A tricky one really as each day has its own flavor, and depending on who is around will dictate the pace of the day. This is just really a snapshot as well I may do another and you will get to see the contrast. Today is a day when I am here in the studio alone. For well over twenty years I have been an artist and I run BVS from my art studio. To start I thought it would be useful to give you an idea of how we work. I have just recently doubled the office space so my assistant Marian has her own work station. I have two part-time assistants Chris and Amanda who help with production and promotion. We also have a proofreader and a few folks that help us out and thank goodness for them.
My day typically starts at about 7.30, and coffee at my desk. I look at e-mail and check to see what is happening on Facebook and Twitter, then back to deal with the e-mail. We get 200+ e-mails a day, so it is something we have to keep on top of. There are typically 6, 7 books in production at any time, though in the production folder at the moment there is 15; it has been busy over Christmas and we have a new anthology coming in production. One of the reasons for the backlog, is we have been recovering our old books and neatening them up before release. By about 11.30 am I am about ready for a second coffee and a look at in production and pre-production scripts. I have a couple I am working on scripts which I am looking to contract but which need a tweak here or there. So it is working with the writers to get their scripts a little more polished. At about 1.30 pm I will have a look at covers we have three books about ready for release and we need covers for them, this two means working with the author to get them covers they will be happy with. Some publishing houses present the covers as a fait accompli, but I favor a team approach if the author is unhappy with the cover they will feel less comfortable promoting. There are commercial issues to, the readers want a cover that reflects the spirit of the book. So my job with the cover is to work until we are all happy with the cover.
I normally break for lunch at 3 pm and take a break from the screen for an hour or so but I am back at my desk by about 4.30 at the latest, the rest of the afternoon is catching up with e-mails and I still chat to my friend and previous owner of BVS, Laurie Sanders, we still chat as we did when I worked for her as her cover artist and as one of her writers, she is a great editor and has a wealth of information about the publishing world. 5.30 pm, most days I break from the office and cook the family meal. I have been a professional cook and I love to cook. I am back at my desk by 7 pm and work through till 9.30 most days, the work in the evening depends on what the company needs. I like to drop promotional time into the day to break things up a bit, but I do promote in the evenings. I also use evenings to read submitted scripts. When I finish at the desk I usually take an hour or so to plan for the next day’s work.
Each day is kind of full! Each day is different. I work 6 days a week, but even on the day off I usually put in some time, roughly 80-100 hours a week. I know I sound a bit of a workaholic, but it doesn’t feel like that to me, actually, it doesn’t feel like work, (please don’t tell the authors!), I love what I do and it is a privilege to work with such creative people.