The Publicity Department is responsible for getting early copies of books into the hands of the “talkers”: those people who will read a book in its early stages and then tell all their friends about how great it is. Our hope is that word of mouth will cause such excitement that people will be bursting at the seams wanting a copy of their very own as soon as books hit store shelves. When that happens, life is great.

The only teeny tiny downside of achieving this goal is that it involves making a bunch of cerlox-bound galleys. What’s that, you ask? Well, you print out a whole whack of manuscripts (double-sided my friends, let’s do our part to conserve paper). Then you punch each page with tiny holes and feed them through a plastic coil that holds it all together. Perhaps it’s just me, but it’s not much fun. Onwards, though, the job must be done!

I had to make 15 galleys of Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules. I started binding but found that the process was taking much longer than usual. Why? Because I couldn’t STOP READING! Finding the Words includes short stories about the writing process from the likes of Elizabeth Hay, Gord Downie, Marina Endicott, and Pasha Malla, among others. The book was edited by Walrus Magazine Managing Editor (and local scarf-wearing dandy) Jared Bland.

Every new page that fell open caught my interest and I found myself learning new things, laughing out loud, feeling inspired, and really connecting with the writers. Ultimately, I wasn’t hating cerlox-binding! And, to top it all off, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve now become one of those “talkers” for this book.

Oh, and did I mention that sales from this book benefit PEN Canada?

Finding the Words. Edited by Jared Bland. February 2011. Check it out, you know you wanna…