Inside Palladium Books

[AlexM]

Working for Palladium is dynamic and each day seems to hold its own surprises. I'll speak only about my own experiences.

The first thing to realize is that I live in what I call "Palladium Time" where weeks can pass like days and months like weeks. I'm usually tracking down information that Kevin needs for upcoming projects, announced and unannounced. I'm also keeping track of news related to the RPG industry and pop culture in general. Relevant developments don't occur on any sort of schedule. Other news comes in from time to time from sources other than the internet. It's unpredictable.

The recent theft at Palladium meant a certain number of distractions could occur at any time of the day (calls from the police, etc.). This affected everyone. But we are moving on and continuing with planned books. Oh yeah, I have to edit text when it's available, for books, ads and press releases.

Watching the message boards and my own email is important, and from time to time I'm contacted by someone who needs a lengthy response or who needs to be passed on to our agent in New York.

Meetings are held from time to time as needed. Nothing formal. Updates, news, follow ups on different things, new ideas and suggestions are brought up.

Someone once told me I didn't have a job but a lifestyle. A lot of my work life is integrated into my day to day life. While I have to read things for a living, I also read for recreation. And while there are parts of the internet I scan daily, there are other parts I visit as part of a few hobbies of mine, notablty history.

But if anything, Palladium is a team effort, and somewhat like a coach, Kevin keeps me focused and "on target" as he likes to say. It's not a job where you put in your 8 hours and go home. I can only plan my day up to a point, the rest involves dealing with things as they come up. For example, I got a call the other day from a new writer planning on submitting to The Rifter. He said he was sorry to bother me but he had some questions and I helped him out. Basically, everyone like this who calls gets the time I can give them to have these types of questions answered.

If a problem comes up, big or small, and I'm the only one available to solve it, since everyone else is already too busy handling their own work, I take care of that too. Things do get scheduled and prioritized but other things can happen during the day that eat away minutes or hours. And before I know it, it's 5 o'clock.

As we approach a deadline, it's usually me, Kevin and Wayne putting in the long hours until it gets done. And it's always great to be in the warehouse the day a new book arrives and enjoying holding the finished product.

So working here is unpredictable. We could get a phone call from an electronic game company, for example, that puts things on hold for a little while as we discuss the possibilities. It's happened before.

Working at Palladium Books is like working in this creative think tank where the imagination and the possibilities are always percolating. And after dicussion and consideration, and reconsideration, end up developing into this board, for example. To quote Einstein: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." but knowledge does help.



Alex Marciniszyn