a pause for herstory
Jun. 14th, 2011 06:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanObBiz: If you ordered a set of books during the Save-A-Cat sale, and have not received them yet (except Kari) please let me know!
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And so.
June 14th, 1989. A young girl - a woman? possibly -- enters an elevator, and rides up to the floor she had been given. She presents herself to the receptionist, and is handed over to a tall gentleman who looks her over with a dubious but kind eye. She is shown a desk, and a typewriter (yes, a typewriter) and a set of filing cabinets, and a pile - no, many piles - of manuscripts that she will need to copy, and mail, and traffic, and slug, as well as typing letters and answering phones, and making sure that her new boss gets to where he needs to be, and everyone who needs to reach him, can.
That girl went home that day, her feet aching and her brain full, and almost cried because she was so tired. And that was her first day as a full-time employee of the publishing industry.
Happy 22nd Anniversary, girl. Could you have imagined where you'd go, what you'd do, and who you would meet?
And I have now officially worked in publishing for more than half of my life.
It gives one some perspective, at least.
------------------------------------
And so.
June 14th, 1989. A young girl - a woman? possibly -- enters an elevator, and rides up to the floor she had been given. She presents herself to the receptionist, and is handed over to a tall gentleman who looks her over with a dubious but kind eye. She is shown a desk, and a typewriter (yes, a typewriter) and a set of filing cabinets, and a pile - no, many piles - of manuscripts that she will need to copy, and mail, and traffic, and slug, as well as typing letters and answering phones, and making sure that her new boss gets to where he needs to be, and everyone who needs to reach him, can.
That girl went home that day, her feet aching and her brain full, and almost cried because she was so tired. And that was her first day as a full-time employee of the publishing industry.
Happy 22nd Anniversary, girl. Could you have imagined where you'd go, what you'd do, and who you would meet?
And I have now officially worked in publishing for more than half of my life.
It gives one some perspective, at least.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 01:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 01:08 pm (UTC)You're buying the first round of drinks, right?
It just occurred to me that your first work day in the industry was a mere ten days after Tiananmen Square. Boy, that feels like a lifetime ago.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 02:00 pm (UTC)Cheers to you.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 06:12 pm (UTC)I was so convinced I'd never be considered -- wrong social class, wrong school background -- that I never even dared apply for a job in publishing. It's good to know that other young women dared and succeeded.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 11:19 pm (UTC)Tht said, it's a damned shame anyone should feel 'turned away" by either class or education for publishing. At least in the States, the requirements for an assistant are "do you love books? Are you willing to work hard? Do you mind slave wages?"
Now, surviving in the field, that's hard. But it has little to do with social class (at least in genre).
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 05:28 am (UTC)