Whenever I enter into a new experience I always find myself slightly dazed, my head full of (already half-forgotten) names, tasks, to-do lists, and mostly remembered directions to the kitchen. My first real day (not including my training day with the wonderful Chloe Park), was on an author day with Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller.
Honestly, I could not have asked for a better first day. First off I learned that I probably never want to do another all day meeting, but by doing so I got to see each of the elements of BK at work. To preface, I just finished the NYU Summer Publishing Institute, a six week crash course on the world of publishing.
So getting to see all the different departments interact with authors was like studying some foreign country for years and years and suddenly finding yourself in the midst of it. Having come from the distinctly east-coast world of publishing it was interesting to see how a smaller, independent publisher worked on a day-to-day level.
During that day-long meeting I learned a lot from the authors themselves. It is easy to see why both Blanchard and Miller have found such success in the book and business world. Miller especially struck me as someone who knows how to distill an idea to it’s simplest and easiest to understand form. He called himself a, “chicken salesmen”, simplifying his real job (VP of Training and Development for Chick-Fil-A) to what, essentially, he really does. In Blanchard, I saw someone who knew how to engage an audience, and in basic terms, tell a really damn good story.
That first day alone taught me a lot about Berrett-Koehler and how publishing works on a real world level. Although not every day will be as exciting, just being able to review manuscripts and read proposals is something new and engaging for me.
