Construction on the street has knocked out power for the office (awesome!) but, between technological rediscoveries (corded phones, teapots that heat on match-ignited stoves), I'll give you an update about last night's shindig. A brief one, since this is typed on cell phone keys.
First of all, even if they weren't of the literary persuasion, upon meeting these women (and one token guy), I'd be fully confident that they are about to rule the world someday--and I'd be okay with that.
If this group is any indication--and I think it should be, as there were six agencies represented and three imprints--publishing is going to be just fine.
Average age: late twenties.
Genres best represented: Paranormal YA, Sci Fi, women's fiction, narrative nonfiction.
Most popular drink: Blue Moon, with an orange. Second-most: some stemmed martini-like drink called a Pink Lemonade. It was neither pink nor lemonade-flavored. One agent braved the house red.
Most popular living location: Brooklyn (second-tier neighborhoods: nowhere dangerous, but no Brooklyn Heights, either), followed by Astoria, Queens.
Most popular educational background: most have a BA or BLA from Vassar, NYU, or a liberal arts college.
Average level of success placing/purchasing titles: ridiculous. One said her entire company looked forward to living off the royalties for a book she just sold well into their retirements.
Opinion of Twitter: One agent called it somethibg like (I must have blocked it out!) An Agent's Lifesaver. One agent said her writers made friends via Twitter and started a literary magazine. A third agent says she made the mistake of mentioning that she bought cupcakes at her favorite bakery and FOUR separate writers called the place and had cupcakes delivered. Her whole office was in a sugar coma.
General mood: optimistic. These are the savviest cats on the block, though, so whatever happens, I think they'll adapt.
Synchronicity: met the editorial assistant for the editor who bought my most recent project. Immediately texted author.
4 comments:
May I ask how long it took you to type all of that out on cell phone keys? WOW!
Thanks for the encouragement that the "death of books" has been greatly exaggerated. :)
This all sounds perfectly lovely, but what did you guys say about ME?!?
I kid, I kid.
Seriously, that is the part I am so jealous of... the super fun NYC get-togethers to just talk publishing... that has to be SO cool!
AA--not too long, as there is a Qwerty keyboard, even if it's small.
Connie--yeah. The news can freak us out about anything, and everyone gets so scared (because the thought there being no more books--or the end of publishing as we know it--has SO MANY terrifying implications) it's really fun to print "RAWR! End of books! All humans illiterate! No new writing! APOCALYPSE TIME!" articles.
Three letters that illustrate how freaked out we all get about nothing: Y-2-K.
And yes, thank you, I'm old enough to remember that.
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