dorling kindersley books

Fortunately, someone gave me the latest Elmore Leonard novel for Christmas, so the now obligatory delayed train journey to work is fairly painless.

Base One: Richard submits the first 3 chapters, we're off to a running start. He presumably hasn't had much sleep over the holiday. Not only has he rustled up 30,000 words, but Wyman's attachments have file times like 5.29 AM. Richard's e-mail replies are rarely more than 60 minutes later.

We have to get the cover sorted. UK Publishing are adamant they don't want their guys out on the street without the Real Thing. Because of the way the big retail chains in the States operate, with 9-month lead times to book your shelf space, the Stateside operation is going to have to begin their sell-in with the typographic cover. Here in the more sedate Anglo-Saxon-Celtic shires, we need the Real Thing to jerk them out of their complacency.

Another round of phone calls. Geography could be a problem. Richard is based on the Anglo-Scottish Borders. He really doesn't need another trip to London to discuss this, or anything else. He needs to write. The team is in Central London. Wyman is on Senior Rock Star Planet, but fortunately Richard has a unique interstellar connexion . Miraculously, BT and e-mail do the trick. We establish a Nexus of communication. OK, we've got a team, and we've established how to talk to each other.

Any ideas?