If book sales were up year to year I wonder if this is more a matter of just trying to cut costs in order to boost the stock. I don't know how many of these companies are private or public though.

The few positives for me-- only at the moment-- is that a) I have nothing on submission at the moment, so no chance of anything falling through the cracks and b) commercial fiction and young adult both remain fairly strong.

Pity I can't actually write a decent romance (by romance, I mean the play by the rules stuff the genre demands) to save my life.

Pity I can't actually write a decent romance (by romance, I mean the play by the rules stuff the genre demands) to save my life.

Umm, may I beg to differ, and say how great is it you can't write a thing like this to save your life, and that there should be more like you?

Or you know what? I mean, this is industry. And I know the "public" (who is this "public", anyway, and why does it seem it's always on crack?) supposedly want a regular-play-by-the-rules romance. But if the industry actually wants something different to stand out and sell, they should be calling you. So this economic situation thing might give opportunities for The Good Folks to come out, after mountains of wasted woods.

I'm waaaaaaay too naive, right?

I'm waaaaaaay too naive, right?

No, not really-- I mean, I've heard more than once that I'm "that author." The one who needs just ONE editor to believe in her, to love the material unreservedly and then, Things Will Happen.

It might be a good opportunity for me, if there are editors out there who see the current situation as an opportunity to break some new things out of the pack.

Or it might be that editors retreat into cocoons of safety, going with more and more of the tried and true, offering the comforting reads that they feel the reading public wants.

It's all a crap shoot.

Whee-- what a fun industry I'm in.

I mean, I've heard more than once that I'm "that author." The one who needs just ONE editor to believe in her, to love the material unreservedly and then, Things Will Happen.

Somehow, that sounds like the most frustrating part.

I am working for a bunch of optimists. This is a problem.

But has the theme of the day changed?

(I ask, optimistically)

You know what, Barb?

That sounds a bit like the Pandora box's paradox my lecturer in the Class I Hate Most Because I Can't Understand The Freaking Point Of It, mythological origins of art talked about yesterday: if all things in Pandora's box were bad, how come hope was there? And if hope is a bad thing, how come it stays in the box?

I nearly wanted to scream the "dude, things aren't black and white!", until one student came up with the idea that hope is a good thing, but the punishment for the mankind is that it stays in the box, and that's the bad thing. But all my lecturer wanted to know if it's good or bad: the man has no freaking sight of layers in any situation.

No wonder I get so frustrated in those classes. And that's after the Aphrodite's birth story, AKA Huge Flying Penis story.

They gave me naan instead of roti again. Fuckers.

Theme has not changed. It's just accompanied by sad laughter.