An executive once called me from Amazon. She was coming to New York and wanted to set up a meeting at the end of August.
I gently explained to her that I wouldn’t be around in late August–and neither would anyone else. That is a dead time in publishing, although I prefer to think of it as a renewal time.
It’s important to know the rhythms of the world in which you are working. Amazon is in Seattle. Maybe August is different for them. On the east coast, it’s pretty much acknowledged that “after Labor Day” is a given. It’s like the end of December. Not a great time to set things up.
January-April is a solid block of working time. But then people start to go on vacations, which can slow things down. Summer is possible, but there are more vacations. It takes a week or two after Labor Day for everyone to be back in gear, and then it’s in full gear until Thanksgiving. By mid-December, it’s time to wait until after the 1st.
I naively thought everyone knew this. But apparently the Amazon executive did not, so I’m just spelling it out. To everything there is a season.
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