Publishing

Proofreader #1: Is this a word?
Proofreader #2: No.
Proofreader #1: Then what is it?

140 East 45th Street
New York, New York

Designer: I just don’t trust anything that doesn’t come out of a cow!

Newspaper
Melbourne
Australia

Proofreader: I have a totally exciting life . . . I think it’s why I eat so much candy.

140 East 45th Street
New York, New York

Editor to writer: Do you want to talk about your cover story submission?
Writer: Not really.
Editor: Well, there are a couple of techniques we could use to improve it.
Writer: Is one of them leaving it the hell alone?

Augusta, Georgia

Reporter #1: So, I was interviewing her about what she was going to do next, and she said she hoped she’d just get, you know, a Joe Blow job.
Reporter #2: You’re not going to put that in the story, are you?
Reporter #3: Where can I find this Joe?

149 Penn Avenue
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Overheard by: I just work here

Guy #1: I really want to find this book that I read in high school… It was called, like, Brave New World or something.
Guy #2: Um, no, you’re thinking of ‘I Can Show You the World.’
Guy #1: Oh! … Wait, no, that’s that song from Aladdin.
Guy #2: Oh, yeah… So what section would it be in?
Guy #1: I don’t know, Fiction? No, wait — Non-fiction!

Barnes and Noble
Savannah, Georgia

Overheard by: Leia

Publisher rep: This guy did a study on blind men who use prostitutes.
Book buyer: Ok.
Publisher rep, whispering: For sex.

308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, California

Editor, on phone with reader: Sir, the phrase “Stick a sock in it” is pretty common. It’s a common phrase.
[Pause.]Editor: It’s no one’s sock, sir. It’s not a threat.
[Pause.]Editor: Well, I disagree. I think it is a pretty common phrase and I think everyone understood what I meant.
[Pause.]Editor: No, sir, it’s not my sock. It’s nobody’s sock.

Walnut Street
Green Bay, Wisconsin

Editor: I want a story about a person.
Intern: What kind?
Editor: Oh, I don’t know. But it could be a lollipop man, who straps a rocket to the back of his lollipop, and now flies to New York in five seconds.

Edinburgh
Scotland

Proofreader: Joe*, I’m confused.
Typesetter: Are you? That’s perfectly normal.

140 East 45th Street
New York, New York