How can someone my age already be writing their memoir? It is just not right. But I'm glad Jancee Dunn did in but enough about me: how a small town girl went from Shag Carpet to Red Carpet. Jancee is a Rolling Stone reporter and scatters tips for interviewing celebrities amongst her memories of growing up and also interviewing people like Madonna, Dolly Parton and Brad Pitt. The book is funny, and now I have the answer to why so many celebrity lunches are described in detail in my favorite magazines.

Jancee has her high school photo on the cover. I had that exact same perm and haircut in 1984 in my senior portrait. If my scanner wasn't broken I would post it. I did have a friend who called me Poodle Face (but I believe with some affection).

via Joe Wikert, Lori Cates Hand has a great post on the benefits of working for a small publisher vs. a big publisher. I've now worked at three types--small, large and a third--corporate press, so I thought I'd add some of my thoughts into the mix. Part 1 focuses on Small Publisher.

I worked at Prima Publishing back in the mid nineties. At the time, Prima was owned by an individual and the company was growing fast.

Working for a Small Publisher:

+ Ability to see and learn the entire publishing process--I was in meetings with editorial, manufacturing, marketing, production, operations...everyone and learned from seeing how the different groups operated. I've often wondered if I had had that same opportunity starting at a larger publisher.

+ The feeling of being a part of a close team. It's just you. And few other folks. Out of all the places I've worked I've maintained the connectedness to others from Prima. It's fun to email occasionally and exchange old war stories and "where are they now" stories.

+/- A small publisher is often run by someone with a strong personality and that person may exert a lot of control. Good and bad at the same time!

+ Tremendous amount of opportunity. I was able to move from editorial assistant to acquisitions assistant to associate acquisitions editor within six months. I didn't have to wait for someone else to die before moving up--I just had to let it be known where I wanted to go and prove to others I was capable. Last time I checked the person that replaced me as acquisitions assistant later became the Pubishing Director! And she deserved to!

- The pay was lousy, and because I was "homegrown" I didn't have much to negotiate a higher salary with. And I know people with experience at other publishers were brought in at a higher rate.

- The feeling that any day the owner may sell the business and constant rumors that the business was about to be sold. (A few years later Prima was sold to Random House.)

- Culture of chaos and instability--lots of turnover and lots of inexperienced and over-stressed individuals.

-Lots of folks were fired over the course of my time there. We often joked about it because one day someone would be there, and the next they were gone with no notice.

Those negatives I've listed are exactly why I left. I loved Prima, my job was extremely cool, but after being there for a few years I thought it was time to stretch my wings and move up to a larger publisher. Plus I had some college loans to pay off!

Next up, Juliana moves to two large publishers in six months!

I discovered Robert J. Sawyer through Amazon and have read a few of his books including the Neadertal Parralax series. His series supposes an alternate reality where Neanderthals become the dominant race. Really, good sci fi. He also has an awesome web site of interest to both fans and writers.

Relativity is one of those books that you can only find on Amazon--it is a cool collection of Sawyer's short stories, essays, articles and speeches. Even if you aren't a hardcore sci fi person, but you are interested in publishing there is some great content here. Sawyer is a Canadian, and there is an interesting article about the difference between American and Canadian sci fi. Also his first outline on the Neandertal Parallax. Very interesting to see how an award-winning (Hugo & Nebula) series can move from idea to draft form.

From the NY Times on virtual book tours.

My mentor recommended Influence Without Authority by Allen Cohen to me and it is well worth a read--especially if you work within a large organization or corporation.

There has been some great publisher blog discussions about Publishers and Branding.

While you debate that, take a look at this great list on Amazon's listmania: Judging Books By Their Covers.

Commence branding discussion.