August 11, 2006
Got back from vacation today. It was fabulous. Weather was great and I spent a lot of time on the beach and kayaking and playing horse shoes and taking walks. The weather was iffy on Thursday so we went over to Traverse City and ate at Mabels and visited the Cherry Republic store and visited the sand dunes and the weather there was sunny and 80, but cloudy and 72 back at Higgins Lake. I spent entirely too much time communicating with a variety of editors and/or publishing folk who just couldn't live without me for 4 or 5 days and especially the pain-in-the-butt details of transferring my website domain, etc. Youngest son barfed in the car on the way home (Skittles), but otherwise...

Well, reality bites, you know? And I get home and check my cell phone and there's a message from my book review editor to call right away. Yep. I thought maybe this shoe was going to drop. The Oakland Press has a new executive editor and he told them that he only wanted book reviews if they have a local tie-in--by an Oakland County author or they're touring in the county. This essentially puts me out of a job.

Although I'm not exactly happy about this, neither am I particularly surprised. I've always felt that this particular gig hung on a thread, that the book page only existed because of my editor and her boss's desire to have that book page, and that if they retired or, uh, a new editor came in, it stood a good chance of getting pitched. Because, sadly enough, review space in newspapers and elsewhere are shrinking (and you've heard it here first, haven't you? Of course not.). My editor was practically in tears. I was more glum and...

Look, book reviews made up maybe 12% of my income last year and this year probably about 7%. But sometimes it can be a chore. There are books you want to read and you just can't get to them because they don't meet the editorial calendar, or whatever. I'm not happy about the money, although I'll continue to write features for the OP, which pay nearly double and take up less time anyway, so it's likely the money won't change overall.

This is a freelancer's life. They were one of my two least-paying clients and I ditched the other one officially at the end of this year. You roll with the punches. There are pluses to this kind of change in many ways. Now I can pretty much read what I want and going to a bookstore might be fun again. I'll miss the free books, sure, but I'm buried in them at the moment and there are a dozen or so on my shelf I want to read for fun anyway...

Just, this wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear before I even unpacked my bag.

On the bright side, I got 10 more news article assignments from one of my regular clients and some much-needed data came in for the biz report I'm working on, and we should have the new website going live very, very soon...

Now, how come nobody sent me any checks while I was out of town?

Sigh. The writer's life for sure.

Best,
Mark Terry