I LOVE not working for anyone. I've just finished reading an exceptional submission (in one sitting. The greatest luxury in the world) which has as one of its many themes the problems of employers and the corporatisation of the world. In a corporation this post would be impossible, which is extraordinary because it is a very simple one. It's merely to mention that we have a few mini-sites which you might not be aware of and which you might enjoy. They are:

www.snowbooks.com/Fighting - a page that includes links to some extracts from the book.
www.snowbooks.com/papercut - the homepage to our gory movie trailer for The Death Artist
www.snowbooks.com/thecrafterscompanion - details about our gorgeous crafty book.

Now, if snowbooks was a corporate hierarchy, not only would the proposal for the development of these sites have had to go through a capex review, and been executed by a costly project management team (as opposed to being knocked up in a few hours by the self-same, uber-multi-talented people (including me, that means. So modest) who bought the titles, and edited them, and designed them, and market them), but I would have had to have been invited to post about them using marketingspeak. But seeing as we don't have to be on-message, or worry about what this post will do to our position within the corporate hierarchy (will Sales be cross at me for stepping on their toes? Did we get signoff from Ops?) I am free to post this from the comfort of my sofa without asking anyone's permission. I am also free to be honest, which you wouldn't think could be as much of a luxury as it is: so for god's sake don't download the papercut movie if you are squeamish; don't visit the Fighting website if you have no interest in martial arts and don't look at the crafting website if you don't like handicrafts.

See, that's common sense - don't read about something if you have no interest in it. But marketingspeak doesn't do common sense - plus as a lowly middle manager you get into trouble if you're seen as badmouthing the brand. Moreover, it's so much effort for marketing departments to think about people as individuals; so much easier to think of them as a mass body and it leads to bland, hyperbolic marketing messages: 'This book is perfect for everyone!' Which, we know, is rarely the case.

There's a lot to say on this subject, and even more to do. I might ask Rob (source of all wiseness) to write something on it... but in the meantime I have another submission to start on. Hooray for the rain, and warm cats, and cups of hot black tea, and the soft glow of the laptop...