Can You Help w/ Information About Publishers In ATL? (Atlanta: apartment, rent)

[Milla_M]

I was not sure if the stickied questionnaire was specifically for people looking for places to live in Atlanta, GA that suit their personalities / needs or for all new posters; please ignore that part if it isn't useful.

1. Budget -- depends on employment, see below.

2. House/Condo/Townhome? -- OK with renting or renting to own; OK with sharing rent for 6 months -year with compatible person; don't need fancy amenities like tennis courts or pools or club houses; do need storage space and do want off-street or gated / covered parking, ultimate goal within a year or two is to buy a small home / duplex, am already looking at various neighborhoods; am willing to find a place near my workplace if possible. I like lots of trees but am otherwise almost completely indifferent to yards, as I tend to be very busy and a bit of a night owl (no time to muck around in the dirt), so no fancy landscaping around my home is required.

3. Employment Status (commute/work from home) -- I am looking for work in publishing (specifically book publishing if possible: research / editing / proofreading / writing / technical writing / reviewing / layout / fact checking / media acquisitions). Have extensive office-related background, also medical librarian / researcher, literary magazine editor, newsletter editor, personal organizer, fine art, etc. job experience. "Working from home" requires having work to DO from home, but I would be very open to that if my employer wanted it.

4. Children (public school vs. private) -- n/a; do usually have 1 or 2 very small, furry exotic indoor (caged) pets (rabbits, ferrets, chinchillas...always a limit of two of same species, neutered) and also eventually want to adopt an indoor cat

5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle preference or a mix of the two -- access to Ponce de Leon / EAV / Lake Claire / L5P / Midtown and at least one interstate preferred. Strongly dislike HOAs / suburbs and long commutes to work. Have lived in EAV (car & house repeatedly preyed upon), Lake Claire (loved it), Decatur near Lullwater / Ponce / Emory (fantastic), Clarkston (mixed bag). Most of my friends are intown, NW ATL (OTP) or slightly east of Decatur / Stone Mountain area.

6. Easy access to public transit, important or not? -- I always have my own car, so access is not important; in fact, being far away from MARTA stations (and associated noise) but still ITP is fine by me

7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood -- I don't care about colour / gender / sexual preference of neighbors if they don't care about mine TBQH; just want an active neighborhood watch (everyone wants a safe neighborhood, I'm no different) and to have mostly gainfully / legally employed late-20s-to-early 30s-and-older neighbors. Older neighbors are fine, frankly. I tend to keep to myself and to be tidy & very quiet 99% of the time (only approx. 3-6 social events / party events held at my home, probably indoors, a year or fewer, and I attempt to contact my next-door and nearby neighbors to alert and invite and ask what to do about parking so no one is inconvenienced).


Details:
I am trying to return to ATL after leaving to get my MA (Interactive Design; I have BAs in Fine Art & English) and to help with family issues / elder care for ~5 years. I have some family up there and dozens of friends and places I like to go, and I miss it. Unfortunately, I am trying to shift career tracks and have no contacts in publishing or related fields. Most of my skills (and past work experience) are directly related to several positions within the publishing field, but I have never had a job that paid me specifically to do those things the majority of the time, and would like to find one.

If anyone has any information on publishing (book, magazine, periodical, medical, textbook, etc.) companies in ATL that I could contact for an informational interview, I would be grateful. I've found a lot of music publishing companies (not applicable) and small (1-2 person) desktop publishing companies, but that is about it.

Barring any information about that, if anyone is familiar with legitimate temp / temp-to-perm employment agencies which would be willing to work with me to help me set up a position so I will have some additional income while I locate an apartment / home and move back to ATL, I would be grateful. Each time I have used a temp agency in the past, I have gotten job offers from the companies I temped for, but none were publishing companies.

I'm a good worker, prefer not to "job hop" (once employed, I like to stay at the same place for years), don't have unreasonable salary demands, and have great references, but trying to arrange employment before returning to ATL has been a series of trials and tribulations, to be sure.

Nutshell:
Any advice / web links / phone numbers that might help me contact someone familiar with the publishing biz in ATL? I'd be grateful.