I thought about asking a friend to do it - after all, I couldn't really phone journalists

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A I thought about asking a friend to do it - after all, I
E
couldn't really phone journalists and say 'Hi, I'm
Preethi Nair, and I have a fantastic book you must read
. it's by Preethi Nair!" But it was a lot to ask of a
friend. Then suddenly I got the idea of doing the job
myself. l'd have to change my name, and be much
more confident and pushy than my usual shy persona,
There was a pause in which I could have retracted
what l'd said. But I didn't. l'd always seen handing in
my notice as the hardest step. I had this naïve notion
that the rest would follow effortlessly, because l'd
taken a leap of faith. But it wasn't quite as simple as
...
that.
So I told two close friends about my secret. I needed
them to stand in for me as directors of my publishing
and PR company at the event I planned to launch the
book. It was a great success, and when people asked
for my publicist, they were told that she had gone
but it could work.
F
I didn't tell anyone quite how much I stood to lose,
though, because l didn't want friends or family saying
it was a crazy idea. Instead, I told everyone l'd found
B
some freelance work, and did some research into how
down with 'flu.
publishing really worked.
To prevent this happening again, I planned out
everything a confident extrovert would say, took a deep
breath and started again. After about 20 phone calls
got into my stride - chatting to media people as
though I'd known them for years - and learnt to be
unfazed by rejection.
G
C Nobody said anything and I was relieved. But after all
her hard work, I realised that my publicist should get
some recognition. Thanking her, however, would only
have drawn attention to the fact that my pushy
publicist was actually me- she was my alter-ego.
So somehow I made it through even the trickiest
situations. And having secured a reasonable amount of
press coverage, I thought the rest would be easier.
Then the first boxes of books arrived from the printers,
all with page 179 missing. With the press waiting for
review copies, I had to spend days and nights gluing
the pages in myself.