#publishingproblems

[lifenacademicpublishing]

I need to vent!

End of last year my long-time boss retired. I applied for his position. As I’m the most senior and experienced person in the department and the one that worked most closely with him, I’m the natural choice. In fact, until his job is officially filled, I am functioning as an interim manager and keeping the department going. However, in the end, my director tells me that they have decided not to promote me and to hire someone from the outside instead. Their reasoning is that they believe he will be able to bring “more authority to the position” than I can. 

Obviously, I’m very upset about this, but I do my best to take it gracefully. When the new guy comes in, I play nice. I tell the other members of the department, who are all angry on my behalf, not to take it out on the new guy. It’s not his fault after all. Let’s just put it behind us a move on. I work closely with him to help him get up to speed on the list and how our organization works (it is a very complex internal structure). While he has a lot of industry knowledge, he can’t seem to learn our list or our company structure. He frequently gets one line of books confused with another, mixes up who’s who in different departments, and tries to do things in ways that just don’t make sense with our company procedures. In meetings with other departments reps, he frequently gets confused about what we’re talking about and I have to jump in and cover for him. He asks me and several other team members if one of our flagship titles is “important enough to warrant spending money to keep it in print.” It’s time to start working on the budget and he’s completely relying on me to put everything together because he doesn’t know how to find the information and won’t learn how. He constantly complains to me about the workload and how hard his job is. Needless to say, all of this is a little annoying because I WANTED HIS JOB!

Fast forward to Monday morning when we have a meeting with the VP, our director, and various other bigwig muckitymucks. Boss-Man starts off the meeting by saying something MASSIVELY WRONG. Essentially telling these people that we are not going to do one of our flagship publications next year because we think it is “not critical.” This book makes millions upon millions of dollars and is our companies pride-and-freaking-joy. Instinctively, I rush in to cover up his blunder with a “No, sir, that’s not quite what we talked about. I think you meant to say that we are going to do it because it IS critical, but that we are going to cut this other book because that one’s not critical.”

After I do this, the meeting continues but Boss-Man is completely silent. He doesn’t say another word. I suggest that maybe he is having trouble with his internet and can’t hear us. Not knowing what else to do, I try to move on with the meeting the best I can. Throughout the meeting I repeatedly reach out to him saying “Is that right, Boss-Man? Can you confirm that, Boss-Man?” Nothing. Crickets. I finally have to end with “Well, we’ll have to get back to you to confirm that, but I think it’s right” on a lot of things.  

After the meeting I wait a little while and then write him a message just saying “Hey, sorry I interrupted you but I was afraid that if you said what you were saying the leadership would have gotten really upset.”

He writes back to say that what I did was absolutely humiliating but he’s glad I recognize what I did was wrong and he’s willing to forgive and forget so long as I don’t do it again. 

Then, I hear from my director, who is evidently appalled that I had the gall to be so unprofessional as to correct my superior in front of others. Evidently, I “took over the meeting when it wasn’t my place,” and need to learn to not be so forward and pushy. I’m a little peeved at this point and write back that Boss-Man was wrong and I was trying to cover for him because i didn’t want him to humiliate himself in front of the leadership by revealing that after 8 months here he still doesn’t know our list at all. My director responds that if I were to “put myself in his shoes and think about it from his position, I would reconsider my behavior.”

Like...I WANTED to be in his shoes, remember?  You thought he’d fill them better than I would. 

His shoes make $90k more than mine, so while I’m struggling to survive on what you pay me I’m supposed to worry about his poor bruised ego? 

While he interrupts me and my other female colleagues CONSTANTLY in meetings and takes credit for our ideas and our work, I’m supposed to cover for his inadequacies and pussy-foot around his delicate-man feelings? 

[lifenacademicpublishing]

Ugh. This is so true. I was hospitalized, with 45 IVs and a mask blowing air in my face to keep my lungs from fully collapsing and my coworker was texting me about reprints....

[atruebloodwrites]

About once a year I have the horrible and degrading job of searching the web for sites that have illegal downloads of my books. If you do not have the money to buy a book, this may seem like a great way to read something you can’t otherwise afford. I get it. Times are hard. But please do not think that what you are doing is NOT hurting authors. There have been countless posts by important writers about how their novels being downloaded illegally has kept them from either writing more books for a publisher or keeping them from finishing a series. The truth is that a lot of us authors make less money than you think from each purchased book - so when they are downloaded illegally it is a serious punch to our bottom line. Imagine poring your heart and soul into something you love for years. The road is hard but finally that thing you love is put out into the world. Now imagine people stealing that one precious thing from you. If you think about pirating books within this context, it is extremely heartbreaking. With these posts there are people who will comment about authors being petty, but the truth is if you really want to read that book you can request it from the library. If you don’t have access to a library, I’m sorry but that still does not make it okay to take money away from an author. Most of us want to keep writing and bringing stories to readers, but it’s hard to do that when we can barely make a living. So, I humbly ask that the next time you think about illegally downloading a book - don’t. #piratingbooks #writingproblems #writerproblems #publishingproblems #yawritinglife #yawriter #yawriterlife #yaauthorsofinstagram #authorsofinsta #writersofinsta https://www.instagram.com/atruebooks/p/CYo-h1bBc4K/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thesalon1]

Hey guys just wanted to say SORRY🙏🏽 for the wait. we’re almost there! My NEW BOOK #YFYI - Salon Ownership, the second volume of the #YFYI series, was supposed to already be in your hands. I’ve had tons of pre-orders which is amazing and humbling at the same time and I will definitely make it up to you guys with some additional goodies for your patience and support. #wheresmybook #shipalready #publishingproblems #letsgo

[lifenacademicpublishing]

Boss: *Says something monumentally wrong in a meeting with big wigs*

Me: Excuse me, sir, can I interject? What you said wasn’t quite what we had talked about. I think you meant *correct information.*

Boss: *refuses to say another word throughout the entire meeting and leaves me to do it even though I’m completely unprepared. Repeatedly tries to re-engage him in the conversation and appeal to him for confirmation/information. He refuses to respond with even a yes or no.*

Our Director after the meeting: That was so unprofessional. How dare you talk over him like that? 

Me: But....he was....wrong?

Director:  You embarrassed him in front of the VP! You just took over the meeting! That’s not your place!

Me: 

Somehow the fact that I, a lowly editor/younger female employee, corrected him is the problem rather than the fact that he didn’t know what he was talking about and behaved like a sulky child. But sure, I’M unprofessional.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

That one project that you just can’t seem to get out the door.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

“I was trying to use this discount code but it’s expired. Can you give me a new one?”

[lifenacademicpublishing]

“You had ‘do not disturb’ on your phone, so I came over in person instead of calling”

[lifenacademicpublishing]

Boss: I don’t want you to get overwhelmed, so let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Me: Well, I’m really behind on emails and could use an uninterrupted day to catch up...

Boss: Cry me a river, look at how many emails I have in MY inbox.

Me: 

[lifenacademicpublishing]

On today’s edition of “Your Incompetence Is Not My Fault”: Books you do not tell me to order for your conference will not be at your conference.

And no, there’s nothing I can do about it now. The book is POD.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

Did I participate in the totally unnecessary 2 hour conference call that started at 7 pm on a week night?

[lifenacademicpublishing]

Them: How soon do you want this?

Me: How soon can I get it?

Them: How soon do you need it?

Me: As soon as possible.

Them: But when exactly? What date?

Me: Ok, this week.

Them: *Angrily* that’s outrageous! We can’t do this that quickly! *Storm storm rage rage*

Me: Fine, how quickly can you do it?

Them: Tell me when you need it.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

When the head of IT admits that they launched the new website knowing it wouldn’t work, to avoid missing the arbitrary deadline management gave him.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

When the author of a medical textbook just asked if he could use WebMD as a source

[lifenacademicpublishing]

When someone suggests we could “speed up the process by having the authors be  their own peer reviewers.”

[atruebloodwrites]

Publishing: A little truth talk... This career choice can be a tough one. Just when you seem to clear one hurdle another gets in the way. I see it often in the private chats I have with other writer friends. Everyone is over the moon when they get their first deal. It literally feels like nothing can stop you. But the truth is publishing is NOT a meritocracy. Just because you sold one book does not mean another is guaranteed. Here’s reality... Some of those writers you started this journey with will take off. They’ll post about their new deals while you may still be toiling on book 2 or 3. I’ve seen the pressure force talented writers to leave publishing altogether. The issue with all of this is the mindset of publishing. People will try to convince you that if you don’t publish a book every year you’ll lose readers and even perhaps your agent’s interests. In most cases this isn’t true, but the myth continues to be pushed in publishing circles. What you have to remember is that in publishing so many things are out of your control. All you can do is keep your head down, continue writing, and hope the path will turn in your favor again. I know of two writers who went many years without selling a thing. This year both of them had a new book come out and have more on the way! My point here is that you CANNOT compare your path to others. Doing so will only make you sad and zap your will to create. Keep believing in your talent and lean on writer pals when you need them. Remember the world needs your words, so stick with it! 💛 #writingtruths #publishingtruth #writingcommunity #publishinglife #publishingproblems #yawriterlife #writerlife #writershelpingwriters #writingadvice #writingabook #writingcommunityofig #authorsofig #writersofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CPquTzpLid8/?utm_medium=tumblr