The Newses

There are good news-es and bad news-es.

First with the bad news. I lost my job at Warren County Community Services as a Home Health Aid. What happened was entirely my fault and was a massive (and painful) learning experience that doesn't bear repeating.

In retrospect, I stayed with them for far longer than I should have. I wasn't happy with the job but I got complacent and comfortable. It was easier to just breeze through a day where I knew what I was getting into than to try to look for something new and unexpected. I'm not a big fan of new and unexpected. I'm an old hat kind of guy, surprises aren't welcome, especially not if they're of the "new hat" variety. So this is what it took to get me out of there.

Now for the good news.

I have a new job. My job responsibilities are as follows - read books, tell people what's wrong with the books, have junior editors fix those problems. Thus far I like it much better than cleaning toilets on a daily basis.

Here's the rundown. I am the Main Editor of Punkin House Press, a very new start-up company whose mission statement is to be a publishing house that is author friendly. We'll work with just about anyone to make their work printable and then... we'll print them. Since my boss is very concerned with being eco-friendly, printing means releasing the book in digital form for the blossoming e-book market. This is not to say that there won't be physical copies, however, because there will be those too. Still, the major push is digital distribution.

I'm not getting paid yet. Since we're just starting up, all pay will be commission based. Which means we have to have sold something for me to get paid, and right now we're just working on making some material printable by mid-February. As head Editor I make about ten percent of all sales... for the rest of my life. I get a percentage of a sold book whenever it sells, forever. Which is kinda neat. Just not all that lucrative yet.

Also, the whole eco-friendly boss bit means that I will do all this from home. No traveling means no emissions and such. Also another big plus.

For now, I'm still trying to find a job that will pay me regular hours for a day of labor. Plus, I still have my application to grad school out there (which they received on time!). But I'm hopeful. Oh so hopeful that this will work out. It's been a fun ride thus far.

-Nathan

P.S. - I have peons. I am somebody's boss. Scary, eh?