[Janice D. Soderling]

Thanks so much Katy. I recanted my remarks about Chris H-E yesterday when I found out I had (as per usual) leapt from a cliff without my wings. Now I will also put on my itchy hairshirt and wear it until after Easter Monday. I'll even buy the book. If I'd had it, maybe I wouldn't have had to ask stupid questions (though we've all had a good time on this thread, now haven't we.

That said, I wouldn't buy it though, not sight unseen, if it hadn't got this thread's high recommendations from those I trust (that's you, KEB), because by the description, I assumed it was one of those self-help books that further standardizes the writing trade.

This long and very, very informative post from you answers a lot of my questions, most importantly the one I originally asked "What is a publicist?"

I certainly don't begrudge anyone making money from their poetry, neither poet nor publisher. I hope everyone reading this buys some poetry books in 2011. I sometimes feel I am subsidizing the whole genre.

Thank you so much for replying and Happy Easter to you and abject apologies to Chris Hamilton-Emery.

I need a steaming hot cuppa, and a printout of this to re-read while imibing it and scratching.

PS. When I bought the Nagra book, NO ONE, not the clerks at the cash register or the people in the queue had heard of it or him. In fact I had trouble even finding the poetry section, it was the big bookstore on (I think) Princes Street though there were big signs hanging from the ceiling for CRIME and MYSTERY and other gory stuff I've censored out of my memory. Even the clerks I asked directions of looked puzzled. (I'm not joking now.) Poetry was upstairs of course, in a limited space. So much for Faber's big PR campaign.