a side comment on the biz

I really, really like this guy:

(commenting on how many of the confirmed layoffs @HarperCollins had come from editorial) "It seems that the people responsible for 'sales' of our books should be just as accountable as the people who purchase them," he observed. "After all, if you can't find a book in a bookstore to buy, whose fault is that? The author, the publisher, or the sales rep who couldn't get it merchandised and stocked correctly?" - Stephen Viscusi, himself an HC author, of, ironically, Bulletproof Your Job

(via GalleyCat)


Yeah, I know salespeople get laid off too, don't throw things at me. But having been through a few purges in my time, and seen more at a remove, I have to say that the attitude of Corporate during layoffs always seems to be "well, we don't need so many editors, the survivors can just do more work*" but the sales force is like the mafia -- protected.



*I have never, ever, ever met an editor who was not already overloaded with projects. Ever.

and then there were three....

So I'm working at my desk, minding my own business, and I hear a scrabbling behind me. I assume it's the cat...then something makes me turn around.

And there's Half-tail the squirrel, all four paws in the screen of the open window, peering in at me.

Alas, I wasn't quite quick enough to get the picture, but here's the aftermath...

Pandora investigates....

Half-tail flees

Boomer checks in from the kitchen window


All right, I give in. Dude, you're part of the family. Dog knows you're as much of a distraction as the in-house crew....

OMGSQUEEYES!

http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html

wants. now. right now. *makes gimmie-hands*


(now, if they could just make it flexible enough to roll up and shove in a bag, we'd finally be living in the Future)