800-CEO-READ Blog

New York Publishers Part 1

Hi Folks,

I made it back.

Looks like I got out just in time.

To decompress from a NYC visit always takes almost as much time as it took during the visit.

A quick recap. I had fifteen appointments during the four days and talked with over 30 publishing types.

The weather was spectacular. I’ll post more specific posts later but for a first pass...I stayed at a REALLY nice hotel, the W in Union Square. I love the Union Square area with the farmers markets and the great park.

An aside, my first morning I had some time to kill before my first appointment and went to the park to read the paper. Most of the benches were full but one was available. I am a lazy traveler and generally pack two suits and some white shirts. I am wearing a dark suit so I make sure the bench is clean before I sat down. As I sat there feeling really good about everything, I watch a squirrel unzip a zipper on a sleeping guy's bag and take an apple. Anyway, this nice lady in a park services uniform comes up to me and says “Sir, you should move because this is the poop bench.” Sure enough, moments after I left a pigeon made a deposit on the bench.

I can tell you that the pipeline of new books looks good. HarperBusiness is repackaging Drucker and bringing out this season a “Daily Drucker” which looks cool. More later.