On Being A Team Player

from Jacqueline

I've been in New York for the past few days, visiting my publisher. I changed publishers in the middle of last year, and it was time to go to New York to meet the team working on the launch of my next book, scheduled for release in early April. My, doesn't time fly? I still feel like such a new girl on the block, yet this will be my seventh book, and I'm already getting geared up to start #8.

I think one of the aspects of being an author that sometimes takes new writers by surprise is that, from the moment the manuscript leaves your hands, you go from being a solitary person of words to being a team player. And that's a big leap for a person used to their own company, who is then in partnership with an editor, and following that, at the heart of brainstorming about everything from how to engage the booksellers to whether posters will work and if there is a powerful enough hook to get the media interested. But it's part of the job, and it's an important one. Then of course there is the time spent on book tour, bringing you out of your cave again and into company - and we've all waxed lyrical about the trials and tribulations of book tours on this blog.

I consider myself fortunate to have worked in publishing, albeit many (many, many) years ago. Even then I only spent a year in general books before moving into academic publishing, which is a very different animal indeed. But I was in sales and then marketing, so even though time has marched on, I knew the process and what to expect when I published my first book - so I'm more than happy to be part of the team (though I sometimes go green about the gills when they talk about the book tour, and all I can see in my mind's eye are security lines and me trying to ram my bag into an already-full overhead bin on the next 'plane).

On the subject of travel, I'm off to London on Monday, visiting my parents for a couple of weeks. As they have aged, so these visits are becoming more frequent, and - without doubt - more emotionally loaded than before. I always try to book my next trip before I step on the 'plane for the current one, so that when I see my parents I can tell them exactly when I will see them again - it's a bit like throwing a line out into the future and pulling ourselves onto an island of time spent together.

That being said, I've asked James Grippando if he'll sub for me, so all being well, you'll be hearing from him for a couple of weeks.

Take care, all, and have a lovely weekend. Safe travels!