Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

PENDING AND PRESENDING
March 31, 2007

Eventually I will learn about this business. A few nights ago I started writing a story about Zaid Abdul-Aziz here in the store. I got it to a point where it had to be parked; I would resume in the morning. I put it in the category here called 'pending,' which I assumed was akin to saving a draft in email. When I came in the evening, it was there. I mussed and fussed, trimmed much of what I'd warbled on about, and had a second act, namely the meeting of Zaid (back another day to collect his funds) and Sherman Alexie, who was in signing stock. After finishing it and putting it then in 'live,' which I would take to mean it's good to go, I decided to look at the PW website and see if the new post would be there. If not, I'd check back, curious as to how long it takes.

Alas, there was the 'draft' version ... there online. Twenty-four hours later, I look to see if that has been superceded by the revised version. Of that, the latter, there is nary a trace. Come Monday, I'll have to call for help, as if that might be enough.

Meanwhile, I am taking note of it being the last day of March. Much seems of the season: just when you think it's cool (and cloudy) outside, it's surprisingly warm. Just when you think it's warm enough for some basking (sun!), you're surprised by the chill in the air. It's the weekend of the men's and women's basketball final fours, and it's the weekend just before baseball begins. Yes, it's the end of March, the advent of April.

Except, what has been going on these recent weeks? Daylight savings time came weeks early. Earlier than ever, the processes for proposing autumn author events have been launched. A few publishers put out 'sneak preview' version-emails of people we might want to do proposals for. A few now have landed their whole excel-spreadsheet grids upon us, with promises of catalogues to be on hand any moment. Others have got those fall catalogues our way, already (thank you, Ten Speed). I remember when at most, you might get whiffs of some fall titles around now, had little hope of seeing anything before early May. If it was an early ABA or BEA, that would be when you saw what anyone had coming. Publishers say all the earliness is driven by the chains. Perhaps. I suspect many are trying to figure out their numbers, play out where things will go, in part to see if they need to rake more up into the year at year's end to make numbers.Last year, just about anything of import had landed by November 1 (save for Mr. Pynchon and, possibly, Ms. Allende).

Of course, if everything was on this early keel and evenly so, it would be one thing. What makes things wacky if not downright schizzy at times is that on one hand a publisher is feeding/mining information months before a book is a public reality, and at the same time, is forgetting or mishandling various detailed matters right at the last moment. Books shipped for a signing show up damaged. The books themselves have some fatal binding flaw. 

One part has its supposed act together eons ahead, the other isn't sure what the act is.(We aren't immune, have our share of moments or incidents like this ... it's rather infectious.)

At the retail end, it's also perplexing to see how varied different publishers are about this all, too. One friendly house rep came by the other day, dropping some galleys off, having some xeroxed pages of the eventual catalogue to peruse. His publisher is a ways from having sales conference. And, though he has a fair amount of ground to cover in his territory, that's all done, he is at home, reading, going a bit stir-crazy. I'm sure he has some email to deal with but nothing of the volume that others do (and so often pass along...). He seemed to be having a downright laconic time of it. He might have offered up for a leisurely lunch were it not that he had his dog along to take for a walk. That's kind of an old school feeling. Going the other way, there's the rep vaulting off now for sales conference, sending a many-paged attachment of add-on titles to do. Some of the deadlines for these orders seem safely later than I would be seeing her, but the urge is, please, just go ahead and do it. There's no time for effort to actually sell the titles to us. One feels sympathy for reps who are trying in these trying situations - like wanting to help bus tables in a restaurant that's swamped and understaffed, the waiters zooming around trying to do everything madly.

Simon & Schuster, at least right now, with the adult list, seems to be trying to do the whole west coast with two reps. That means the one that's up here and the one in L.A. do all they do in these respective rooks, sometimes disappear from our sight for one-week stints at gift shows (gift shows?) and split the Bay Area. The whole Bay Area covered like that? That almost sounds like an April Fool's joke. On the other hand, perhaps it's good, this year, that April Fool's is on a Sunday, lest some wit start sending word of what a winter/spring 2008 list might be. Not yet, please.

Posted by Rick Simonson on March 31, 2007 | Comments (0)