A day in the life of :01 Senior Editor Calista Brill

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Monday, March 4, 2013

 

7:30am – Arrive at the Flatiron. No, I don’t usually get into work at 7:30, but it’s awesome to do it every week or two because it gives you chance to bang out a bunch of emails before people start replying to them and requiring you to write still more emails.

7:32am – Wander into a TV shoot while seeking breakfast potatoes. Eisenberg’s seems to have been taken over by whatever they’re filming; oddly, none of the boom mic operators will give me breakfast potatoes. They suggest I leave. I find inferior potatoes at the deli next door.

7:45 – In the office, eating breakfast, checking email, etc. I have a giant picture of a tiny squid on my computer, it makes me happy. Meet Sepiola Atlantica.

8-8:45 – Go through last week’s notes, sorting out to-do list, checking off small items. Lots of emails. Today I’m also checking on what standard trade paperback trim sizes are, for Gene Leun Yang’s latest book. He’s working with Sonny Liew on this one and it’s amazing.

8:45 – :01 Editorial Director Mark Siegel arrives, and we compare notes on a bunch of things. He’s catching up on his reading, I’m falling behind. It’s always something.

8:45-9:00 – Research comics-friendly podcasts for REASONS.

9:00 – Really wishing I’d gotten fresh OJ with my breakfast. Listening to Elvis Costello.

9:02 – “New Amsterdam” comes on and I get sort of verklempt.

9:02-9:10 – Respond to emails from students who have written recently inquiring about internships.

9:10-9:20 – Look out the window to the film shoot I wandered into earlier. They’re filming Spider Man out there! That’s what I walked into on my blind search for breakfast, evidently? You will note the car hanging upside down over the street, dangling from that crane.

9:20-9:30 – Email, email, email.

9:30-9:45 – Looking out the window at the Spider Man shoot across the street. Seems like they might be planning on dropping the car suspended from a crane onto a cab parked on the sidewalk outside Eisenberg’s.

I really hope this is the case.

9:45-10:15 – Read industry blogs. Briefly sidetracked by the new Elfquest T-shirts, which are splendid. Very much want at least five of them.

10:15-11:00 – Compile sales numbers for our last year’s releases and sending out the report to our publisher, marketing and publicity departments, and etc. Great sales on Hades!

11:00-11:05 – Look out the window in the hopes that they’re dropping that car onto the cab. Not yet.

11:05-11:10 – Stare at computer in blank confusion, wondering which of the umpteen things on to-do-list I should do now. I keep my to-do-list on my computer as a text file. It is alarmingly long.

11:10-11:15 – Count the number of items on to-do-list. There are exactly 75. So umpteen=75.

11:15-11:25 – Write an email introducing an awesome new project to the participants of our Senior Editorial Meeting – we’ll discuss this project soon and hopefully I’ll be able to bring it to an acquisitions meeting next week.

11:30-12:00 – Meeting with Colleen to discuss the cover design and tag line for Danica Novgorodoff’s new book.

12:00-12:05 – Check in on the dangling car. Still dangling!

12:05-12:10 – Get very briefly involved in a Facebook dispute about whether feminists are by definition man-hating female supremacists. (Spoiler alert: I disagree with this assessment of feminism!)

ABORT ABORT ABORT. Get off of Facebook.

12:10-12:40 – Email email email.

12:40 – Meet with another designer to discuss another book cover. Exciting times in the life of Calista Brill! (Not joking)

12:40-12:45 – Reading industry blogs

12:45-1pm – Talk with Mark about our Spring 2014 season. It’s going to be amazing!

1:00-1:40 – Walk outside to grab a burrito for lunch, and stop by the shoot on the way back – they dropped the car and I MISSED IT!

1:40-2:00 – Eating burrito at my desk and read… you guessed it… industry blogs.

2:00 -3:20 – Weekly First second Staff Meeting in the conference room

3:20-4pm – Delightful phone call with Joe Flood, the talented artist on MK Reed and Greg Means’ CUTE GIRL NETWORK.

4pm-4:45 – Attend a scheduling meeting to discuss our Spring 2014 list. Some pretty exciting stuff here!

4:45 – 5:10 – Discuss cover designs with Colleen some more and watch a Vegan Black Metal Chef video on youtube – it’s totally work related. What? It is!

5:10-5:20 – Talk about Battling Boy pub plan with Mark.

5:20-5:45 – Secret Battling Boy stuff that I can’t talk about! Sorry!

5:45-6:00 – Run across the street for a snack. Duane Reade, ILU.

6:05-7:15 – Email, email, email, and a conversation with Gina Gagliano about two amazing books coming out this Winter and Spring – Templar, and Jerusalem.

You will note there are one or two other amazing books coming out this Winter and Spring. And this isn’t even all of them!

7:15 – Out to dinner with pals! Good night!