I have a clear memory of the day that Covid-19 became a reality to me. My daughter, Matilda, was five months old, and Katie Espiner, MD of Orion, had just told me two things: that Hachette were planning to trial a full company work from home day, and that Italian book sales had dropped dramatically during their lockdown. The reality hit suddenly home. Bookshops would have to close; people were panic buying pasta, not paperbacks. Continue reading at 'The Bookseller'
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 18:59:04 UTC ]
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I have a clear memory of the day that Covid-19 became a reality to me. My daughter, Matilda, was five months old, and Katie Espiner, MD of Orion, had just told me two things: that Hachette were planning to trial a full company work from home day, and that Italian book sales had dropped... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 18:59:04 UTC ]
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In terms of technology, we were lucky to be well set up for remote working: our company had already made sure we were equipped with the things we needed to work from home, so when it was announced that the office was closing, I was able to carry on and keep things moving. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-31 12:07:37 UTC ]
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I work in comms and my whole work life (and my actual life come to think of it!) is based on the premise that I will always be around people and I’m constantly planning events and parties and book tours… so when all of that very suddenly got put on hold, it was much harder for me to wrap my head... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-19 00:18:04 UTC ]
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The weekend before the government announced the lockdown I was due to go to Bristol to visit a friend, and a few days earlier we’d been notified at the office that we would be working from home for the next few weeks (of course little did we know, five months later we still would be!). I... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-13 19:28:24 UTC ]
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I usually don’t travel back to my hometown in Lancashire unless it's to visit family and friends - and that isn’t often, as I regularly catch up with them on their visits to London. In March 2020, however - after five days in my new role as marketing executive at Icon Books - I left the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-06 17:57:58 UTC ]
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Some people are surprised when I say I didn’t find lockdown that bad. I had some practise (although less restrictive of course) when I stayed home for three weeks in January, reading the nominations for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Prize. I saw no friends, I did no socialising and only went... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-02 13:29:48 UTC ]
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It happened so suddenly. One moment I was at work, bleaching everything in sight, using extra splashes of Dettol - that infamous Caribbean Aunty staple with a distinct smell that will instantly take a first generation immigrant child back to memories of early Saturday morning cleaning sessions -... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-31 00:39:09 UTC ]
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I was in the Soho Theatre last May, watching comedian Rob Auton perform ‘The Talk Show’. He told a great joke. It’s hard working from home, he said, when “the only solid work colleagues are the table legs.” Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-20 23:03:54 UTC ]
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This spring/summer was meant to look very different (a statement that could be applied to literally any person on the planet, I know, but bear with me just so I can give context). After 10+ years working my way up through the arts, and a particularly big year at Cheltenham last year delivering... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-06 22:10:05 UTC ]
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Boilers are the masters of timing – they know the exact moment to inflict maximum disruption. Mine decided to call time on Monday 23 March 2020 a day that saw the biggest highs and lows of my entrepreneurial life. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-02 19:02:34 UTC ]
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Survival mode; that’s how lockdown began for me, coming, as it did, off the back of two close family tragedies - the loss of both of my sisters in February and March respectively. “If only,” one family gag went, “we can get through April without anybody kicking the bucket we’ll be okay.” Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-29 19:53:35 UTC ]
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I have always had an interesting relationship with books as a result of my dyslexia. As a child I hated reading and it was not until I was fifteen that I started to enjoy it. I decided I wanted to work in publishing, which felt like a pipe dream for several years. So, when I got my job at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-24 06:28:10 UTC ]
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It may come as a surprise, but when I heard about the lockdown, the anxiety that the world seemed to be feeling did not grip me. I never felt worried or confined by the limitations placed on us. For introvert like me, it felt like a long weekend with the same cycle of activities consisting of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 05:58:38 UTC ]
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Invisibility is part and parcel of being a ghostwriter. But somehow I’ve felt it more acutely during lockdown. In normal times, on publication of a book I’ve ghosted, there’s the launch party to which I am invited as ‘part’ of the publishing team, or a place around the table at the celebratory... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-14 18:28:32 UTC ]
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It was Sunday 22nd March when I emailed Carrie, my literary agent, telling her I’d had an idea in the bath and although it felt far-fetched, I wanted to explore it and could she please call me on Monday for a quick chat. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-12 11:19:54 UTC ]
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At some point or another most apprentices will have suffered from an inferiority complex. Caught in a no man’s land between employed and yet not fully employed, we occupy a precarious position. So when the coronavirus pandemic hit home, quite literally, you can imagine how that voice which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 23:02:05 UTC ]
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If you’d asked me how I was coping a month ago, the truth would have been not so well actually. I let the anxiety that so many of us have been feeling overwhelm me, and I was tired of all the Zoom. SO TIRED. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-03 17:53:34 UTC ]
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Agents are often described as friends and therapists as well as a tough negotiators. The former really came into its own when COVID-19 hit. We work solely for our clients; we are the somewhat invisible middlemen (or women) whose role it is to put our authors’ needs first. But a global pandemic... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-28 12:50:32 UTC ]
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I was in Paris when Covid-19 became a reality. It was the weekend of 21st February and I was there for a quick family reunion: my older brother was in the French capital on a work trip, my parents had taken a train from our hometown of Turin, Italy, and I had joined them from London on the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-26 17:57:13 UTC ]
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I was in Paris when Covid-19 became a reality. It was the weekend of 21st February and I was there for a quick family reunion: my older brother was in the French capital on a work trip, my parents had taken a train from our hometown of Turin, Italy, and I had joined them from London on the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-26 04:20:12 UTC ]
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