Ghosts in the Machines

I'm writing from a blog workshop I signed up for. It seemed appropriate. I have another post on marketing drafted, for Marian who thought they were interesting. Speaking of marketing, I have a test on it this afternoon. I actually studied for a change. It still doesn't mean I'll get a decent grade but as long as I pass, I'll be happy. I do have a massive headache but I think that might be from all the sugar I had yesterday, I don't react well to it. It feels like a bad hangovers.

So, as previously mentionned, I've been doing work experience on mondays. This week was my second time. The first week, I proofread some publicity sheets (basically a paper with the titles of books coming up to get people all excited about them), worked out some discounts on order forms and then...was asked to print and photocopy. There must be some sort of AI in charge of the machines at VF. I was working on a mac that froze and refused to save my files and when it did, it changed the name. The printer refused to print half the time and the photocopier... We ended up printing out 145 BAD copies of work I had updated but had not saved correctly. I was soooo embarassed. I also accidentally printed out 14 copies of something instead of 4. I might have killed a couple of forests.

This week though, work went beautifully all day. The mac was more cooperative although it froze a couple of times anyway (was it testing me? teasing me?). I did more publicity sheets and review requests. I did this for both the important series. I learnt that the distributor (ours is Marston something) gets a letter requesting them to send out free review copies. We include the letters to the reviewers and labels (and occasionally flyers) but the distributors send them with the book. On the more expensive series, we only sent out a small amount of free copies (totally 500£) and send letters and flyers to people who might be interested in reviewing and can contact us for copies.

I had everything I needed, the prints were perfect, I had all the signatures I needed and then...photocopying. The paper jammed and the woman who had to sign everything was gone. I panicked a little then manually smoothed the paper and phtocopied them again. The copies came out perfect. I had beat the machine! Then, I sent everything out to where it belonged with no guidance whatsoever. I'm so proud of myself. I didn't make any mistakes (I think). In fact, my bosses are somewhat impressed with my tech skills (I don't know how they got that idea).

I have to say it's very satisfying to be working on things that are actually needed and will go somewhere. Those pesky order forms from last week were all folded (by hand, by me) into flyers that were sent the next day to the US to a conference where most people will probably just toss them into the trash without a second thought. But hey, I may have sold a couple of books.

I mentionned to one of my bosses I was very interested in women's studies and women's history. She's decided we're going to come up with a project for me on it. She asked me to research it online whenever she's busy and I'm between tasks. Yes, I got myself more work. Also, I've asked for extra work experience for study week next week. I'll be working with the Bod on the Electronic Enlightenment project which is something of a partnership with VF. It sounds very interesting.