Seiko

The author of the leading Computer Science textbook glided up in his new Mercedes-Benz, followed by a van containing free Polo or Dress Shirts emblazoned with his book's title. He told me he'd sold about 20 million copies and got rich, rich, rich. He was surrounded by lovely coeds and grad students begging him to allow them to assist in the next edition. He asked the conference guys if he could speak for 5 minutes to the assembled troops -- and said "I've asked the hotel to give the rubber chicken and squeaky green bean dinner to the poor, and I've personally bought 500 filet mignons and baked potatoes for y'all." Do you think they selected his book the next year?

As managing editor and an author of a leading Automotive Technology textbook, I rented from Budget, ate at McDonalds, and wore my own (company-issued) shirt. So I was glad to eat his tax-deductible / bribe / steak.

A decade later I was managing editor of a math curriculum publisher producing hundreds of millions of pounds of elementary math materials which help youngsters get an appreciation for (not fear of) arithmetic, geometry, algebra, etc. etc. For almost a decade I ruled over seven years (K-6), English and Spanish, school year and remedial summer school, 10,000 problems per year, 400 concepts to teach, 50 states to pacify, yada yada. 

Luckily I was trained in an earlier generation of editoria independence and integrity where we didn't take advertising, we didn't inject opinions into the work if we could help it, and we had to earn our customers, every year, every product. We put our heads down and got the job done on time or didn't get paid. Whether we liked it or not. Good training, I think.

Cheers,

Cazalea