Wednesday, May 28, 2008

This and That


I'm back in the office this week after following a tornado out of Iowa on Sunday. Fun ride. I hope your holiday weekend was as memorable as mine.

Rumors
A couple rumors have reached my ears. Have you heard any of these?

Heartsong Presents contracts are going back to all "work for hire."
Not true. HP contracts did start out that way back in 1993, but as publishing them evolved, we saw the need to go to royalty based contracts. Contracts are royalty for both Heartsong Presents romances and mysteries. That will not change. We'll continue to share royalties with authors on all HP sales.

Barbour's full-length fiction line isn't interested in historical settings.
So not true. The majority of fiction I put in this line has been historical. Historicals are a personal favorite of mine. I sometimes I have to remind myself to look for good contemporaries to add to the line. So no fear of Barbour losing interest in historicals any time soon. I'm most interested in 1800s settings. I'm not likely to do a biblical setting or anything occurring after WWII.

Are there any other rumors I need to debunk?

Office Changes
As of next week, JoAnne and Susan will no longer keep an office in-house at Barbour. They are moving their work spaces to their homes. Thanks to wonders of modern technology, they can be well linked to our office network and function the same as our in-house employees. Since they live fairly close to the office, though, we can still have them come in a couple times each month for meetings and the like. If you phone them or mail them something at Barbour, there will be some delay in them getting your message, so your best contact is through email.

Something to Smile About
For those of you who often get frustrated with how to promote your books in today's fast-changing culture, check out this video. Through a series of clicking around the Web, I found this link here. I've said some of these things as an editor and have heard many from authors. Enjoy!


7 comments:

Debby Mayne said...

I'm glad you made it back safely, Becky!

Good for JoAnne and Susan being able to work from home! With gas prices as high as they are, this makes sense. I don't think anyone outside your office will even notice the difference, which is a good thing.

LOL on the video! Thanks for sharing.

Pam Hillman said...

Very happy for Susan and JoAnne.

Uh, do you think you could put a bug in my boss's ear and he'd let me work from home? I've got his phone number.... lol

Video: too funny...okay, too REAL!

Marcia Gruver said...

Hysterical video! Hits far too close to home.

Hey, I did learn a few things and get some ideas. Oh, except for Twitter. Wasn’t he just a little bird who tawt he saw a puddy tat? :)

Erica Vetsch said...

Wow, shows you how far out of the loop I am. I hadn't heard either of those rumors.

Yay for working at home. And Kudos to Barbour for letting these girls have home offices.

Glad you got home safely.

Janet Spaeth said...

Loved the video!

First off, Rumor Control must be working fine in this part of the world (I'd say "neck of the woods," but who'm I kidding? Like we have woods!). I haven't heard any of those rumors!

I think that's great that JoAnne and Susan can work from home--not having to drive to and from work will help them save the cost of gas, it'll also help the earth. I'm all for that!

And while you're calling Pam's boss, Becky, would you give mine a jingle, too?

Good to hear you & your mom got home safely--some horribly stormy weather going around!

Janet Spaeth said...

I forgot to ask, Becky: What'll happen with your exercise group with JoAnne and Susan not there?

Or--um, was that a bad question?

Mary Connealy said...

I think of all the people who work behind a computer and am really amazed more aren't allowed to work from home.
My daughter doesn't drive that far but she received phone calls and fulfills orders from clients I think nearly 100% fulfilled though her computer. Why oh why can't she work from home?
The savings aren't just for the commuting employee either.

Think of the office space they could NOT build, NOT heat, NOT air condition? They'd save enough to provide every employee with whatever computer and internet connection they needed.