Perigee Bookmarks

The Ones That Got Away: An Editor’s Lament

Posted by Marian Lizzi

Chat up any editor who’s been around longer than the Kindle Fire, and pretty quickly you’ll tap into a deep well of heartache and loss. I’m not talking about the 75-to-1 ratio of straight women to straight men in publishing (that’s for a different post). No, I’m referring to the submissions we loved but lost. They came into our lives, we fell hard for them, and in the time it takes to say “outbid,” “pre-empted,” or “my publisher just didn’t love it as much as I did,” they were gone. And what’s worse, they hooked up with someone else, without a second thought.

In some cases, it was love at first sight. Maybe we even made the first move – reaching out to a favorite blogger, magazine writer, celebrity, or expert. An agent came into the picture, and a proposal was put together. We were included in the submission, perhaps getting an early look or exclusive. It seemed we were headed for Happily Ever After, but then…something went wrong. We couldn’t make the numbers work. The in-house support wasn’t there. The auction (if there was one) got too heated. For one reason or another, we had to part ways.

Or maybe it was a multiple submission – perhaps written by an author we’d never even heard of before. We read. We laughed. Or cried. Or both. We got reads. We got excited. We imagined a bright future together. But then we didn’t prevail.

There are other variations, of course. Maybe we didn’t love the submission at all, and said no thank you right away. Maybe we thought it was a little sloppy. Or overhyped. Or just a teeny bit cookie-cutter. Maybe it just wasn’t our type. We parted ways, and no one got hurt. Until it went on to win a Pulitzer. Or hit the List at #7. Or outsell jeggings at the mall-store chain. Suddenly an old wound is reopened: Why do I let all the good ones go?

In publishing, as in life, you learn to pick yourself up and move on. The acquisitions game is all about finding the right match at the right time, and if we spent too long pondering what might have been, we’d be missing out on the new crop of possibilities – each one another chance to make magic together…or not.

The Perks of Being a Self-Help Editor

Posted by John Duff

I have long since lost count of the number of books that I have published in the self-improvement category.

I’ve learned many a kitchen secret from Graham Kerr, Jean Anderson and JoAnna Lund, and although I wouldn’t call myself a master in that domain, I manage to put a meal on the table most nights.

I’ve read far too much about living longer and stronger and staying in my prime with this singular result: for the past decade or so I have started my day with a power shake with protein powder and flax meal thanks to a long out-of-print guide to eating according to the circadian rhythms.

And with a half dozen sign language books under my belt, the best I can conjure up is “I love you”—not always the most appropriate phrase in the work place.

All the parenting books have been passed along to my siblings whose children I hope have benefited.

And those volumes dedicated to language – spelling and grammar – occasionally see the light of day when spell check or the online synonym finders fail me.

At the risk of playing favorites, I will take this leap to declare my gratitude for Dan Solin’s series of personal finance books. His  The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read (2006) saved my financial butt during those years of tumult in the stock market and the resulting recession. Sure I lost a little, but nothing compared to what I might have without the help of his book. We published The Smartest 401(k) Book You’ll Ever Read in 2008 but I, of course, had a year’s jump on this before it hit the marketplace and was able to re-jig my own pension plan to some notable advantage just as things in the financial sector were imploding. In 2009, as I entered my seventh decade of life on earth, The Smartest Retirement Book You’ll Ever Read captured my interest. (It is often said in my professional circles that we publish subjects in which we are personally interested and hope that there are enough consumers sharing those interests to make the investment pay off.) I learned pretty quickly that one can’t start to plan too early for this sort of thing. I encourage my younger staff members to heed the advice that I wish had been available in my 20s and 30s. But still, Dan’s book assured me that late is better than never.

Now, as The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own hits the market,  I find myself embracing heretofore enigmatic notions of the Fama-French three-factor model (market, size, and value),  the perils of stock picking and marketing timing, the meaning of standard deviation, passive management (which is so much more powerful than the term might imply), asset allocation, and rebalancing. But, what’s most important to me is that my level of anxiety about money is manageable since I don’t find myself subject to the whims of the stock market or succumbing to the dire news that spews forth from CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, and other financial media on a daily basis.

I promise all the other authors who we publish that in future blogs I’ll be sure to tell readers how I choose to be happy, why I know that dyslexia is a gift, how to make wrinkles disappear without surgery, why hoarding starts – and how to stop it, and the countless other self-improvement techniques that have added immeasurably to my life – and to the tens of thousands of readers of their books.

The Wait is Over: Answers to A Rock 'n' Roll Quiz for the Music Geek Who Thinks (S)He Knows It All

Posted by Maria Gagliano

I know you've all been scratching your head in wonder over yesterday's quiz. Here are the answers. How did you do??

My Little Pony Character or Progressive Rock Band?

Numbers 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, and 25 are ponies and unicorns and such from the various My Little Pony cartoon series, toy lines, movies, and books.

Numbers 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, and 26 are terrible bands your older brother adores.

 

Ancient Civilization or Doo-Wop Group?

 Numbers 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, and 21 have come to kill your men and take your women.

Numbers 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 have come to snap their fingers and make your women swoon.

 

Pop Metal Musician or Fictional Vampire?

 1. Whitfield Crane was the lead singer of UglyKid Joe.

2. Barnabas Collins was the principal vampire on the cult soap opera Dark Shadows.

3. Edward Cullen is the dreamy, sparkly vampire from the Twilight books.

4. Sebastian Bach fronted Skid Row, Damnocracy, and, of course, Hep Alien.

5. Eric Martin was the lead singer of Mr. Big.

6. William Pratt was the birth name of Spike, from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.

7. William Rose was the given name of Axl Rose, of Guns N’ Roses.

 

Christian Pop Group or Norwegian Death Metal Band?

Numbers 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22: Praise Jesus!

Numbers 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21: Hail Satan!

 

Little Girl Object of Fancy, or Little Girl Object of Fancy That Is Also the Title of a Mariah Carey Album?

Mariah Carey has released Rainbow, Charmbracelet, Butterfly, Daydream, and Glitter. She has not yet released albums titled Unicorn, Princess, or Sparkles. 

 

 I Love Rock 'n' Roll (Except When I Hate It) is available now.

A Rock 'n' Roll Quiz for the Music Geek Who Thinks (S)He Knows It All

Posted by Maria Gagliano

When I don’t have my nose in a book, you can usually find me with headphones in my ears. Growing up, I was that kid who wore a different band t-shirt to school every day of the week. I developed crushes on boys based solely on the music they listened to (and God forbid we owned the same band t-shirt, or wore it on the same day—I’d immediately start the wedding plans). Some of my best friendships were sparked by the realization that the other person and I loved the same offbeat (i.e., embarrassing) bands.

In other words, I like music. A lot. So when I got the chance to sign up Brian Boone’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Except When I Hate It), the teenager in me wouldn’t stop squealing. It’s a hilarious pop reference book with some serious personality. The subtitle says it all: Extremely Important Stuff About the Songs and Bands You Love, Hate, Love to Have, and Hate to Love. Even if you’re a self-proclaimed music trivia geek, I guarantee that Brian will stump and/or surprise you with nuggets of wisdom about the bands you love—and hate. And he’ll keep you rolling with laughter along the way.

Today I’m sharing one of Brian’s most hilarious entries: A music quiz with a twist. Here it goes:

 

In this game of EITHER/OR, guess which is which! And please, no cheating—you’ll get the answers tomorrow.

 

CHARACTER FROM THE MY LITTLE PONY UNIVERSE OR PROGRESSIVE ROCK BAND? 

1. Galaxy

2. Utopia

3. Mullmuzzler

4. North Star

5. Pallas

6. Ribbon

7. Beachcomber

8. Gryphon

9. Echolyn

10. Steamer

11. Sundance

12. Marillion

13. Hawkwind

14. Reeka

15. Watchtower

16. Isis

17. Draggle

18. Fizzy

19. Sky

20. Paradise

21. Rhapsody

22. Masquerade

23. Platypus

24. Mimic

25. Posey

26. Starcastle

 

ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OR DOO-WOP GROUP?

1. The Mongols

2. The Paragons

3. The Del-Vikings

4. The Phoenicians

5. The Dravidians

6. The Dells

7. The Toltecs

8. The Marcels

9. The Scythians

10. The Imperials

11. The Visigoths

12. The Carthaginians

13. The Castelles

14. The Larks

15. The Hittites

16. The Skyliners

17. The Sumerians

18. The Cleftones

19. The Assyrians

20. The Crests

21. The Kushites

22. The Coasters

 

POP-METAL MUSICIAN OR FICTIONAL VAMPIRE?

1. Whitfield Crane

2. Barnabas Collins

3. Edward Cullen

4. Sebastian Bach

5. Eric Martin

6. William Pratt

7. William Rose

 

CHRISTIAN BAND OR SCANDINAVIAN BLACK METAL BAND?

1. Living Sacrifice

2. Eternal Oath

3. Day of Fire

4. Theory in Practice

5. Immortal

6. Nathanael’s Creed

7. Underoath

8. The Crown

9. Eucharist

10. Dyscyple

11. Old Man’s Child

12. Anointed

13. Shining

14. Embraced

15. Seventh Day Slumber

16. Ever Stays Red

17. Dispatched

18. As I Lay Dying

19. At the Gates

20. Leviticus

21. Skyfi re

22. Wrench

 

LITTLE GIRL OBJECT OF FANCY OR LITTLE GIRL OBJECT OF FANCY THAT IS ALSO THE TITLE OF A MARIAH CAREY ALBUM?

1. Rainbow

2. Unicorn

3. Charmbracelet

4. Princess

5. Butterfly

6. Daydream

7. Sparkles

8. Glitter

 

    I Love Rock 'n' Roll (Except When I Hate It) is available now.