Secret Publishing Business!

I went to the children's and YA division of awesome Australian publishing company Allen & Unwin with some classmates yesterday (A&U are the ones that scored the Australian rights to Harry Potter way back, so they've done pretty well for themselves) and I learnt lots of secret publishing business!

Firstly, I was shocked to find Allen & Unwin was NOT a huge building, but is in a terrace house like this:

This is NOT Allen & Unwin, but very similar, and for all you non-Melbournians, the yellow one is ONE house, and the white one is another house...they're little. And quite close to each other.

The Sydney office of Allen & Unwin is bigger, employing 100+ people, but the Melbourne office which is just childrens and YA has a mere sixteen employees, and they work on - I'm hoping I'm remembering this correctly - 40 or so books a month. Um..WHOA.

[EDITED TO ADD - Turns out, no I wasn't remembering this correctly - it's 5 books a month. But still WHOA, for 16 people!]

Gotta love the work to do it, don't you think? Still think it's for you? I guess you're wondering how one gets a job, then, huh? Well the lovely Publishing Assistant Julia Imogen who talked to us said something I totally wasn't expecting.

Eight years ago when she was employed there, she answered a small ad in the local newspaper looking for an administrative assistant. There was no mention of publishing or editing or books, it was all quite tricksy. But that's actually quite smart on the employers part. Think about it. The minute you put editorial, publishing, books etc into a job ad you have everyone with an English major applying. Can you imagine that stack of applications? That's a bit daunting, hmm? So don't discard those admin ads. They might just be the job you're looking for.

Another way you can get hired is by doing an internship there. They have had several interns who have been there at the right time and brought back in as temps or even like Penni Russon, freelance editors. Though taking on an intern is NOT like getting free help, Julia says. It's quite a commitment. There's training to do and depending on the intern, different levels of supervision required.

At Allen & Unwin they have a pretty intense database system in which everything that has been done for and about a book or author is recorded and can be accessed by all the different departments. For instance, a blurb will be needed by sales for a pitch to booksellers, publicity will need it for promotional items and designers need it for the back copy of the book. And they need the most recent version, too! The synopsis/blurb submitted with the original manuscript may be very different to what it should be for the final, edited book.

The room we had our meeting in had two walls of books (which we all had a bit of a drool at) and some books had more copies on the shelf than others. Why was this? The number of books on the shelf represented the number of print runs they had had, so you could immediately tell which books had been selling well and which ones hadn't.

There are gazillions of different roles and jobs within publishing and in this era of e-books, some employees have had jobs CREATED for them, because they were so good at that side of their work. Books have personalised websites now, facebook fan pages, someone is in charge of the company's twitter account, iphone apps and even more I don't even know about.

So there you have it. Secret Allen & Unwin business. Don't let them know I told!

Snow, snow, glorious snow!

Christmas in Australia is hot. Santa doesn't wear the big suit, he and the elves wear this:

This year however, I am in England. In 2 days I'm heading to the Scottish Highlands for Christmas, and Christmas here is very very different to the really really hot Aussie one.

For instance, this is what is outside my window right now:

Okay so that was actually 2 days ago, there's a bit more now. But you get my point? Christmas is a very different experience here! I've never experienced the snow before so this is really really exciting. The world is so pretty when everything's white.

Though I have experienced a couple of downsides to this whole snow thing. Well, the one-two centimetres of snow that we've got going on here. For instance, it makes buses run late. Very late. And under the thin layer of snow? There's a layer of ICE. And under the ice? Still cement. So yeah, my knees met the ice-cement, they're on intimate terms considering they were making out yesterday.

But it's been interesting, seeing a half-frozen over fountain, stepping on frozen puddles and feeling them crack, seeing frozen tyre marks in mud, having little bits of cold white stuff settle on your shoulders and your hair, but it's not big enough to be caught in your hand. There's not enough snow here for angels or snow men but we'll see.

I'm looking forward to Scotland, maybe there won't be so much in Edinburgh, but in the Highlands over Christmas - my first white Christmas! - there's sure to be heaps and heaps of snow. Where the ice is way down underneath lots of fluffy snow that I'm not going to fall over on.

A cold Christmas is a really weird experience, I have to say. It's supposed to be hot. We're not supposed to be wearing thermals, jumpers, coats, scarves, gloves and hats. We're supposed to be wearing singlets and thongs. (To you Americans reading this let me clarify - singlets = tank tops, thongs = flip flops. I felt that needed clarifying. Especially the thongs part)

So yeah. SNOW!

Love,

Me.

My big sister's back in the country!

Looooong day yesterday, driving the hour and a quarter to my parents place, then the two hour trip to the air port, then an hour and a half wait for her plane to actually arrive and then YAY!! My big sis is back in Australia!!! Then my dad taking the video camera from my sister's luggage and making Kate and I reinact our big YAY! My sister's back in Australia! moment for the whole international arrivals lounge to enjoy. We heard much laughter and a couple "Oh my god, that is so embarrassing"s. They were feeling sorry for us, not mocking us. It was THAT tone of voice.
Then an airport dinner and the two hour trip back to my parents place. Phew!

And today I wrote and swore at Photoshop as I try and try and fail and fail at making a wow-worthy banner for my forthcoming web site. I am unperterbed. Actually think that's the wrong word. I am annoyed, but proceeding anyway.

Kore, wonderful chickee I met through the NaNo forums and I are writing a YA book together consisting solely of emails from our characters. Much fun. I love my girl, MJ. Received Kore's latest post and sent one of my own. Wrote a fan fiction story - my first one ever! And entered it into a Melbourne competition. Actually think it went really well and I have a sneaking suspicion Lili Wilkinson is the judge, or organiser or whatever. (She's my aussie idol, 28 with a couple of books out. I want to be her soon.). It was fan fic for Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and I have to say, I made a pretty convincing Louise Rennison. Those books are so funny. She does a wonderful job.

That brought me to time to leave and head back the hour and a quarter drive - first time back on the road that tried to kill me, I wasn't thrilled - to work which is where I am now. But this whole blogging at work thing is our little secret. Then home to start swearing at photoshop again, do a practice exam and then bed.

Tomorrow I have a study group coming for the exam on Monday (eep!) Have decided considering in NaNo (in 2 days!) I'll be writing book 1 and book 2 of MJs story simultaneously (one with Kore, the other by myself) I REALLY need to plan out each one. So must do that tomorrow night. Trying to spend as much time as I can with my house mates too, because they'll be gone by the end of next week as well. Won't see them (very often) for four months!

What are my priorities? That pesky exam thing?
Outlining my books so my head doesn't explode?
My housemates?
Probably should do some washing too, huh.
So as I said before. Eep.

Oh, and the book launch in Melbs (2 hours away) is on Friday night, so another long drive day.

Plus side: I finally got my assignments back for Education - a Distinction and a HIGH Distinction. Can ya say "Hell Yeah"? I think you can, I think you caaaan!

Sairz