Monday, April 27, 2009

Cliffs Notes-They're Not Just for College Anymore...

From the desk of Ms. Sally Spitfire...



My dearest Suzy-Q,


Suzy, you know that one of the main reasons that I decided to work in publishing is that I've always loved to read. Really loved to read. Do you remember middle school when you sat me down to let me know that reading during recess was a sure way to miss out on a lot of new friends? Then in high school, you would try to keep me from bringing a book to football games...



Well, I got my wish. I have a job for which I am actually required to read. All the time. Not only do I need to be "well-read" in terms of current popular authors and best-sellers, but I also have to read all of the books for which I am doing the marketing. And Suzy, let me tell you, it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I simply adore the fact that the "work" I often take home is reading. How many people can say, "Yeah, I'm reading a historical romance about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre... it's for work..." The flip side is that a great deal of what I read is either a) not good (especially when I'm asked to give an opinion on unpublished manuscripts and proposals) or b) not the genres of literature that I enjoy. There are days when all I really want to do is sit down with the new John Green young adult novel or a classic that I've still yet to read like The Confederacy of Dunces but instead I have something for work that--like it or not (and more often not)--I have to read by Monday...


Poor, poor me.


Sorry for the short letter, Suzy, but this week I have five things I have to read for work and I didn't crack a single one over the weekend... time to start playing catch-up...



Lots of love,


(Ms.) Sally S.

3 comments:

Chris Eldin said...

Good Morning Everyone!
:-)

Sarah Laurenson said...

Yeah. Reading for a living sounds great until the reality sinks in and it's not what you want to read. I have a hard time reading books I've chosen that don't keep my interest let alone ones that I have no interest in to begin with.

I know someone who has a similar issue with watching movies. She works in movie advertising and has to watch them to see what she is working with. They're not all good, that's for sure. And sitting through two hours of it can be excruciating. And then hawking it? Um, yeah.

laughingwolf said...

publishers don't have minions reading for them?