Slight improvement

On Tuesday I had a nervous feeling until the day was over, worried that I would be set another new task which wasn't explained to me properly. Fortunately, day 4 went better.

I started off by inviting around 30 English-language publishers to the London Book Fair to meet with the Director. It took about an hour and a half to do this as firstly I had to fit them all into half-hour slots over 3 days however no one country could meet with her in consecutive appointments (i.e. if there was an American publisher, the next meeting could only be Australian, Canadian or from New Zealand). This took a bit of time but felt rather like doing a jigsaw puzzle. I had been sent an invitation template so then I sent off individual e-mails checking whether they were available on that day at that time. After doing this, I had to update the spreadsheet with the times I had suggested, as 2 other colleagues also arrange appointments; one for Francophone countries and the other for Scandanavian countries. At some point, I'll also be asked to do the German ones and someone else will invite the Asian contacts. It's a big job!

I then started on the next chapter of the book, again comparing the copyedited version with the rewritten version, and compiled an e-mail back to who I assume must be the author (maybe she's writing under a pen name?) whilst also including the Art Director's notes on the chapter. There seemed to be quite a few points missing and I am not sure whether I am overlooking something or whether those parts of the text hadn't been sent.

I was worried I was getting behind a bit in my work so I worked through my lunch break, only stopping for 15 mins to eat something (the interns have an hour lunch break).

I was asked to scan in, file, and send copies of new contracts to Indonesia. Unfortunately it's a laborious process to scan double-sided documents as you have to scan in each page individually, send them to a server, save them from the server in separate documents, then merge them in Acrobat!

Then I had to run a couple of errands, firstly to buy some teabags and secondly to go to the post office with a parcel for Turkey and then onto Rymans to buy some collapsable crates. These are for the FCs (finished copies) as the new office in Soho is apparently a lot smaller, so we cannot display as many books. Therefore, only one will be kept in the office the Director will store the rest in her flat.

I went through my notes on the chapter with the Director who seemed happy with them, then sent off a long email cutting and pasting the relevant points and parts of the text to the author (?).*

Because of the post office errand, I left the office late at 5.50pm (instead of 5.30pm). I'm happy to work late occasionally to get the work done and also to show some dedication but I hope that they don't expect it every day!

I feel like I got a lot of work done today so I left the office happier even though I had to rush to the centre of London otherwise I'd be late for a class which started at 6.30pm!

*I shall have to ask this at some point!