Almost Done

It's 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, last day of the conference. I give my paper in 3 hours. This has been a very strange Kalamazoo for me -- my fifth, but it seems like more. But none has been quite like this:

~~Only one person from my grad school cohort is here, and I only ran into him by utter happenstance at the book display.

~~I haven't really had a chance to browse the book display much at all.

~~My undergraduate mentor was giving a paper here, and she never travels, and especially not to Kalamazoo.

--By the end of three days at the conference, I will have visited two panesl besides my own.

~~For the first time, I skipped both the Pseudo-Society and the dance. This is not like me.

All this busy-ness because I was pitching the book. I met with three publishers: Publisher X, a scholarly non-UP who has been very interested for a long time; and publishers Y & Z, who are two of the best university presses in the particular type of work I do. I kind of figured that X would want to see the whole MS, but Y & Z were longshots -- things that I had to try, just so I'd know.

So, here's the report:

Editor X had read the proposal & chapter, seemed interested, but told me that he had to take it to the editorial board to see if they thought it would work. An hour later, I ran into an editorial board member who I knew from my grad school days, and he told me unofficially that I'd be getting an invitation.

Editor Y had read the proposal, talked to me for almost an hour, and seemed very interested. Said that he'd be reading the chapter, and if it matched up with the impression he'd gotten from our talk, he'd contact me (by the end of the month) to send the whole thing.

Editor Z had told me before the conference that he wouldn't have time to look over my materials before the conference, but that I should just stop by and say hello. So I did, at their reception -- where he surprised me by telling me that he had read it, and that I should make an appointment to talk with him. Which I did the next day. Where he asked to see the whole MS as soon as it was ready.

So, like I said: a weird Kalamazoo, but a successful one.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to prepare for my paper presentation.