(no subject)
Happy Belated Birthday to dear febobe!!!!
I'm so sorry to have missed it! I hope it was filled with many food trays and sick Frodos needing comforting! *HUGS YOU BIG TIME* And of course French dressing... lots of French dressing. :)
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In other news---still alive here. I just finished editing some chapters of a textbook this weekend on organic chemistry, called Atoms2, and it has taken all my time up lately. Doesn't it look fun?
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/webad.aspx?id=4294993016
So... I think this is going to be the last book I edit. I'm sort of officially quitting. Don't get me wrong---I enjoy the work. I love books. LOVE books. I enjoy going back to what I trained to do. I feel useful doing it, like I'm getting something out of my college education.
But it's the deadlines I don't like so much. I've been given some of the most difficult subjects I can handle---organic chemistry, quantum physics, astrophysics, neurology, genetics, nuclear physics, biochemistry, and even historical books full of Chinese characters and writing---and the company I work for just doesn't give me enough time to work. Or pay enough for the amount of time I have to work.
For some books, I can work normal hours. But for most, I have to work nights and sometimes, every spare minute. I can't have a life. I often don't even sleep the night before a book is due. I have to schedule every minute when I have a book to do, and I can't fit anything else in. Our taxes didn't even get filed on time last year and I had the IRS on my butt sending me letters because I simply couldn't find the time to do them (all is taken care of now!). I have to work weekends. And how much am I getting paid? Not nearly enough. Some of the books require so much time that I doubt I'm making more than minimum wage, and it hasn't helped us much financially at all. The work is too sporadic to actually make a living at---unless I want to get hired on by more publishers and have to start juggling them all.
So... I'm going to focus aggressively on our other business, which we've set up to be very streamlined now. And if I have to go back to editing, I always can. Or, I can send out resumes and find other publishers to edit for, too. I really do enjoy the editing aspect of it---usually. I sure do wish I had some "normal" books to edit, though, instead of such heavy stuff. I don't know whether I should be flattered that I get those subjects and the publisher thinks I do a good job on them, or whether it's simply the fact that I never complain about the subjects and so get stuck with the stuff nobody else wants. I don't know!
Anyway... that's my life of late. I'll write more later but am heading for bed now. Later, all.
I'm so sorry to have missed it! I hope it was filled with many food trays and sick Frodos needing comforting! *HUGS YOU BIG TIME* And of course French dressing... lots of French dressing. :)
****
In other news---still alive here. I just finished editing some chapters of a textbook this weekend on organic chemistry, called Atoms2, and it has taken all my time up lately. Doesn't it look fun?
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/webad.aspx?id=4294993016
So... I think this is going to be the last book I edit. I'm sort of officially quitting. Don't get me wrong---I enjoy the work. I love books. LOVE books. I enjoy going back to what I trained to do. I feel useful doing it, like I'm getting something out of my college education.
But it's the deadlines I don't like so much. I've been given some of the most difficult subjects I can handle---organic chemistry, quantum physics, astrophysics, neurology, genetics, nuclear physics, biochemistry, and even historical books full of Chinese characters and writing---and the company I work for just doesn't give me enough time to work. Or pay enough for the amount of time I have to work.
For some books, I can work normal hours. But for most, I have to work nights and sometimes, every spare minute. I can't have a life. I often don't even sleep the night before a book is due. I have to schedule every minute when I have a book to do, and I can't fit anything else in. Our taxes didn't even get filed on time last year and I had the IRS on my butt sending me letters because I simply couldn't find the time to do them (all is taken care of now!). I have to work weekends. And how much am I getting paid? Not nearly enough. Some of the books require so much time that I doubt I'm making more than minimum wage, and it hasn't helped us much financially at all. The work is too sporadic to actually make a living at---unless I want to get hired on by more publishers and have to start juggling them all.
So... I'm going to focus aggressively on our other business, which we've set up to be very streamlined now. And if I have to go back to editing, I always can. Or, I can send out resumes and find other publishers to edit for, too. I really do enjoy the editing aspect of it---usually. I sure do wish I had some "normal" books to edit, though, instead of such heavy stuff. I don't know whether I should be flattered that I get those subjects and the publisher thinks I do a good job on them, or whether it's simply the fact that I never complain about the subjects and so get stuck with the stuff nobody else wants. I don't know!
Anyway... that's my life of late. I'll write more later but am heading for bed now. Later, all.