Astera Breaks Her Silence!
Did you miss me, dear readers? It's been a full six months since my last blog post, and I'm sure all 12 of you are simply dying to know what's been going on in my life. Quite a lot, actually, which is why my blog posting has fallen by the wayside.
Let's start with the good news, shall we? I now have a literary agent! Yay! Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that my book will be published, but it does move me one very important step closer to that goal. Most publishing houses will not review unagented material, so having an agent helps get me in the door. And, at the writers' conference I attended back in February, one editor was interested in seeing my manuscript once I found an agent, so maybe she will fall in love with it and buy it. Here's hoping...
So, I've accomplished one half of one of my New Year's resolutions for 2009. The year is only half over, but I feel like I should have made more progress on my resolutions by now. Resolutions #2 and #3 (put my promotional plan for said novel into place and sell film rights to the novel) hinge on the second part of resolution #1 (find a publisher for the novel). I was doing really well on resolution #4 until a pinched nerve and severe muscle spasms forced me to give up my martial arts training for a while. Luckily, I am now on the mend.
But now for some bad news. Mr. Pink was laid off from his job in April, and my hours at my job were cut in half last week. So, our financial situation is grim and it looks like resolution #5 (pay off credit card debt--for good this time!) is going to have to take a backseat to paying our essential bills, like rent. We are cutting back as best we can, but at this point, our main goal is to not increase our debt at all.
In other bad news, it turns out that the job I liked so much after I started in December is not quite as good as it seemed to be. (Nothing ever is, is it? Sigh.) My boss is, to quote a friend, "completely batshit crazy." We're a small marketing and advertising agency, but we have no clients, and my boss refuses to make decisions that would enable us to get more clients. Oh, we did have one client, but that all went sideways and now the client is refusing to pay his rather substantial bill. Anyway, if you were running a business and were considering hiring a marketing and advertising agency, would you hire one with no website? No portfolio of sample work? No marketing collateral? Business cards with out-of-date contact information? Well, I am shocked! Whyever not?
My boss seems to fixate on things like how spreadsheets should be formatted and what font we should use in our company emails and whether or not his personal assistant needs to de-lint his chair, but we've been working on our "key positioning points" since I started, and he's no closer to finalizing them than he was six months ago. Now, if it were me, I wouldn't have started a business without already knowing how to differentiate my service from my competitors, but that's just me. So, now we can't write web copy or a sales glossy or any other collateral until he nails down the positioning points. Our sales rep is completely frustrated, because when he does make contact with potential clients, they ask for additional information about our company, and he has nothing to give them. And although my boss keeps insisting that we are a "top tier" marketing and advertising agency, it doesn't really strike me as "top tier" to hand out business cards with our old phone number and address crossed out and our new information written in.
Although my reduction in hours at work comes with a reduction in pay, it does at least give me the opportunity to focus on finding new freelance clients and on helping Mr. Pink brainstorm on how best to start his new business. And, I'll be able to blog more frequently! So all is not lost, but we are a bit adrift.
What's new with you? How are you surviving the recession? More crazy boss stories and book publishing updates coming soon!
Let's start with the good news, shall we? I now have a literary agent! Yay! Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that my book will be published, but it does move me one very important step closer to that goal. Most publishing houses will not review unagented material, so having an agent helps get me in the door. And, at the writers' conference I attended back in February, one editor was interested in seeing my manuscript once I found an agent, so maybe she will fall in love with it and buy it. Here's hoping...
So, I've accomplished one half of one of my New Year's resolutions for 2009. The year is only half over, but I feel like I should have made more progress on my resolutions by now. Resolutions #2 and #3 (put my promotional plan for said novel into place and sell film rights to the novel) hinge on the second part of resolution #1 (find a publisher for the novel). I was doing really well on resolution #4 until a pinched nerve and severe muscle spasms forced me to give up my martial arts training for a while. Luckily, I am now on the mend.
But now for some bad news. Mr. Pink was laid off from his job in April, and my hours at my job were cut in half last week. So, our financial situation is grim and it looks like resolution #5 (pay off credit card debt--for good this time!) is going to have to take a backseat to paying our essential bills, like rent. We are cutting back as best we can, but at this point, our main goal is to not increase our debt at all.
In other bad news, it turns out that the job I liked so much after I started in December is not quite as good as it seemed to be. (Nothing ever is, is it? Sigh.) My boss is, to quote a friend, "completely batshit crazy." We're a small marketing and advertising agency, but we have no clients, and my boss refuses to make decisions that would enable us to get more clients. Oh, we did have one client, but that all went sideways and now the client is refusing to pay his rather substantial bill. Anyway, if you were running a business and were considering hiring a marketing and advertising agency, would you hire one with no website? No portfolio of sample work? No marketing collateral? Business cards with out-of-date contact information? Well, I am shocked! Whyever not?
My boss seems to fixate on things like how spreadsheets should be formatted and what font we should use in our company emails and whether or not his personal assistant needs to de-lint his chair, but we've been working on our "key positioning points" since I started, and he's no closer to finalizing them than he was six months ago. Now, if it were me, I wouldn't have started a business without already knowing how to differentiate my service from my competitors, but that's just me. So, now we can't write web copy or a sales glossy or any other collateral until he nails down the positioning points. Our sales rep is completely frustrated, because when he does make contact with potential clients, they ask for additional information about our company, and he has nothing to give them. And although my boss keeps insisting that we are a "top tier" marketing and advertising agency, it doesn't really strike me as "top tier" to hand out business cards with our old phone number and address crossed out and our new information written in.
Although my reduction in hours at work comes with a reduction in pay, it does at least give me the opportunity to focus on finding new freelance clients and on helping Mr. Pink brainstorm on how best to start his new business. And, I'll be able to blog more frequently! So all is not lost, but we are a bit adrift.
What's new with you? How are you surviving the recession? More crazy boss stories and book publishing updates coming soon!
posted by Astera @ 3:52 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:40 PM,
Anonymous said…
Glad you're back! Just wanted to let you know that you DO have readers out there. :-)
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