Category Archives: holidays

October 11, 2013   Rachel   holidays, horror, Rachel S., short stories  
4

Spooky times

Coming into mid-October it’s hard to ignore the blatant signs that Halloween is fast approaching. As a kid, I was never really into the scary aspect of the holiday as I lamely get frightened extraordinarily easily. My costumes consisted of things like ballerina, genie (three times running), jester, butterfly, Peter Pan and the like. I preferred to be silly or cute rather than gory or haunting.

Candy—gobs and gobs of candy—aside, for we all know that’s the greatest part of the holiday, I’ve always found the tradition and storytelling around Halloween fascinating. The same stories have been told for years. Classic horror tales are succinct and hard forgotten and I’m sure that kids are still getting spooked by the one about the two prom goers stuck in a broken down car, with the hook methodically tapping on its roof even though cell phones are ubiquitous nowadays.

The scariest story for me, however, was The Girl with the Green Ribbon. It wasn’t particularly chilling or really that horrifying at all. Just a story about a girl who always wore a green ribbon around her neck, referenced throughout the story of her life until the day her curious husband implores her to untie it, despite her protestations. The story simply ends (spoiler alert!) with her head falling off. No aftermath, no more to say. The simplicity of the tale might have been the part the got to me, because I remember being chilled to the bone by this one growing up.

Whenever I mention the story to friends or anyone with whom I happen to be discussing scary things with (happens all the time, guys), I’m often met with blank stares, so it was with delight that I saw the tale hitting #13 on Buzzfeed’s 14 Books That Traumatized You As A Kid the other day. I wasn’t making it up! And I’m not alone!

In the spirit of the season, what are your favorite scary stories (to tell in the dark or the light)?

January 07, 2013   Jane   advice, goals, holidays, Jane  
6

Resolutions

It’s a new year, so what else would I write about but New Year’s resolutions?

I know, I know – New Year’s resolutions sound  soooo  boring, but I have found that making them, and checking them monthly and keeping them in mind is very important to moving forward in life and in work.

Putting together a written list—and I do think these should be written down in order to cement them in our minds—takes time and it should take thoughtfulness.  What do we want to achieve this year, health wise, relationship wise, business wise and in our efforts to give back to the universe?

A few of my clients this week presented me with their lists of what they wanted to achieve in their book publishing careers this year, and I am so happy to have these.  It will help me to focus my efforts in helping them.  In fact, I plan to encourage as many of the authors I work with as possible to do the same thing in the coming weeks (a goal should be to have all New Year’s resolutions completed by no later than the middle of January, I think).

And of course, I have done my own set of resolutions in all of the above areas.  I plan to review them very regularly and refine them when necessary (resolutions should be as specific as possible, I find).  Then at the end of the year, I will do an overall evaluation of how  I’ve done in each area, and that will enable me to put together next year’s resolutions that much more easily.

So, what do you think of this whole idea of setting New Year’s Resolutions?  Do you plan to do them for yourself?  I am eager to know your thoughts on the subject.

December 21, 2012   Brenna   children's books, holidays  
0

Happy holidays!

Happy holidays from everyone at DGLM! Our office will be closed from 1 pm today until January 2nd, 2013.

Have a happy new year!

The Snowman

December 14, 2012   Lauren   holidays, Lauren, subsidiary rights, what we're looking for  
3

All I Want for Christmas

In honor of the holidays, I thought I’d share with you my Christmas wish list:

  • A universal territory schedule: If you have a book deal in English, you might’ve seen a long list of countries in the back of your contract, often labeled Schedule A.  That’s the territory schedule, my nemesis.  You see, the world gets carved up into blocks by the publishers buying rights, so there are a variety of territories you can sell, most often World (which includes translation rights as well), World English, US/Canada, or UK & Commonwealth.  Anything excluded from that is either reserved to the author, licensed exclusively to a second publisher, or part of the Open Market, which is primarily the world’s non-English-speaking countries, where US and UK publishers are typically free to distribute competing editions.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Except that apparently we can’t just agree that when we said UK & Commonwealth, we meant, you know, UK & Commonwealth.  There are the most common exceptions, like Commonwealth Canada going on over to the US side and non-Commonwealth Ireland getting grouped in on the UK side, for proximity reasons.  And then there are the many inane fights I have every year about whether Malaysia is Open Market or Commonwealth.  Hey, guess what debate is easily settled by the Commonwealth of Nations website?  (Fortunately we’re not believers in granting exclusive Europe to UK publishers, because otherwise I’d have to add “Israel is not in Europe” to my list of regular grievances.  This isn’t Eurovision or UEFA, my friends.)  And yet, we must argue these things all the time.  If you want to fight with me about whether or not you should get to sell books in Tristan da Cunha, I need you to fly me there and show me your distribution chain.  I will then contemplate your argument for several days on the beach and get back to you when I’ve decided.  Alternatively, I’d accept a Universal Schedule A that all of us in publishing agree to now, so we can stop having this conversation ad nauseam.  Then anyone who wants to pretend South Africa’s not a Commonwealth country or Iran is will have to say so, up front, when making their offer.

  •  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Popular science and interdisciplinary nonfiction.
  •  Mandatory naptime.  Look, I work in foreign rights, and it’s really important for me to be in tune with cultural differences.  So I’m going to start taking siestas.  I really think it’s going to do amazing things for our list in Spain.
  •  A robot that can be programmed to clear up my office clutter to my exact specifications each night when I leave, because I am very very particular, very very busy, and very very sick of tripping over the books that I knock on the ground each day.
  •  A wall-sized magnetic world map and teensy tiny book cover magnets so that when I sell a book, I can put it in the appropriate country, because how cool would that be?
  •  Peace on Earth, good will towards men.
  •  My two front teeth*
  •  You**

 

*Worst Christmas song ever?

**Best Christmas song ever.

December 11, 2012   Brenna   Brenna, fun, holidays, lists  
2

Yet another holiday list…

There’s little else besides holiday parties and lists on my mind these days, so when I saw this funny and insightful piece on Flavorwire today about the 10 books your relatives know of that you don’t, I knew I had to blog about it. We all know that books have the amazing ability to connect perfect strangers in ways unmatched by any other media, but this piece works to help us connect to those we already know. And to piggyback a bit on Miriam’s last blog, it’s a nice tip sheet for those of us whose family and friends assume you’ve read everything just because you work in publishing.

Take a look. And who knows—you may even have a book or two in common!

November 29, 2012   Jessica   advice, gift books, holidays  
3

Analysis Paralysis

Here’ s a happy holiday story from author  Ann Patchett on her independent bookstore, Parnassus, which she and a partner opened in Nashville and seems to be a roaring success.  So far the book-buying season is shaping up fairly nicely if this PW piece and  the recent purchases of my colleague, Stacey, are any indication.

I too obey the commandment to Support Thy Local Bookseller, worship at the altar of the Book-as-Perfect-Gift and in all ways submit to the myriad orthodoxies of bookworld (ebook exciting! Print book not dead!) but I admit that I spend an unhealthy amount of time ruminating over books as presents.  I am not a shopper by nature–retail spaces exert a debilitating power over my ability to remember what I came in for—but I like bookstores, and can easily while away hours I don’t have in their stacks.  Selecting the precisely-right volume for a meaningful holiday gift is, however, no easy feat.  Much as I try to remind myself that the perfect can be the enemy of the good (in this instance anyway), and there is no “one” pre-ordained volume that found wrapped beneath the tree will be universally acknowledged to be THE BEST GIFT EVER, I can get a little stuck.  I select and then discard a dizzyingly long list of possible books, running them through a matrix based on the recipient’s taste, the book’s reviews, its visibility relative to its obscurity (some folks want to read award-winners, others dig the overlooked gems), plot points that might reinforce or unpleasantly remind its recipient of real life events, appropriateness of content if picked up by recipient’s seven year old twins, and dozens of other factors.  I nearly always overwhelm myself into buying at least one, sometimes two, books for myself, as a consolation for all the mental effort and on the grounds that I know for sure that I will like them.  I repeat this ritual as necessary, until all my holiday shopping is done or I run out of money.

How do you choose? Do you predicate the book on your own tastes (I know folks who give copies of the same book to everyone they know, like a signature cocktail) elicit holiday wishlists, interrogate family members, or simply hand over a gift card?

 

November 28, 2012   Stacey   fun, gift books, holidays, Stacey  
3

Creative ways to give books

Every year around now, I panic over the zillions of gifts I have to get for those in my life. As my kids get bigger and involved in more activities, the list gets longer and more elaborate. And I find myself struggling to figure out what to get that hits the right notes of personal, practical, fun and won’t break the bank when I have to buy 20 of them.

I saw this piece in PW about the solid start to the holiday buying season, and it got me thinking of books and ways in which they can be included as holiday gifts. Since I work in book publishing, I try to support the industry by buying books this time of year, hard copies, and giving them as gifts. Last month at the Scholastic Book Fair in my town, I bought a wide array of books for the class, books for the kids, and a Harry Potter paperback box set for me (which I hope to start with the kids one of these days)! A percentage of sales went back to the school, so it’s a win-win.

I admit I sometimes give my own clients’ books if I’m particularly excited about a title and have multiple copies on hand. I always try to pair the book with something else – a craft book with something crafty, a cookbook with a kitchen utensil, or in some cases whatever I have left over from last year’s stash. Just kidding, sort of. What book works with a pretty soap and lotion set?

If you have any great ideas for giving books as special, fun, or different holiday gifts, please share. And which books are on the top of your list to give this year? The more we support the book business, the better off we’ll all be for it. Happy holidays, and happy book shopping!

November 20, 2012   Yassine   authors, food, fun, holidays, Thanksgiving, writing, Yassine  
2

Does writing take a holiday?

Being the e-book manager here at DGLM, I am in possession of a wealth of copyedited and polished manuscripts, ready to be uploaded and unleashed onto the various e-book stores on the internet. Therefore, I only see one side of that manuscript, the finished article. What I don’t get to see is the process that writers go through to hand me their completed work.

I have always been fascinated with the variety of routines that writers impose in order to let the creativity flow. With Thanksgiving approaching rapidly – too rapidly for those in charge of turkey duties – I’m wondering if any writers out there will be modifying their schedule to accommodate visiting family, trips to visit family, or to fit in a post-Thanksgiving nap. After reading this piece on writers’ routines, I tried to imagine how the writers mentioned in the article would or wouldn’t break their schedule.

Susan Sontag certainly adopted a pretty stringent itinerary, so would she have invited over guests other than Roger Straus? Hemingway strived to wake at first light when working on novels, but surely Papa would have afforded himself a wee bit of a lie-in over the holidays? And with the increased level of consumption that marks the holiday season these days, would Ben Franklin be able to remain so frugal?

Do you cut yourself some slack in your writing habits over the holidays? Or will you find yourself a quiet corner on Thursday to continue writing?

November 16, 2012   DG&B   fun, holidays, Lauren  
2

Gratitude

I think I’ve used the word grateful more in the last few weeks than in the previous year combined.  It’s not just Thanksgiving just around the corner, but the many discussions centering around how the city is doing in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  With gratitude on my mind, I hope you’ll all forgive a Thanksgiving post just a bit early.

I’m thankful for:

Living on high ground.  Being fortunate enough to be spared damage when others aren’t.  The fact that I have people in my life who’d be able to help me out and take me in if I hadn’t been.  Working with people whose emails didn’t say, “I need to hear back from you on this,” but instead “I hope everything is okay for you.” and “I know that you’re probably catching up right now, so no rush.”

The stellar year that DGLM is having.  Especially the clients that make that possible.  I can hardly keep up with the best of list appearances and readers’ choice awards for our clients!  And while we’re the kind of busy that makes our heads spin, that’s the kind of busy that pays the bills, too.  All that and I get to be proud of what I do and excited about what I get to read.

My colleagues, who challenge and inform and entertain me daily.  Jane’s vision in pushing us all to see change as opportunity rather than threat.  The fact that the same incredible team that was the agency when I began is with the agency now, more than seven years on.  And the fact that even now they still answer my questions without much complaint.

An industry that’s got it’s fair number of challenges, but is still full of vibrant, intelligent, creative, exciting people.

My family–it’s not been the easiest year for them all, but they handle it with grace and they’re still intact, in spite of everything.  My sister and her family moving back to New York State from Puerto Rico.  I’m sad that we never made it to the bioluminescent bay, but I’m really looking forward to harassing my nephews in person on a more regular basis.  The fact that my nephews aren’t old enough to be sick of me yet.

The fact that you all are for some crazy reason bothering to read what I write.  Thanks, everyone!

September 07, 2012   Lauren   holidays, Lauren, reading, recommendations  
2

Choice

Today, my friends, is a very important day!  It’s my sister’s birthday.  Well, ok, it’s also National Buy a Book Day.  I will admit I don’t know much about the organization behind it, but I think we all get the gist.

So now we are left with a difficult choice:  what to buy.  I’m going to head to the store on my way home to pick something up, but I’m not sure what it should be.  I’m currently reading Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers (for DGLM bookclub) and then need to start Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife (for my personal bookclub).  There are at least 18 million books on the TBR pile at home, plus the bookshelves, plus the bookcases behind me right here at the office.  And that’s not even counting the things I’m reading for professional reasons.  But I can’t just not buy a book on National Buy a Book Day.  I’d be letting down the nation!

Conveniently, I polled friends earlier this week on how they choose books, which might help me decide.  The two smartest people I know more or less say they read whatever I tell them to.  There’s one vote for genre.  One for reading free samples on her e-reader.  One for free e-books.  One for bookclub.  One sarcastic and one serious vote for judging a book by its cover (along with a vote for those books that are faced out on the shelves).  One for random book reviews.  One for the literary press/blogosphere.  Interestingly, no one said bestseller lists, though I’m sure that’s a factor for many.

Though my friend Chuck didn’t weigh in on the poll, he shared this parody video for “Call Me Maybe” (you don’t know how much it’s hurting me not to throw a comma in there) from Open Books bookstore in Chicago, which sounds like a pretty great organization dedicated to literacy.  The video seems to advocate choosing books by staring at people reading print editions on public transportation, so that’s an option, too:

So I think that does it: I can’t just tell me what to read without knowing the answer first.  I like to read across genres.  I don’t ever feel like I have time for free samples and feel obligated to buy books to support my industry.  I already have my next two bookclub books at home.  I don’t have time between now and leaving to wander through reviews and the literary press.  Covers might work, but we all know what they say about that.  And I have to buy the book before I get on the subway.  So I’m just going to go ahead and buy the book the video recommends at the end—I’ve been thinking about it anyway, considering how the publishing community on Twitter has been raving about it.

So…what are you buying today?  And how’d you pick?

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