Benjamin Levitt (Fri)

Another confession to end the week: Fridays over the summers are half-days. (The other days are a little longer, but worth it.)

In keeping with this spirit, I’ll make this a short post, so we can all grab a drink and still beat the crowds to the subway.

I’ll be going through my notes from the last conference today and following up on all the conversations I had. This might just be thanking someone for their time, or it could be forwarding a formal proposal form, or checking the sales figures for someone’s old book. There’s much deciphering of my hurried handwriting and abbreviations, and then pledges to stop scrawling my notes in the margins of conference programs. (Did I really scribble “Topeka” next to someone’s name? Ah, no, more likely a reminder about their project on topological K-theory.)

I have a meeting with a production manager to discuss some issues with an eBook version of a title off my backlist and then a meeting with my assistant editor to talk about our plan for trying to resurrect some projects that have been in an extended state of limbo since before either of us joined the company. It would be more interesting, both for this post and for my life, if these strategies were along the lines of, “First, why don’t you try to track down this author at this conference in Italy, and, if you can’t manage to get a chapter or two from them, I’ll fly ahead to Singapore, where their student is giving a talk and work that angle.” But they’re more like, “When was the last time we heard from them? Ok, I’ll email first and then you can try.” Alas. One day, perhaps I’ll work with an author who hides out in an undersea fortress.

Friday’s are pretty light, evidently, especially in the late summer. It’s in between conference season and the start of the semester, when my European colleagues are replaced with automated out-of-office replies. I can catch up on the work from the spring and plan for the fall in relative peace.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts this week. I’ve had fun writing them.