Category Archives: problem solving

August 07, 2012   Jane   Jane, opinion, problem solving  
2

We’re all really on the same team

This last week, I found myself in a really heated conversation with a publisher about one of my clients.  I called him to see whether they were going to act on my suggestion to help pump up the sales of her book and he jumped down my throat for what he said were all of my complaints about their not trying hard enough to make this title a huge bestseller.

When I pointed out that, in fact, I don’t work for him but for my client and that as her advocate it is my obligation to put forth as many ideas as I can on her behalf, he understood better where I was coming from.  It is true that publishers often forget that the agent is working for the author and not against the publisher.

We talked about the various ideas I had offered and why he felt some might not work, and I understood better where he was coming from.  He also admitted that his “heated tone” was coming from a place of utter frustration at not being able to achieve the sales that he and his colleagues had been hoping for.

In the end, we both realized that we are on the same team and working for the same goals – to build this author’s career.  Later in the week, when I passed on another suggestion to him, he seemed to accept it from where it was coming from and he promised to address it quickly with his colleagues.

So, the bottom line is that agents, authors, and publishers are all working towards the same end – to increase book sales as efficiently and creatively as possible.

Has this been your experience with the publishing process?

April 13, 2012   Rachel   libraries, problem solving, Rachel S.  
12

Making Room

After a confusing month of wondering whether or not to wear a jacket, layer with a sweater, go bare-legged or long-sleeved, it finally seems like spring is here to stay. Moods are cheery, windows are open and it’s time to turn over new leaves. Odd though it is, I look forward to my Sunday afternoon housecleaning (the kitchen especially) and even more to the big overhaul that comes with the changing of the seasons.

Spring cleaning. Out with the old and in with the new. It’s a great feeling except for one small glitch—sometimes, there’s just so much old to get rid of that I don’t know where to put it! We’ve all posted on this blog about the vast quantity of books and reading we’ve acquired over the years. There’s no room for a third bookshelf in my quaint (read: tiny) little living room in Brooklyn and so we’ve had to go through a bit of an overhaul, as we keep amassing books with nowhere to put them.

Painstaking as it was in some cases, both myself and my roommate have managed to fill a deceptively large shopping bag with enough books to leave us marginal space on the shelves. Deciding which books to get rid of was a process and heartwrench of its own, and so we thought the hard part was over once we’d finally settled. Except now it’s two weeks later and the giant bag of books is still sitting there. The question remains—where to donate?

The options, while not endless, are many. Easiest would be to bring them to the coffee shop down the street that has a little lending library that thrives on donations, but I dump books there all the time. There’s a small library three blocks from my apartment that might benefit from a few more additions. We could cart them into the city and donate to thrift stores or other charity-based bookstores. Surely we could think of friends who would gladly take some off of our hands, too. There’s selling to second-hand shops, online or in the front yard (pretending I have a front yard). Throwing them away is obviously not a possibility (They’re BOOKS!).

While it’s not the worst of dilemmas, it’s one I’m currently facing. What do you do when you run out of space for your books? To whom to they go?

March 22, 2012   Jessica   creativity, interview, Jessica, problem solving  
25

Eureka!

This morning I caught a part of an interview with Jonah Lehrer, science writer and the author of the book Imagine: How Creativity Works. In addition to debunking the myth of brainstorming (turns out that the no-criticism, free-association, fill-the-whiteboard-approach to creative problem solving is not especially effective—a truth that I think many a solitary writer has always known) he talks about “the moment of insight.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQNoqrlWkrY&feature=youtu.be.  He says that studies reveal that a creative breakthrough is often achieved not by drinking a triple espresso, buckling down and focusing, but instead, by taking a hot shower, going for a walk, getting a good night’s sleep.  So I am curious, when you are stuck on a particularly thorny plot point or organizational dilemma, do you give it a rest or power through? How do you invite the moment of insight, and where and when have your eureka moments happened?

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