Publishing Woes

Where the woes of life in academic publishing are... well, published. 

[oneman-wolfpackk]

I know you’re tired bitch but keep fucking going

[90000000bc]

[publishingwoes]

When the Boss fails to understand that the only days a part-time colleague is in the office are the only days s/he can work on the projects

[whatshouldwecallediting-blog]

When I begin edits on a manuscript that is basically un-publishable as-is.

[publishingwoes]

Here we go. I’m diving right in. Wish me well. 

[whatshouldwecallediting-blog]

When I get a brand new first-time author client whose book is A-grade awesome.

[publishingwoes]

It’s only happened once a year (at best).

[publishingwoes]

When an >30YO colleague is unable to grasp basic social etiquette (and makes it look like we’re the weirdos)

[whatshouldwecallediting-blog]

When I discover that a client has taken big chunks of text word-for-word from Wikipedia and inserted them directly into his/her book.

[publishingwoes]

..or just reject the manuscript, really. 

[publishingwoes]

When no tea/coffee/caffeine can keep my eyes open

[publishingwoes]

When it’s only the beginning of the week and I already have to deal with stupid

[publishingwoes]

When a co-authors’ fight reaches the point where one is so unhappy s/he’s sulking and refusing to cooperate constructively because s/he feels unheard

[publishingwoes]

When warring co-authors want me to state who’s in the right

[publishingwoes]

When an author (finally) responds to an email I sent 3.5 years ago (as if he had just received it yesterday)

[publishingwoes]

When we discover that a universally disliked colleague has been sneakily disappearing for job interviews

[whatshouldwecallediting-blog]

When a client wants to talk to me on the phone.

[lifenacademicpublishing]

When your boss blames the extremely high turnover rates on millennials’ “three year itch”

Couldn’t possibly be because people are underpaid, overworked, and fucking over it….nope. Must be the damn millenials again.

[publishingwoes]

That’s utter BS. (Not that I haven’t heard the same here [insert eye roll]. Hang in there, @lifenacademicpublishing!

[publishingwoes]

When the authors of the same book disagree over the text in their manuscript (and make me make/undo/redo the N-to-the-power-of-1 million-th minute correction to their manuscript)

[publishingwoes]

When I’m included in CC in an email fight between authors, over their book title/cover

[whatshouldwecallediting-blog]

Telling a client I can’t accept their manuscript as-is and they have to redo it before I’ll accept the project.

[publishingwoes]

One of the things I gladly do (with a not so secret sigh of relief). Manuscripts actually bad enough to reject, are as rare as manuscripts with so few errors I can count them with my fingers (i.e. they’re unicorns). Both offer me the same degree of satisfaction (one for being a breeze; the other for making rejecting it a breeze).