New York Adventures: Rooftops and Red Cups part 1

Americanisms Glossary

Solo cups  – the famous red cup that we know from high-school movies. They make an appearance later…

Friday

Wendy Lamb, a Publishing Director at Random Children’s, gave a very funny and engaging talk to kick off the day. When my boss came to New York last October, I’d been in touch with Wendy to arrange their meeting, so I was particularly looking forward to meeting her in person. She explained her own interesting route through to starting her own imprint, and about why she is excited by Children’s publishing. She stayed until about 12:30, answering questions from pretty much everyone.

CPC lecture hall: me with Wendy Lamb (credit: Jon Michael Darga!)

After lunch – and an introduction to various American ice cream brands – was Adrian Zackhelm. He is a contemporary of our course director, who were at Doubleday at the same time. He now works in Business publishing with Portfolio.

THE WEEKEND.

Everyone a bit giddy at the thought of a weekend off, despite the looming assignments.

The CPC boys have been segregated to the 5th floor, which is obviously a no-go zone for everyone else, because of the feared living condition of squalor and underwear left lying around. We preceded the flat suite party on the 3rd floor with one of our own.

CPC boyz

The main party was a test of names, as, for the first time, we were without our precious name tags. Cue lots of tentative ‘Hey, you’ and ‘Alright  How are you, mate?’

 

The most gratifying part of the night was twofold.

1) EVERYONE DRINKS FROM RED CUPS ITS TRUE YES ITS TRUE. Also blue cups, but lets pretend they’re all red.

2) Some none Columbia people turned up and tried to throw a rival party. There was confusion about who was who (no name tags, remember), and at some point the line ‘SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE’ was used in earnest and I probably grinned like an idiot.

SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our night finished, um, late. We rounded it off by getting ‘a slice’ from a place down the street. The slice was twice the size of my face. Like, I’ve eaten whole pizzas smaller than that.

Tig

A normal sized piece of pizza

 

New York Adventures: Week 1

I’m going to kick off with my new words from now on. So –

Americanisms Glossary

Slugbug = VW Beetle (though I think this is localised)

Restroom = toilet. An obvious one, yes, but there was a misconception on some people’s behalf that British people say ‘water closet.’ I HAVE DEBUNKED THIS.

Biscuits = ARE NOT BISCUITS AT ALL. They are glorified scones. People eat them with gravy. What.

Graham Crackers = something like a digestive biscuit mixed with cardboard. Despite the spelling, these are pronounced ‘gram’ which upsets me.

Route – This is pronounced ‘root’ for a place name like ‘Route 66’, but when describing a method of transport it is pronounced ‘Rowt’

Tuesday

Promising.

 

There’s a woman who stands in the little square outside my window at about 5am and shouts incoherently at passing traffic. We are not friends. This sign is on my other window, which makes me wonder is there has been accidental manslaughter by a past student? I will not touch the window because it will be me.

The day started with a panel on ‘The Future of the Book’, consisting of Brendan Cahill from PRH, Matt Schatz from Oyster and Matt Cavnar of Vook, followed by some more looking ahead from Madeline McIntosh, COO of PRH. Particularly interesting to hear them talk about the changes they’ve seen, and you can only wonder what changes the CPC class of 2014 will see.

The final speaker of the day was legendary Bob Gottlieb, who had anecdotes about everyone from Joseph Heller to Bill Clinton, and gave a fascinating insight into the ‘golden days’ of publishing. I suspect that seven figure deals done over an obscenely expensive lunch won’t be in my immediate future.

Wednesday

The speakers were Dawn Davis (Publisher at 37 INK), Niko Pfund (President of Oxford University Press) and Tayari Jones (author). Everyone was impressed with Dawn, and Niko and Tayari’s talks gave two new perspectives on the industry. Everyone wanted to be Tayari’s best friend, too.

I spent some free time exploring the campus a bit more.

Map of campus

Thursday

Kate Lloyd (Associate Director of Publicity at S+S) was first up, and gave some great examples of her working life.

Ruth Liebmann and Matthew Schwartz (PRH) spoke about digital marketing strategy, and caused some excitement with a galley of David Mitchell’s new book. I was unable to steal it. They were generous with their time in talking to me about backlist strategy when I accosted them at the end.

Alma Mater statue outside Low Library

Next up was sherry hour. This did not involve sherry, but beakers of wine, sushi and cheese. The idea was to network with each other and be well-behaved. Of course this is what happened, though I was dismayed to find my sushi was vegetarian. Someone may have thrown a piece of cheese.

Campus, looking at John Jay and Wallach buildings

Michael Reynolds from Europa provided yet another alternative viewpoint, from that of a small indy press.

Stay tuned for red cups…

Tig

New York Adventures – The Course Begins

Monday 16th June:

I’m grateful that it’s not my first time in New York, because if it were, I might have thought the noises in the night were signs of impending apocalypse. Garbage trucks Trash compacters, horns blaring, construction workers and general yelling were all part of the nighttime chorus. Woke at 5, body-clock has betrayed me. Who am I?

Wandered up to breakfast at Alfred Lerner hall (BACON. EGGS.) and was presented with something new to me: that scene from an American high-school/college movie where everyone’s seated and the new person doesn’t know where to sit. I spotted some people I knew, and headed for them.

The first speaker was Jordan Pavlin, VP and Executive editor at Knopf, who spoke passionately about the book industry, and took lots of questions at the end.

Camille McDuffie, from Goldberg McDuffie, followed after lunch, to talk about CVs Resumes and cover letters.

Riverside Park

We had unexpected free time afterwards. I decided to go for a walk and ventured the couple of blocks west to Riverside Park – one of my favourite parks in New York. It was about 27C and pretty perfect. I planned to sit and read but kept walking, until I realised I was at 96th street, cut across to Central Park and looped back up. My short walk turned into about 7 miles. I saw a man on some sort of skis with wheels, dragging himself along with one ski stick and one just regular stick/small tree branch. Tried to get a picture but he was too speedy. Got back to the dorm feeling slightly smug and more than slightly out of breath. Dinner. Dinner. Dinner.

In the evening, we had a great talk from Bruce Tracy, Senior editor at Workman, who advised us on the how an editor’s idea for a book can come to fruition.

To round off the day, a big group of us went to The Heights, a rooftop bar on W111st where we basked in a warm New York evening, and where my classmates judged me for not tipping the barman. What? It’s his job! Learning, learning….

Tig

Riverside

Americanisms Glossary

Cookout = ok, not entirely clear on this one, but there is a much debated difference between cookouts and barbecues. The presence of pulled pork seems to be a factor.

Alright = Over here, this literally means ‘are you OK, because you look like you might not  be?’ and is not acceptable as a general greeting. People can get offended.

Blacktop = road surface made of asphalt

New York Adventures (Columbia Publishing Course) Days 1-2

Day 1:

Arrived about 5 hours late, shared a taxi with a friend made on the plane, dropped off at Pod 39 hotel which would be my residence for all of about 12 hours. It had a cool rooftop bar (this will become a theme)

Rooftop bar awaits…

 

 

Day 2: I thought it only right to start off with some shopping (who knows if I’ll have much free time later, right?) so started off at Union Square where I came away with some new shoes.

My first ‘lost in translation’ moment wasn’t far behind. We have to provide our own bed-linen, which I hadn’t brought with me, so next up was ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’. It’s gigantic, Ikea scale, and mystifying. I asked for help finding a ‘DU-vet’ which was met with a blank stare. I then described what I wanted and was led to a wall of ‘comforters’, while the salesperson looked at me like I was a total moron. I thought I’d be smart and asked for a ‘comforter cover.’ Nope, this is called a ‘du-VET’ cover. Yikes.

I finally arrived at halls and moved my stuff in. My room is great and I will endeavor to keep it tidy. I’m facing north and west; I can just about see the Hudson if I teeter precariously on the window sill.

Home for now

 

 

We kicked off the course with an orientation BBQ, where I got to meet my new classmates. We all have name-badges which are a total lifesaver! Great energy and enthusiasm; everyone excited for the course to start. About 20 of us gathered on Sunday evening and, crowded round one person’s laptop in one of the suites, we watched the season 4 finale of Game of Thrones. It was impossible to hear, and we had to turn the subtitles on, but a pretty perfect first evening – also a good early indicator that I’m on a course with like-minded people!

Tig

Each post, I’ll include new Americanisms that I’ve learned. Let’s kick off:

Americanisms Glossary

‘Comforter’ = Duvet

‘Bubbler’ = a water-fountain (I think this is a mid-West specific term; will investigate)

‘Cleats’ = studs on a football/rugby boot

‘Powerport’ = Plug socket (how much cooler is powerport!)

 

 

Penguin Walk 2013

The Penguin Waddle 2013

On Friday 14th June, 470 flightless birds descended on London and waddled their way through the city for the annual Penguin walk. Dressed in our eye-catching (neon) Penguin t-shirts, my team set the tone for our afternoon by being late for the organised send off – we stopped off to get our free energy snacks but were left with only dodgy bananas to fight over.

The day was glorious and we saw London at its best over the course of our 10 mile (10 MILE!) wander, passing landmarks like Buckingham Palace, The Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park. The aim of the day was to raise money for The Children’s Reading Fund, not just with blisters but also by buying the wonderful baked goods sold by schools en route. Mary Berry would have been impressed!

We took over a Waterstones display for some photo ops (and a wedding!), and may have dallied a little longer than we should have by the Serpentine, but we more or less caught up with the main crowd by Trafalgar Square, and were just in time for a well deserved party at the end. Bring on next year’s walk!

Thanks to St Barnabus school for this brilliant picture, it certainly boosted morale – almost as much as the cakes. 

Tig,

Editorial Assistant, Puffin 

A Photo Tour of Zurich in Winter

I’ve just got back to the UK after my trip to Switzerland, where I saw my family, frolicked in the snow, and enjoyed a thoroughly Christmassy city. Instead of writing, this is mostly a picture post (telling 1000 words and all that). Thanks for reading/looking!

View over Lake Zurich

View from Lindenhof – it’s a favourite hidden spot of mine!

Yeah it snowed a lot

From Lindenhof. Grossmuenster in the background

Zurich by night

Annual Swarovski Christmas Tree in the main train station

Hauptbahnhof (the central train station) hosts Europe’s biggest indoor Christmas market!

It’s not Paris. It’s the inside of Globus, a big department store which always has great Christmas decorations.

The red blobs are children – the singing Xmas tree!

A VERY ANGRY BIRD. Mildly terrifying

Bahnhofstrasse lights

Choc. Everywhere

Circus in town

Considered taking a swim. Decided against it

Winter boots necessary

If you’ve never been to Zurich hope that gives you an idea of what it’s like in winter. Go if you get the chance!

Happy 12/12/12

Tig

Penguin: Week 3

Hi!

Really delayed post! This week’s been full of visits and a trip to the tennis at the O2 (might post some pics of this soon), so here’s a belated review of last week at Penguin.

The week kicked off with more Wimpy Kid activities. This time I had to write a ‘Dear Bookseller’ letter to Waterstones’ stores, instructing them how to use the Wimpy Kid event kits that go along with the release of the book. Plenty of other research to do too, including Doctor Who (where do fans hang out online), and advertising spaces.

Calm before the storm: We sent out hundreds and hundreds of books last week. For the Xmas round up it was about 50 packages of 18 books each – heavy!

There were HEAPS of books to send out last week! It was mostly Christmas round-up stuff, so Alice and I got a pretty mean production line going on all that. We also got to take home a lovely new anniversary edition of The BFG.

One of the highlights was being asked to read the new ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ book, to devise some interactive questions for the Facebook page, which should be appearing soon. The book’s great, and I read it in an hour and a half, so perfect for a quick read. That’s the kind of work I could get used to.

The BFG slipcase edition – would make a great present for any Dahl fan

Another highlight was phoning libraries on Wednesday, to bump up promotion for Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney’s UK tour. Got to say, I hadn’t previously had much experience of cold calling, but it went surprisingly well – I didn’t offend anyone, didn’t forget what on earth I was doing, and didn’t make the tour crash and burn. In fact, I managed to get promotional material to every library in Somerset, so I was pretty pleased.

This was the first time I’d interacted with my office phone in any way, and as soon as I put it down, it rang. It was a lady with an excellent name (think confectionery) complaining about a book not working. I should explain – it was a book with sound buttons called ‘Noisy Noisy Bird’; the gist was that Noisy Noisy Bird was suspiciously quiet. She was reluctant to accept that I couldn’t be much help to her, as reception apparently gave her my number specifically (clearly they were bored and thought they’d have a laugh). Anyway, I gave her the right number and I like to think she and her Noisy Bird have been reunited.

The end of the week was sad. Three weeks seemed to have flown by, and I felt like I was really getting to grips with it all just as I had to leave. Ruined everyone in the office’s diets by bringing in fudge, and Alice and I feasted on Celebrations and Starburst. The good news is – I’ll be returning to Penguin in March, this time to the editorial department to try my hand at that side of publishing. Really excited about that, and I’ve come away from these three weeks with even more conviction that publishing is exciting, challenging, and is definitely for me. 🙂

Tig (@TigWallace)

p.s Third Wheel is out now – so cool to see all the posters everywhere, and to see it on bookshelves. Great to have a sense of what’s gone on to make all that happen!

Wimpy Kid and Related Fun!

The highlight of this week at Penguin has been the build up to the release of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel’ which is looking set to be the biggest children’s book of the year. Add to that the buzz about the Penguin – Randomhouse merger, and you’ve got one very exciting week!

I got the chance to write a blog for Waterstones about the new Wimpy Kid book, including a look back at the series so far. This went live on their website on Thursday – really chuffed about that 😀 The whole blog can be found here, and below is an excerpt from it:

“7. The Third Wheel

Can things get any more complicated for Greg? Well, love is in the air, but what does that mean for Greg Heffley? A Valentine’s Day dance at Greg’s school has turned his world upside down. As Greg scrambles to find a date, he’s worried he’ll be left out in the cold on the big night. His bestfriend, Rowley, doesn’t have any prospects either but that’s small consolation.

Then an unexpected twist gives Greg a partner for the dance and leaves Rowley the odd man out. But a lot can happen in one night, and in the end, you never know who’s going to be lucky in love…

You can pre-order The Third Wheel for half price now at your local Waterstones bookshop (http://bit.ly/s6sdlu) or online at Waterstones.com (http://bit.ly/NzUMlS)”

Other highlights of the week included:

– Making showcards (like big A2 stands with posters attached) for the Wimpy Kid launch at Waterstones, and sending them out across the country. (Alice, the other intern, and I, got a little overexposed to the adhesive spray fumes, and spent the afternoon stumbling around in a giddy haze. I then opened a competition entry full of glitter which stuck to me for 24 hours)

– Writing press releases for new books, including Dragon Frontier and TimeRiders

-Sending out LOADS of books to competition winners and judges. On Monday we’ve got to send out 30 lots of 18 books for a Christmas round-up – will be living in a pile of books and boxes for a couple of days! The porters at Penguin despair every time I pick up the phone…

– Looking forward to some more Wimpy Kid goodness next week! I’ve been asked to write a letter to all the UK Waterstones to introduce the Wimpy Kid party packs that will coincide with the launch – should be fun!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I’m tweeting about my day to day activities  @TigWallace 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Tig

My First Week at Penguin

I’ve just finished my first week of a short internship at Penguin, and there’s plenty to talk about, so here are a few highlights 🙂

The Penguin offices are at 80 Strand, the old Shell Mex headquarters, about 2 minutes walk from Trafalgar Square; it’s a lovely, art-deco style building spread over 12 (I think) floors which I got a great tour of to start off with. I’m working with Puffin, the children’s imprint of Penguin, specifically with the publicity and marketing team, who are spread over the 7th floor.

It was exactly how I’d pictured it: lots of bright, open spaces, a really friendly layout, a buzz of activity in every corner. And books. Everywhere. Probably my favourite thing every day is seeing books piled all over the office: new boxes of them appear overnight, they are scattered on every desk and every available surface. For an English student it’s absolutely brilliant!

My desk is at the back of the office where I’m surrounded by not just books but posters, bookmarks, stickers, and all manner of promotional materials. With the layout of the office, being at the back is in no way cut off, and I can see the whole spread of desks in front of me. With the roles they’ve got me doing, I’m regularly up and down anyway, as I’ll explain in a minute, and next to me are desks for other interns.

So what do I do? Let’s just say, there’s never a dull moment. I sometimes nearly forget to have lunch, it’s that good. I was prepared to spend a few days making tea and filing, but from the moment I stepped in the door not a single kettle has been boiled, and not an invoice laid eyes upon. In five days, here are a few of the things I’ve been doing:

• Researched and suggested end ads for a new book
• Updated and corrected the database of every single Roald Dahl book published by Penguin
• Judged and selected shortlisted winners of competition entries
• Sent out prizes to competition winners
• Searched for specific images in the whole ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ book series, including the manuscript for the new book: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel’
• Proof-read and edited the American ‘party packs’ for the launch of ‘Wimpy Kid’, correcting spelling and phrasing to UK English.
• Sent out brand new novels and press releases to the country’s biggest reviewers of literature.
• Researched authors’ Youtube channels in terms of branding, logos etc.

There’s lots more besides, but, in short, I’m busy every minute with really interesting work, and learning lots. On Monday I get the chance to write a blog for Waterstone’s – very excited about that!

So all good, and I’m looking forward to another great week next week. Oh and I get two free paperbacks. Every day. I can’t wait for Monday…:)

Tig

TV shows you should watch (part 2)

Got some great feedback and interesting comments from part 1, so here’s part 2, followed by the shows I ought to be watching!

Fringe Final Season

Fringe –Entering its final season, Fringe has survived by continually reinventing itself: each season has a clear premise which differs from the last, while remaining true to the heart of the show – great characters, sharp writing and mind-boggling, devilishly inventive sci-fi. It’s precisely the kind of unconventional show that troubles studio execs and could have fallen by the wayside (think Firefly), so being given the chance to wrap up in style with a full fifth season is a just reward, though I’ll be sad to see it end.

Hunted – Hurrah, a British show! This one started last week on BBC 1 with an excellent pilot that I’d highly recommend finding on I-player. The premise is that Sam Hunter (Melissa George), is a spy working for a private firm. An attempt on her life leads her to uncover a network of lies and deceit as she attempts to discover who betrayed her. I’ve missed her on the small screen since her explosive season on Alias several years ago, and she’s lost none of that combination of toughness and vulnerability that make her perfect for the role. It’s a tense, intelligent opener, and airs on Thursdays at 9:00. Check out George’s interview with the telegraph here.

Once Upon a Time – Meant to start watching this show ages ago, won over by my friend Matt’s review, so with season 2 just starting, I finally downloaded the pilot and thoroughly enjoyed it. The show focuses on Emma Swan, a loner with a troubled past, who is drawn into a small town which is populated by fairy tale characters…who have forgotten who they are. I’ll admit that the first five minutes left me skeptical, with the marriage of Snow White and Prince Charming, the evil witch and the curse feeling a bit too ‘Enchanted’ for my liking. My interest was grabbed when the setting abruptly shifted to real world USA, and the introduction of Swan and a boy claiming to be her son. I was eager to see how these two settings would be reconciled, and hooked from then on.

Melissa George in ‘Hunted’

Girls – Empire magazine calls it ‘Awkward Sex and the City’, and that’s pretty much spot on. It centres on four girls (check), living in New York (check), who have complicated sex lives (check). That’s where the comparisons end though. Unlike SATC, Girls has real characters whose concerns are less about ‘which of my five apartments should I keep my favourite T.V.’ but more like ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’ The opening, where Lena Dunham’s Hannah, 24, is outraged by her parents’ announcement that they are cutting her off financially, sums up the tone of the show: you might not like the protagonists, but that’s o.k. – they’re funny, they’re fascinating, and most importantly, they’re real. Oh, and there’s not a high heel in sight.

T.V shows I should watch – Everyone’s got a show or few they mean to watch, but have never got round to. On my list are: Dexter, Breaking Bad, Entourage and Boardwalk Empire, to name a few. What else am I missing out on? Love to hear your thoughts!

Tig