Helen Simonson's Blog: Is the first novel the hardest? - Posts Tagged "random-house"

So it was only a little picture of the book cover, but nothing says '15 minutes of fame' like a mention in People magazine. What fun! I was also the lucky recipient of a glowing review from the Washington Post and will be appearing on NPR. I was not expecting such a wonderful response to Major Pettigrew and so had not scheduled quite enough free time to do all the work involved. Much gratitude is due to my wonderful agent and editor, and all the people at Random House who are working like crazy, getting the word out about my novel. Plus you should see how hard they're working in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, which all shared the same publication date. Most of all, I'm so thrilled with the comments from readers - some of you must have stayed up all night to get the book read so fast. Many, many thanks.