Paksworld

Today I went to the publisher’s office–the Random House/Bertelsman offices–in Manhattan.   It strikes humility in the heart of the writer to see the display of all the other titles–well, a very large selection of the titles–that Random House has published over its history.   The ground floor display is amazing and wonderful.

Upstairs, I was introduced to the people who turn my manuscripts into books: editing, production, art, marketing, and publicity.   I had wanted to meet them and let them know how much I appreciated their efforts on my other books as well as this one.  I don’t know that they want their names used here, so I’ll just say they were all cordial and I wished we’d had more time (they were working on lots of books, not just mine.)

I talked to the marketing & publicity people longest, to find out what else I could do (they like the website and blog, but still think having a Facebook account and a Twitter account might be useful) and whether they were planning any travel for me near the release date.   They aren’t, so I’m free to arrange whatever I want.

One very good thing–they’re going to help me set up some contests for you folks.    Not quite yet (I need to be home, do some planning, get some things printed…) but there are contests in our future.  Fun ones.   One reason I haven’t done that before is the difficulty of mailing prizes from our place (rural post office presently overloaded with new accounts but not additional staff.)

New York City is full of distractions, and I’ve been distracted by them–the Natural History Museum, friends and good food, the opera–but none of this affects the release of the new book and the second will be done in plenty of time.

Tomorrow I start back to Texas on the train, with a stopover in Chicago to visit friends.    Revisions are progressing well and the long train rides should allow even more work.