No more the "coffee editor"

Friday afternoon, we finish our lunch, and go for our afternoon post-lunch walk. It’s drizzling, and J tells me there were fishes in the puddles. For a moment, I wanted to believe what she said, and I bent down to look for them. Of course, there was none. Somebody said the new coffee machine had been installed in the pantry. I gave myself one more chance to believe. J and I ran upstairs to the pantry, all excited about the new coffee machine. It made me feel nostalgic about my childhood, the way my brothers and I would get all excited and run about the house, every time a new gadget, a toaster, or a washing machine, T.V., or a tape recorder would be bought. Today was such a day. The pantry was bustling with people and activity. Someone said there were five kinds of tea, three kinds of coffee, badam milk, soup and even hot chocolate. Naturally, I did not know which to choose. Then Y suggested, I should start with one, and then try out the rest, as she bantered—“The office is not running away, the pantry is not running away, the machine, once installed, would not run away. The only factor not constant is you, who can be fired, for taking so much time deciding!” I think, I half believed her, and quickly made my choice. I chose cappuccino, and it did taste like real coffee. As I came out of the pantry, I realized that my tenure as the “coffee editor” (as Angshuman had designated me since I would get four cups of coffee for myself and my friends every day after lunch) had finally come to an end!

School NSM

With everything else that's going on, today was the only day that I was able to spend with the school team, at their NSM in Goa.

Goa is beautiful in the rains, lush green and overgrown. But the real joy was seeing the positive energy that exists throughout the school team. There is genuine communication, and a sense of shared mission between Sales and Editorial, and there is no fear of negative feedback, when it is presented constructively.

The quality of presentation from the sales teams, the editorial teams and authors was exceptional. And it seemed like there were prizes being given to people and teams right through the day, which maintained that strong positive energy.

Well done everyone. I know that this team will be successful. If not, it will certainly not be for lack of effort or passion.

Soumitri has promised to share her experiences later in the month, so you will get to see another perspective on the NSM from mine.

I got to dance with Rajni for 30 seconds, so that made my evening!

Oh, and one of the team has a dream of a school book in the form of a graphic novel, which I think could be wonderful. Any of the managing editors ready to give this a chance?
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A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India -Book launch coverage

Dear All,

 

 “A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India”:  From the Stone Age to the 12th Century by Upinder Singh was successfully launched last night at Diwan –i-am,

Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi. The launch was attended by eminent guest like Montek Singh Aluwalia, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Shiv Shankar Menon and Pakistan High Commissioner.  

 

Dr. Manmohan Singh, his wife Gursharan and family members sat on the front row as Ms. Upinder said it was a “real learning experience” as she developed the book which provides the vast historical expanse from the stone to the 12th Century”.  A large number of foreign dignitaries, academicians, scholars and media (print & electronic) were also present on the occasion.

 

Attached are the media articles published in Times of India, Hindu and Indian Express. I have pasted links of various articles which appeared on various newspapers and websites. 

 

http://www.mailtoday.in/682008/epaperhome.aspx

 

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080806/nation.htm

 

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/india.aspx

 

http://www.twocircles.net/2008aug05/pm_finds_time_daughters_trek_ancient_history.html

 

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/PM-the-father-Shes-so-confident/345133/

 

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14734602

 

http://us.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=//news/2008/aug/05ndeal5.htm

 

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20080805/804/tnl-lot-of-hurdles-to-cross-for-implemen.html

 

http://www.aol.in/news-story/pm-finds-time-for-daughters-trek-into-ancient-history/2008080521189012000022/index.html

 

 

This would certainly get favorable results in terms of sale.

 

Happy reading and selling!

 

Regards,

 

Babita Chauhan

 

 

Macroeconomics -Book launch

Dear All,

 

It’s a pleasure to inform that Macroeconomics was successfully launched at the India International Centre Annexe, on 2 August’2008.

 

The book was released by the Chief Guest Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India and the other speakers were Dr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, Advisory to the Finance Minister and Professor Partha Sen, Delhi School of Economics.  Errol D’Souza Macroeconomics was overall praised by all the guests, professors and especially by C. Rangarajan, and other speakers. The event was covered by DD News and few business dailies.

 

Attached are the photographs of book launch.

 

Regards,

 

 

Babita Chauhan

 

 

 

 

Low Price Editions

Yesterday, during Upinder Singh’s speech, she mentioned how she was scared to deal with Pearson, because she didn’t want to write a book which would say LOW PRICE EDITION on it. I could see from the audience reaction that this rang true with them.  I am so glad that we are getting rid of those words from our covers, they have long outlived their usefulness.

 

We have a responsibility to provide books that are appropriately priced to the market, but we need to stand for quality, not for low price.

Its all of you are leading the change at Pearson, and the sooner we are respected for the quality of our content and our presentation, rather than our price, the better we will all be.

 

Vivek

Another book launch

Two successful events in the space of a few days. The launch of Upinder Singh's book was a standing room only event.
The hall was elegantly set up, with two screens on which images from the book were projected. Posters of photographs from the book were mounted on easels, and were arranged on the periphery of the room.

The author spoke beautifully, and the audience was all praise for the book.
Pearson came in for serious praise.
Well done Debjani, Jai and everyone who worked so hard on the book and the event. It is certainly a proud day for all of us.

I would love to hear from any of you who were in the hall tonight. Remember you just need to send an email to manav.y2j.pearsonindia@blogger.com and your words will be online. Instant publishing. Whatever that means.

The rest of this week is a whirl for me. I am at the airport waiting for a flight to Bombay and an early morning connection to Goa. I spend 24 hours with our school team, and then head to Bhubaneshwar where I have been invited to address a convention of tour operators on customer management. If all goes well, I am home by Friday night.

I normally hate spending time in hotel rooms, even though that is such a large part of my life. This time, I won't have any time to think about it, as practically every night I am on conference calls with the US. There is so much being planned for this country, I wish it would happen so that I could share it all with you.


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About this blog

This blog is for all employees of Pearson in India . We hope to share updates - both personal and professional - from the worlds of education and publishing.