to learn. Like shit! There's a lot of things that go into the production of a book. I dunno, I always had this romantic idea of the book editors and publishers. Like an author submitted work to their editor who would edit it and then try to get a publisher to publish it and if the publisher liked it, there were more edits and stuff and then out it went.. yeah, it's nowhere near that simple. For example, at the RUP, just to decide if a book should be published, it goes through 3 meetings. It's like Congress, haha. There's acquisitions departments, art departments, marketing departments, final binding/publishing departments, there's editorial, and pre-press production, production managers, and of course, the exec managers themselves, there's the people in finance and project budgeting, the project overseerers, the cover-designers, the typographers/in-book designers. A crazy team all working together to make a single book perfect, and then a hundred books perfect, and then a million books perfect. lol.
--It can be fascinating as easily as it can be boring. For example, on day 1, I spent 3 hours going through proofs of this book about sexually abusive relationships, forced unwanted sex, divorce rape, forced group sex and women being forced into making porn... call me sick, but it was fascinating, and well-written... filled with so many personal accounts and stories and advice... great stuff. Though I was only supposed to check for technical errors and design issues, I took every opportunity to read a little more than i was supposed to ;-) hehe. and then today, I spent 2 hours acutally having to READ a book about flight. flight. like the technicalities of flight. written by someone clearly extremely intelligent, but not that great of a writer. ugh. that's why I want to get into fiction, lol.
--There's a lot of tedious tasks. Things need to be exact, perfect, before a book goes out... and it has to go out on its deadline. you have to be meticulous, patient, and never lazy... can't miss a beat.
--Seeing a book go from its original concept to the final product on the shelf is exciting! even if it is a book about flight haha.
--Books are being published everywhere, all the time. Academic books, specialized books, and new, kinda out-there, books are published all across the country. However, a good chunk of the books we all know and love are published by Penguin or Random House... even if the spine doesn't say Penguin or Random House, haha. these 2 mega-companies tend to eat up other publishing companies and put them under their name... they also create these new sub-companies for specialized fields/books. I want to work at one of these 2 because of the simple joy of walking down the street, seeing someone reading a book and thinking... yeah that's one of ours ;-)... to be working for the publisher that published all my favorite classic books and kids lit. But luckily, unless they've become a freak like me, most people dont pay attention to the publisher of a book everytime they pick one up... so with the right authors, right artists, right marketing, and right staff... anyone in book publishing has the potential for success.
--Book publishing is not something you can just learn in books ( ironically ). it is not something to take classes on. The best way to actually understand it is to see it in action. There's tons of publishing internships out there. try to grab one and learn a little. But if that's not what you want to do...if you're bolder than me and follow your passion right away... GO YOU! Just do your research as much as you can... learn the economic cycle of the book industry, learn what sells, search out freelancers... plenty of people with great skills looking to help... and ask questions... from anyone and everyone who might have some insight. You'll learn as you go, and someday, you'll be the next PENGUIN! :-D

.... to be continued.