Dealing with Diane Nine has been a wonderful experience for us.
So far we've published Chicken Noodle News by John Baker, an early VP of CNN. (A homrous history of the early days of CNN), pulitzer prize winner William Beechers book The Acorn Dossier, we're printing the second book in emmy award winning newsreporter Paula Tutman Deadline series, among others.
Diane does have a sence of humor and can be pretty casual in her communications. I find that a plus. She's been wonderfully supportive of us in this our early stages of growth.
As for manuscripts. You can imagine the number she recieves. Sometimes looking at a presentation is what you need to make a decesion. Is this somebody I want to work with. You phyically can't read eevery page of every submission. Trust me I've tried that. Once I've gone forward enough to see if the project is something I'm interested in, I do a phone interview. That 30 minutes tells me a lot. We have 3 projects several years away that we're actively working with the authors on the rewrites based on that interview.
I have enough confidence in her, if she says I should take a second look at a project, I do.
She really seems to get it.