I thought about asking a friend to do it - after all, I couldn't really phone journalists----- Nội dung dịch tự động từ ảnh ----- 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. |