NPR Books Watch — 11/13-11/19

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week.  Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week: 30 (30 last week)

All Things Considered: 6 (8 LW)

Diane Rehm: 3 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 2 (3 LW)

Morning Edition: 3 (3 LW)

NPR.org: 4 (6 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 9 (3 LW)

Tell Me More: 1 (0  LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1 (2 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (1 LW)

All Things Considered	Nairobi to Shenzhen	Mark	Ndesandjo
All Things Considered	Twilight’ Craze Inspires Manuals For Toothy Teens
All Things Considered	Department of Mad Scientists, The	Michael	Belfiore
All Things Considered	When China Rules the World	Martin	Jacques
All Things Considered	Story Specialists: Doctors Who Write
All Things Considered	A Conservative Read On Palin’s ‘Going Rogue’
Diane Rehm	Fatal Strain, The	Alan	Sipress
Diane Rehm	Little Pink House, The*	Jeff	Benedict
Diane Rehm	Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies	Julie	Andrews
Fresh Air	Buyout of America, The	Josh	Kosman
Fresh Air	I Still Do	Judith	Fox
Morning Edition	Palin Begins Media Blitz For ‘Going Rogue’
Morning Edition	Reading Sarah Palin: Will She Run For President?
Morning Edition	Hundreds Wait In Mich. Cold To See Sarah Palin
NPR.org	Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers For Nov.12, 2009
NPR.org	Children’s Book, The	A.S.	Byatt
NPR.org	What We’re Reading, Nov. 17 – 23, 2009
NPR.org	Army Relents; Allows Limited Media At Palin Event
Talk of the Nation	Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species	Michael	Keller
Talk of the Nation	Step Out on Nothing	Byron	Pitts
Talk of the Nation	Luna Park	Kevin	Baker
Talk of the Nation	Last Words	George	Carlin
Talk of the Nation	Is Palin’s Going Rogue a Good Read?
Talk of the Nation	Dead Silence	Randy Wayne	White
Talk of the Nation	Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star	Matthew	Continetti
Talk of the Nation	Googled	Ken	Auletta
Talk of the Nation	Books That Will Help You Understand Afghanistan
Tell Me More	Let’s Get Free	Paul	Butler
Weekend Edition Saturday	Hard Work	Roy	Williams
Weekend Edition Sunday	Angel Time	Anne	Rice

NPR Books Watch — 11/6-11/12

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week.  Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week: 30 (29 last week)

All Things Considered: 8 (7 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (5 LW)

Fresh Air: 3 (4 LW)

Morning Edition: 3 (2 LW)

NPR.org: 6 (4 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 3 (3 LW)

Tell Me More: 0 (0 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2 (2 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (2 LW)

All Things Considered	Push	Sapphire
All Things Considered	Greatest Trade Ever, The	Gregory R.	Zuckerman
All Things Considered	Cowboys Full	James	McManus
All Things Considered	Men Who Stare at Goats, The	Jon	Ronson
All Things Considered	Good for the Jews	Debra	Sparks
All Things Considered	Red Book, The	C.G.	Jung
All Things Considered	Changing My Mind	Zadie	Smith
All Things Considered	American Original	Joan	Biskupic
Diane Rehm	Enemies of the People	Kati	Marton
Diane Rehm	Kids Are All Right, The	Diana	Welch
Diane Rehm	Defend the Realm	Christopher	Andrew
Diane Rehm	Children of Dust	Ali	Eteraz
Fresh Air	Tokyo Vice	Jake	Adelstein
Fresh Air	Department of Mad Scientists, The	Michael	Belfiore
Fresh Air	Open	Andre	Agassi
Morning Edition	Lacuna, The	Barbara	Kingsolver
Morning Edition	Tina Brown’s Must Reads
Morning Edition	Anonyponymous	John	Marciano
NPR.org	Invisible	Paul	Auster
NPR.org	War Damage	Elizabeth	Wilson
NPR.org	What We’re Reading
NPR.org	Paris Review Interviews I-IV, The	Philip	Gourevitch
NPR.org	Changing My Mind	Zadie	Smith
NPR.org	Going Rogue	Sarah	Palin
Talk of the Nation	World is Blue, The	Sylvia	Earle
Talk of the Nation	On Hallowed Ground	Robert	Poole
Talk of the Nation	Fly by Wire	William	Langewiesche
Weekend Edition Saturday	Predictioneer’s Game, The	Bruno	Bueno de Mesquita
Weekend Edition Saturday	Denialism	Michael	Specter
Weekend Edition Sunday	Blended Nation	Mike	Tauber

How to save time in book publicity

I’ve posted a lot about what drives me crazy (what can I say — I can be a complainer) but I thought it would also be useful to post about a couple life savers from these past few crazy weeks.

Microsoft Outlook’s Calendar Function

When interview requests for authors are flying fast and furious, it can get really tricky figuring out when an author is available and, once an interview has been confirmed, getting him / her the correct booking information.  Sometimes, this all must be done in a few hours, so anything that saves time and trouble — sending information directly to a calendar program, for example — can be more efficient than trading information in an email message or in Word, which subsequently must often be entered into a calendar program).

(Downside: I haven’t found a way to share an Outlook calendar I’ve created with colleagues — although I do know how to share my own Outlook calendar.  Anyone know how to do this?  Do tell.)

Google Docs

If you can’t / don’t want to use a calendar program and need to record the information in Word, Google Docs allows more than one publicist to access (and change) the document at one time.  This means you’re not left frantically trading email messages: “Let me know when you’re out of the schedule ASAP so I can change something!” 

(Downside: it’s harder to format text in Google Docs than in Word and it’s also a bit slower.)

***

I know we’re all busy in the fall.  What saves you time?

NPR Books Watch — 10/30-11/5

Check out the new NPR Books feature “What We’re Reading.”

***

 Here are the NPR interviews for the last week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week: 29 (30 last week)

All Things Considered: 7 (6 LW)

Diane Rehm: 5 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 4 (5  LW)

Morning Edition: 2 (2 LW)

NPR.org: 4 (8  LW)

Talk of the Nation: 3 (4 LW)

Tell Me More: 0 (0 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2 (0 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 2 (2 LW)

All Things Considered	Give My Poor Heart Ease	William	Ferris
All Things Considered	Ayn Rand and the World She Made	Anne	Heller
All Things Considered	Eating Animals	Jonathan Safran	Foer
All Things Considered	Momofuku	Dave	Chang
All Things Considered	Googled	Ken	Auletta
All Things Considered	When the Game was Ours	Larry	Byrd
All Things Considered	Flood Of Palin Books To Hit Shelves
Diane Rehm	Year of the Flood, The	Margaret	Atwood
Diane Rehm	Her Fearful Symmetry	Audrey	Niffeneger
Diane Rehm	Man of Constant Sorrow	Ralph	Stanley
Diane Rehm	Dracula is Dead	Jim	Rosapepe
Diane Rehm	Lacuna, The	Barbara	Kingsolver
Fresh Air	Googled	Ken	Auletta
Fresh Air	Lit	Mary	Karr
Fresh Air	Lacuna, The	Barbara	Kingsolver
Fresh Air	Audacity to Win, The	David	Plouffe
Morning Edition	Nigella Christmas	Nigella	Lawson
Morning Edition	My Paper Chase	Harold	Evans
NPR.org	Three Books … / Devilishly Good Books Terrify … And Delight
NPR.org	Superfreakonomics	Steven	Levitt
NPR.org	What We’re Reading
NPR.org	Becoming Americans	Ilan	Stavans
Talk of the Nation	Dinner with a Cannibal	Carol	Travis-Henikoff
Talk of the Nation	Book of Genesis Illustrated, The	R.	Crumb
Talk of the Nation	Obamanos!	Hendrik	Hertzberg
Weekend Edition Saturday	American Fantastic Tales	Peter	Straub
Weekend Edition Saturday	Momofuku	Dave	Chang
Weekend Edition Sunday	I Know How to Cook	Ginette	Mathiot
Weekend Edition Sunday	Moon River and Me	Andy	Williams

NPR Books Watch — 10/23-10/29

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week: 30 (31 last week)

All Things Considered: 6 (10 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 5 (5 LW)

Morning Edition: 2 (4 LW)

NPR.org: 8 (1 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 4 (3  LW)

Tell Me More: 0 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 0 (2 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 2 (1 LW)

NPR.org	Chronic City	Jonathan	Lethem
NPR.org	B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style	B.	Smith
All Things Considered	War That Killed Achilles	Caroline	Alexander
All Things Considered	All Cakes Considered	Melissa	Gray
All Things Considered	Museum of Innocence, The	Orhan	Pamuk
All Things Considered	Selling of the American Economy, The	Micheline	Maynard
All Things Considered	Dreams, The	Naguib	Mahfouz
All Things Considered	Three Hauntingly Unforgettable Literary Houses
Diane Rehm	Superfreakonomics	Steven	Levitt
Diane Rehm	Public Produce*	Darrin	Nordahl
Diane Rehm	Louisa May Alcott	Harriet	Reisen
Diane Rehm	Ayn Rand and the World She Made	Anne	Heller
Fresh Air	Where the Wild Things Are	Maurice	Sendak
Fresh Air	Weekends at Bellevue	Julie	Holland
Fresh Air	Fourth Star, The	Greg	Jaffe
Fresh Air	Children of Dust	Ali	Eteraz
Fresh Air	Big Burn, The	Timothy	Egan
Morning Edition	Cartoons That Shook the World, The	Jytte	Klausen
Morning Edition	Palin Books Hit Store Shelves Nov. 17
NPR.org	Fidel y Raul, mis hermanos	Juanita	Castrp
NPR.org	Blame	Michelle	Huneven
NPR.org	Noir	Brian	Azzarello
NPR.org	Humbling, The	Philip	Roth
NPR.org		Andre	Agassi
NPR.org	American Fantastic Tales	Peter	Straub
Talk of the Nation	Age of Empathy, The	Frans de	Waal
Talk of the Nation	Woman Among Warlords, A	Malalai	Joya
Talk of the Nation	Living and Loving Out Loud	Cornel	West
Weekend Edition Sunday	I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil	Josh	Lieb
Weekend Edition Sunday	Wolf Hall	Hilary	Mantel

Why email signatures are important

One of the reasons why I haven’t posted in a while is because it’s been really crazy — as fall often is for book publicists — and I’ve been madly booking interviews (and rescheduling them, as so often is the case).  Lots of late nights and heading to the office on weekends.  Now more than ever I’ve come to appreciate that some people are easy to reach and others … not so much.

For example, some producers routinely list three phone numbers in their electronic signatures — direct number, show / studio line, cell phone — while others don’t even have an esignature.  Although I do prefer email to the phone, I still use the latter (particularly when I’m not getting a response by email).  Guess who gets the hot, last-minute booking?

Many other people request review copies of books and when mailing addresses are included in email signatures, I can easily pop books in the mail.  But some fail to include mailing addresses in esignatures.  So on a busy day, when I barely have time to go to the bathroom, guess who doesn’t get the book?

Of course — the knife cuts both ways.  Reporters and producers who can’t reach a publicist are liable to move on to the next book or author.  At the end of the day, most of what this boils down to is an email signature.  So make it a good one.

NPR Books Watch — 10/16-10/22

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week:31  (25 last week)

All Things Considered: 10 (7 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 5 (7 LW)

Morning Edition: 4 (0 LW)

NPR.org: 1 (2 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 3 (4 LW)

Tell Me More: 1 (0 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2  (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (2  LW)

All Things Considered	Warrior’s Rage	Douglas	Macgregor
All Things Considered	Book of Genesis Illustrated, The	R.	Crumb
All Things Considered	Megician’s Elephant, The	Kate	DiCamillo
All Things Considered	Nation’s Retailers Engage In Online Book Pricing War
All Things Considered	What to Expect When You’re Expected	David	Javerbaum
All Things Considered	Gloryland	Shelton	Johnson
All Things Considered	Straddling The Pacific: Books By Japanese-Americans
All Things Considered	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	Jeff	Kinney
All Things Considered	Some Parents Wary Of ‘Wimpy Kid’ Series
All Things Considered	Wimpy Kid’ Author Answers Kids’ Questions
Diane Rehm	Highest Duty	Chelsy	Sullenberger
Diane Rehm	Highest Duty*	Chelsy	Sullenberger
Diane Rehm	World Without Ice, A	Henry N.	Pollack
Diane Rehm	Public Produce	Darrin	Nordahl
Fresh Air	Too Big to Fail	Andrew Ross	Sorkin
Fresh Air	TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics	Art	Spiegelman
Fresh Air	Wired for War*	P.W.	Singer
Fresh Air	Man in the Wooden Hat, The	Jane	Gardam
Fresh Air	I Am the New Black	Tracy	Morgan
Morning Edition	Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies	Julie	Andrews
Morning Edition	Book of Genesis Illustrated, The	R.	Crumb
Morning Edition	Wal-Mart, Amazon Trade Price Cuts On Books
Morning Edition	Waste	Tristram	Stuart
NPR.org	Generosity	Richard	Powers
Talk of the Nation	One and the Same	Abigail	Pogrebin
Talk of the Nation	Listen Up, Mr. President	Helen	Thomas
Talk of the Nation	Delete	Viktor	Mayer-Schonberger
Tell Me More	Tao or Wu, The	Robert F.	Diggs
Weekend Edition Saturday	Sixty Feet, Six Inches	Bob	Gibson
Weekend Edition Saturday	Superfreakonomics	Steven	Levitt
Weekend Edition Sunday	Rule Of The Undead: Zombies Invade Bookstores

NPR Books Watch — 10/9-10/15

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

TOTAL book stories for the past week: 25 (26 last week)

All Things Considered: 7 (3 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (3 LW)

Fresh Air: 7 (3 LW)

Morning Edition: 0 (7 LW)

NPR.org: 2 (3 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 4 (3 LW)

Tell Me More: 0 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1 (1  LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 2 (1 LW)

All Things Considered	From Every End of the Earth	Steven	Roberts
All Things Considered	Manhood for Amateurs	Michael	Chabon
All Things Considered	Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us	Ralph	Nader
All Things Considered	Fantasyland	Sam	Walker
All Things Considered	Buy Ketchup in May	Mark	Di Vincenzo
All Things Considered	Burning Plain, The	Juan	Rulfo
All Things Considered	Education of a British Protected Child	Chinua	Achebe
Diane Rehm	Of Mule and Man	Mike	Farrell
Diane Rehm	From Every End of This Earth	Steven	Roberts
Diane Rehm	Mom & Pop Store, The*	Robert	Spector
Diane Rehm	Man of Constant Sorrow	Ralph	Stanley
Fresh Air	Await Your Reply	Dan	Chaon
Fresh Air	Sixty Feet, Six Inches	Bob	Gibson
Fresh Air	Parallel Play	Tim	Page
Fresh Air	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	Jeff	Kinney
Fresh Air	Cheerful Money	Tad	Friend
Fresh Air	Not Becoming My Mother	Ruth	Reichl
Fresh Air	King of the Queen City	Jon Hartley	Fox
NPR.org	How to Paint a Dead Man	Sarah	Hall
NPR.org	When Everything Changed	Gail	Collins
Talk of the Nation	Bright-Sided	Barbara	Ehrenreich
Talk of the Nation	Don’t Be Such A Scientist	Randy	Olson
Weekend Edition Saturday	After	Amy	Efaw
Weekend Edition Sunday	Good Eats	Alton	Brown
Weekend Edition Sunday	Juliet, Naked	Nick	Hornby

NPR Books Watch — 10/2-10/8

Here are the NPR interviews for the last week. Anyone who emails me the imprints of all the books listed (or houses if no imprint is available) will win the NPR Books Grid for the prior week that includes, in addition to the information below, interviewer, pub date, imprint, genre, post-interview Amazon ranking, pre-interview ranking (if the book was mentioned on Shelf Awareness and I was able to look up the number before the interview), and interview hyperlink.

***

 TOTAL book stories for the past week: 26 (26 last week)

All Things Considered: 3 (3 LW)

Diane Rehm: 3 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 3 (6 LW)

Morning Edition: 7 (3 LW)

NPR.org: 3 (2 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 4 (3 LW)

Tell Me More: 1 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1 (3 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (0 LW)

All Things Considered	Spooner	Pete	Dexter
All Things Considered	Past is Never Dead, The	Harry	Maclean
All Things Considered	Naked Lunch	William S.	Burroughs
Diane Rehm	Children’s Book, The	A.S.	Byatt
Diane Rehm	Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The*	William	Kamkwamba
Diane Rehm	Justice	Michael J.	Sandel
Fresh Air	Heart of a Patriot	Max	Cleland
Fresh Air	Manhood for Amateurs	Michael	Chabon
Fresh Air	Dead Hand, The	David	Hoffman
Morning Edition	Return to the Hundred Acre Wood	David	Benedictus
Morning Edition	Testing the Ice	Sharon	Robinson
Morning Edition	Heart of a Patriot	Max	Cleland
Morning Edition	Lessons in Disaster	Gordon	Goldstein
Morning Edition	Defend the Realm	Christopher	Andrew
Morning Edition	We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives	Paul	Shaffer
Morning Edition	In Afghanistan	David	Loyn
NPR.org	Informers, The	Juan Gabriel	Vasquez
NPR.org	Our Boys	Joe	Drape
NPR.org	Manhood for Amateurs	Michael	Chabon
Talk of the Nation	Plan B 4.0	Lester	Brown
Talk of the Nation	Strangest Man, The	Graham	Farmelo
Talk of the Nation	Searching for Whitopia	Rich	Benjamin
Talk of the Nation	Clinton Tapes	Taylor	Branch
Tell Me More	Scared Silent	Mildred	Mohammed
Weekend Edition Saturday	Big Machine	Victor	LaValle
Weekend Edition Sunday	Bicycle Diaries, The	David	Byrne

If you’re requesting a book, please, provide an address

Over the past week I’ve received no fewer than four review copy requests that were missing one key piece of information: an address.  This means that instead of sending out the book immediately, I need to wait until I have a moment to respond to ask for the address and then when I do get the address I again need to wait until I have a free moment to send out the book.  So basically, I need to jump over hurdles to get you something you’ve asked for?

At my publishing house, more than 100 publicists in dozens of imprints spread out over five floors in two buildings work on thousands of books each month.  This means things can get really confusing really quickly.  To increase your chances of obtaining a review copy of a book quickly, submit all your information.  At once.  This includes:

Basic information about yourself:

– Name

– Mailing address

– Phone number

– Email address

– Venue for which you are covering / plan to cover the book and a brief description if it is not well known

– Your website / your organization’s website (if applicable)

Information about the book:

– Title

– Author

– Publication date

– Imprint or ISBN

If you want, send the link to the book you are requesting rather than typing out this information.  Also, keep in mind that much of the personal information can (and should) appear in an electronic signature so you needn’t retype it each time.

For a list of imprints at the large publishing houses — which will make it easier to get your request to the right department from the start — check this post, Media requesting review copies of books.  And here’s lots more information about review copies in general.

For those of you who have looked through these posts about review copies — you know who you are (and I know who you are too!) — your time and attention is much appreciated.  Please share this information with your colleagues (and feel free to share with me any questions / comments you might have about requesting review copies).