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About Me
- moonrat
- I'm a recovering editorial assistant. I'm like most of my kind: impoverished coffee-and-gin survivalists, underpaid but ambitious, bitter but hopeful. Painfully self-conscious, woefully self-congratulatory, willfully self-indulgent. Yes, I'm white, but I'm trying to get over it. Accurate spelling (to the dismay of my boss) is not among my interests. So read forgivingly.
Favorite Backlist
- FAQ about the Ass
- Moonrat's Guide to Getting Published
- Moonrat's Guide to Getting a Job in Publishing
- What Makes a Dream Author
- Why You Should Never Submit Unagented to a Publishing Company
- How Royalties Work
- What's Safe to Publish Online?
- Rules for Not Making Editors Hate You
- Marketing Your Book (and Knowing What to Ask Your Publisher to Do)
- Things You Should Be Able to Expect from Your Editor
- It Is a Truth Universally Acknowledged That an Individual in Possession of a Word Processor Must Be in Want of a Book Deal (Lessons of Publishing from Jane Austen)
- Sonnets for Moonrat by Beloved Readers
I've been editing today
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Project Fill-in-the-Gaps
8 comments:
I haven't read it, moonie, but I've got a question for you: How in the hell do you read SO MANY books?
Yes, sure, it's your "job." And you're a bookworm by nature, all right, that's probably obvious even to someone who reads your blog but doesn't know about your profession.
But seriously. You've clearly "got a life," as they say. You don't go from work directly to the library or bookstore or straight home to read. Do you speed-read or something? How do you do it???
(I saw a "reading challenge" blog post recently; people who accept the challenge are agreeing to (try to) read 100 books in 2009. Wow, I'd love to be able to do that. But I don't know if I could, ever.)
I don't actually read that much--I try to average 52 books a year, and I work really hard to make that happen. I found when I first started working in editorial that I was letting the pleasure reading go entirely, and that was a bad thing--I believe it's kind of part of my job description to be able to keep sharp on what other people believe is good writing; otherwise, I'm reading nothing all day but half-baked proposals or manuscripts that still need fine tuning. Plus, you know... I like to read. I got into it because I like to read. I decided it would be a real shame if I let that get lost.
So awhile ago (I guess three years now) I made the 52-book vow. I keep everything really carefully logged. I read an hour on the train to and from work each morning, but since I'm a slow reader, that's usually not enough to finish a book each week. I do sometimes have to take time off to read. For example, I "took off" Saturday afternoon. I find it's much less work to find time to read if I love what I'm reading, but I don't always love it, since I have a policy of not putting down any book I start.
Re: the reading challenge: I could never do 100 books a year. I simply couldn't. Power to those people.
As for having "a life" (as you seem to think I do), I should probably mention that said "life" has stopped including going to the gym.
Okay, don't want to hijack the thread. Just want to add: Some time ago, I read about numerous celebrities who've kept lists of all the books they've read, for decades. I think you've got a series of blog posts in the making with your logbook.
Oh, and also: this is the kind of thing that makes your regular readers think to themselves, with a sigh, I wish I could be more like MoonRat...
I fear I haven't read it.
About the change in cover design, title, and author name: FASCINATING. I'm happy for the author that she had an editor willing to give the package a second try. Good inspiration for all of us.
Re: reading challenges -- I've been tracking how much time I've spent blogging versus reading classic literature since August, and right now, it's running 2:1 blogging:classics. (Not good!!) This explains why it is taking me more than 2 months to read Anna Karenina. Dare we ask how many hours you spend blogging, Moonrat? (Perhaps a post for another day...)
Andromeda, it's funny you ask, because I nearly left this in a comment on your blog once (on your internet is evil post). I just couldn't figure out a nice or sensical way of putting it.
This year, since January 1, I've blogged more than I ever have before, and probably average spending 2-3 hours a day reading blogs after work. I've written 354 blog posts on EdAss, and a number of book reviews, and a number of guest posts on other blogs, to the tune of (I'd guess) a couple hundred thousand words.
But I don't believe the internet has hurt my productivity anywhere else. It's actually been a weirdly productive year. I've read (to date) 53 full-length novels. I've also had an average work week of at least 60 hours. I've freelance written two nonfiction books, both about 40,000 words, and I've written a 70,000-word novel (and edited it twice). Since August, I've been the managing editor/staff writer for a nonprofit monthly magazine I won't name here.
The only thing I can figure out about my life in particular is the more I take on, the more I get done. I know this is a personality thing, and some people are the opposite, but I feel like for me blogging has actually pushed me to be more productive in other areas. Of course, I HAVENT been to the gym in a month, and some friends probably don't remember me or want to see me anymore. Also, I don't have any concrete proof that I've done any of the above WELL.
HOLY SMOKES! Freelanced nonfiction books? A finished novel? A magazine? (And she didn't even mention the fundraiser.) Did everyone else know this about Moonrat? CRIKEY! I'm doing some research for my own top-secret nonfiction book project which happens to be about how Americans spend their leisure time (ok, secret is out) and you fit the model of what one researcher called the "more--more" personality. You don't do less in one category and more of another, you do more in everything -- and that, in fact, is more common than many people would think! Turns out that people who read a lot don't necessarily skip volunteering or sports or TV or most other categories, they do it all, or almost all. (I know you mentioned you haven't been exercising). How? Well, I'm researching that...
But anyway, Moonrat -- jeepers! I think we need to put you in a bottle and sell you.
As for me,it's 4:00 pm and I haven't taken a shower yet.
Jeez, do you ever sleep? You sound very productive.
Thanks for the book reco.
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