I’m currently on the 12th floor of the Hotel Roger Williams, enjoying the fact that all the towels, soaps and bathrobes have my name on them! And I can’t help but laugh when the desk staff say welcome back to the Roger, Roger. NYC was 72 degrees and sunny when Claire (our Publishing Director) and I arrived, and 59 and hailing big lumps of ice by the time I went to bed!
I’m in New York to present the new Autumn 2011 list to our Macmillan sales team in the US, meet some of our customers and to talk about our plans for our Priddy Books 10th Anniversary next year. The US is an important market for us, accounting for about 60% of our total books sold.
The Macmillan offices are in the iconic Flatiron Building in Manhattan, so-called because of its triangular shape. It’s over 100 years old and was one of the tallest buildings in the world when built. I was also told that it has little or no foundations, just a lot of heavy stone keeping it up. Looking down 20 flights of stairs in the stairwell makes me feel ill every time!
