What a day. I struggled up at 7am this morning…
What a day.
I struggled up at 7am this morning. The weather was cold, grey, and drizzly. I took a cab to the office, which was empty. Of course my computer isn’t connected to the office printer, so I hunted around until I found a computer that was, and proceeded to print out my book proposals and one copy of the manuscript, which is about 300 pages with 1.5 spacing. I also called up my boss and gave a vague story about something having happened somewhere which needed some action having something to do with someone like me. She seemed to buy it. Once I figure out how to work my voicemail I might find out differently, but until then at least I can claim ignorance.
I couldn’t find a briefcase so I borrowed a bookbag from one of my co-workers (the guy I bought lottery tickets for last time, actually, so he owes me even though he didn’t win) and went over to the New York, New York Shopping Center to meet Dean, who was going to attend the expo under the guise of “reporting” it for his masters at the Ministry of Truth.
We walked over to the expo hall and traded name cards for passes. Dean’s book was displayed prominently at one of the booths, and I translated a little bubble on the cover that claimed that he had certain crime-fighting skills that he does not, in fact, have. Then we just wandered around until we got seperated and my phone decided to die.
Most of the publishers at the expo are targeting Chinese books, and the ones that aren’t are targeting children’s books or textbooks. There were precious few publisher interested in my book, and I have no idea whether it’s at all likely that there are any buyers in the handful who have expressed interest so far. I’ll go in tomorrow, but I will have to work on Thursday and Friday. One guy, a Chinese-Hawaiian named Frank, gave a convincing Bobcat Goldwaith impersonation. Gavin and Jerome came over for lunch at the new Chili’s, and later on I saw Max, who was interviewing Dan Bloom. At least I guess he was. He seemed to be perplexed by Dan’s strategy of hawking his book by placing several copies on a traditional basket and barking bad Taiwanese phrases at passersby.
It was interesting, at least more interesting than a normal day at work, although my feet are rather more sore. Perhaps something interesting will happen tomorrow. If not, well, I tried, and there are other venues for publication besides the expo. At the very least the book is heavy enough to hit potential publishers over the head with, so it’s not like I can’t do anything with it.
