What I Learned From The People I Don't Work With

I have of late, been a driver of the publishing vehicle known as Museyon Guides: A Curated Guide to Your Obsessions, which I hope you all ten of you faithful blog readers get copies of in June when they become available. (There will be a website and review copies between now and then, I'm sure.)

Now, as a function of being a small-time editor-in-chief, you end up playing a lot of chinese firetruck by yourself. This puts your vehicle wildly at risk (Anne pointing a real .44 at an imaginary driver, screaming "Get the f__k out!").

So the Publisher and I started interviewing people to work with us (after I decided to let said publisher out of the trunk, of course). We talked to about twenty people who knew nothing about our project. Now that the firetruck is all square, I feel it is my duty to share what I've learned. Listen carefully:

If you want a job in publishing, YOU MUST READ.

I will grant that everyone we interviewed would have at least "looked at the material," but the very simplest gesture, the passingest of comments, the slightest indication of a real taste for reading, will truly make your case in a job interview with a publisher. And FYI, everyone we called back didn't just say they would read Museyon. They said they NEEDED to read Museyon to do their best job.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so I'll try to be discreet, but my favorite failure actually said, "I don't really read much." Naturally, I'm not REMOTELY worried this person will read my blog. Sigh (imaginary driver coerces real gun from Anne, pulls back the safety).

Anyway, here's a neat article about the popularity of travel memes despite plummeting guide book sales.

The guide is dead.
Long live the guide.