I was feeling overwhelmed last week, and started to steadily work through my outstanding piles of work.
One of the jobs I did was send out a book proposal on Friday. I already knew the publisher was interested in the topic because we had discussed it, and others, a few weeks ago. But they’d asked for two book proposals in follow-up to the Cadbury book, and I was still researching one of them.
So last week, I sent the first of the two new book proposals off, and I sent a copy of the cover letter and the proposal via email. (Yes, I sent the actual proposal via snail mail as there were … other things in the package.)
Lovely-already-boss, who is my “handler” at the publisher, responded straight away to say that his also-lovely-boss, the decision maker in this case, was out of the office, but that hopefully I’d hear from him when he was back.
Those packages (they each received a copy) would have arrived on Monday of this week.
On Tuesday of this week, I had quite a surprise. The Daily Mail published a great black-and-white photo-spread on my book, The History of Cadbury, online. The Daily Mail Online (MailOnline) apparently has a circulation of more than 11 million.
That’s a lot of noughts! (11,000,000!)
Now, I admit, it’s not the first newspaper I turn to in the morning, but it’s great publicity, great exposure, and great promotion. To say I was chuffed is putting it mildly. I was over the moon. You can see the feature, in all its glory, here.
The very next day, amid a congratulatory email from lovely-already-boss’s also-lovely-boss, I also received a “yes” on the book proposal!
Now, I don’t know if the Daily Mail article had anything to do with it, but it certainly seems possible. How weird that I chose to send my book proposal off (which is a sort-of sequel to the original history book) only days before the Daily Mail decided to run their story.
What do you think?
I think it’s ace, and I’m still wandering around with a silly grin on my face, looking out for the arrival of the contract!
