NPR Books Watch — 2/20-2/26

Here are the NPR interviews for this 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, 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 week: 14

All Things Considered: 2

Diane Rehm: 2

Fresh Air: 2

NPR.org: 3

Talk of the Nation: 4

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1

All Things Considered	Music Teacher, The	Barbara	Hall	Literary Fiction
All Things Considered	Three Books … / Books Reveal The Mystery Of Modern Iran
Diane Rehm	Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond	Jane	Brody	Science
Diane Rehm	Vagrants, The*	Yiyun	Lee	Literary Fiction
Fresh Air	Everything Conceivable	Liza	Mundy	Science
Fresh Air	Books We Like: Drood	Dan	Simmons	Mystery
Fresh Air	Books We Like: Twilight	Stephanie	Meyer	Young Readers
NPR.org	Book Tour / A. Lincoln	Ronald C.	White	Biography
NPR.org	Books We Like / Script & Scribble	Kitty Burns	Florey	Reference
NPR.org	Books We Like / Pretty Face, A	Rafael	Reig	Mystery
Talk of the Nation	Telephone Gambit, The	Seth	Shulman	Science
Talk of the Nation	Slumdog Millionaire	Vikas	Swarup	Literary Fiction
Talk of the Nation	The Lost City of Z	David	Grann	History
Talk of the Nation	I’d Rather We Got Casinos	Larry	Wilmore	Entertainment
Weekend Edition Sunday	Lords of Finance	Liaquat	Ahamed	Business

If you want something, make it easy for me to get it to you

I missed my lunchtime Pilates class earlier this week because I was busy sifting through 96 messages I had filed in my “Follow up” folder for a certain book over the past few months.  (We published the book in hardcover last April and by the time the winter rolled around, the author wasn’t keen to continue doing interviews.)

So there I was, plugging the information from the email messages into our publicity database so I could make sure to send copies of the paperback book as well as follow up with the reporters / producers.  Well before realizing that a sandwich consisting entirely of pate (even a hearty, meaty concoction like country pate) is not advisable, I noticed a trend: people would request interviews and, while most included a few sentences about their story / organization (thankfully!), a good three quarters of the journalists neglected to include mailing addresses.

Eliminating “desire to maintain aura of mystery” as a reason for failing to include complete contact information, I’m guessing journalists don’t want to be inundated with packages, books, press releases and other assorted and unwanted items that arrive in the mail.  All well and good.  Except when they want something.  If I were less thorough, I would likely have deleted  requests that came in without mailing addresses.  (Read between the lines, here, folks.)  But I am thorough, so I either responded asking for an address or looked up the organization online.  I got what I needed, but let’s face it: my time — anyone’s time — could have been better spent in numerous other ways (like doing Pilates, perhaps).

Email signatures — on new messages, responses / forwards and on Blackberries / other PDAs — are vital.  Would you leave a voicemail message for a professional contact without leaving your full name and phone number?  Hopefully not.    So what makes it okay to sign off an email with just your name and not a word about your company or its website?

I know some of you are rolling your eyes and wondering how much more I could possibly blather on about the finer points of electronic signatures, but this is important because it makes business quicker and easier to conduct.  Help me spread the word about the importance esignatures (and then hopefully I won’t have to post about this topic so often).  See, I really can go on forever.

Ghost social networking — to do or not to do?

In publishing, we’re all familiar with ghost writing.  But what about ghost blogging?  And ghost tweeting?  The other week, I met up with a team from a popular book and author website; one person mentioned she’s seen more and more publishing houses boasting of “Twitter campaigns,” but didn’t quite understand how a house could tweet in an author’s stead.  (This is where I make the analogy of someone wanting a baby but having a surrogate carry the baby and a nanny raise it.)

Yesterday, Dave Fleet posted about the issue of “ghost blogging,” explaining why it’s a bad idea and suggesting some alternatives.  For example, he suggests having multiple people blog under their own names rather than having them blog under the guise of one person.

Social networking is about making connections.  If an author isn’t willing or able to do that his/herself, I think it’s best to channel the marketing efforts elsewhere.  Twitter may be the buzz word of the day — and used properly it can sell a lot of books — but a heck of a lot of books are also sold without it.  Think about it this way — if an author isn’t willing to speak about a book at an event, would you hold the event with the editor or publicist instead?  Granted, some bookstores have had success with authorless events, and certain panel events do work well with people involved with a book who are not the author, but the vast majority of author events depend on, well, the author.

Years ago, back when Friendster was still alive, I created and maintained a profile for an author.  But that was the first and only.  Logistically, it simply takes too much time to maintain a profile that’s not my own.  And sometimes, it takes too much time to maintain my own.  Every so often I’m asked by colleagues about whether it’s a good idea to start author profiles on sites like Facebook.  (Now I can just forward this link!)  Would you as a book publicist create and maintain an author profile on a social networking site or would you leave that task to the author?  As an author, how do you feel about having someone network for you?

Literary cage fight: print vs. online

Late last week, four days after the publication of the last print edition of The Washington Post Book World, Dick Meyer posted a lament on NPR.org about the demise of newspaper book sections.  Bloggers, not surprisingly, took umbrage at his comments.  M. J. Rose of Buzz, Balls & Hype and Ed Champion were particularly outspoken.

Meyer distinguishes between “professional reviews” and “amateur, unedited and niche reviews.”  As someone who spent five years editing my school newspapers in high school and college, I don’t dispute the benefits of editorial oversight.  But web reporting isn’t “unedited” — it’s edited by everyone.  For those who doubt the collective wisdom of the online community, I would point you to the much-talked about study that showed Wikipedia to be nearly as accurate as the vaunted Encyclopedia Britannica (although, of course, the accuracy of the study itself has been disputed — not the least by Britannica).

What is clear also is that the lines between print and online journalists are blurring.  Many literary bloggers write for print publications (or, alas, did before they folded / downsized).  And book publicity firms kelley & hall and Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists both posted about a recent study of print journalists from PWR New Media that found “60 percent of respondents said they now contribute to a blog or other online site.  39 percent of these journalists said they acquired these responsibilities in the past year and 71 percent added online work to their duties in the past two years.”  In other words, print journalists aren’t checking out — they’re adapting.

Meyer’s analysis is actually more even handed than the alarmist “Literary Death Spiral” headline would have you believe and he is, after all, the Editorial Director of NPR Digital Media.  Further, he brings up some thoughtful and important points about the wider cultural significance of books.  Still, what frustrates me about complaints about a dying print culture is the accompanying small-mindedness and sense of superiority about reading.  Are we in book publishing in the business of bringing literature to  people and fostering appreciation of it?  Or are we simply trying to promote page turning?

When to schedule bookstore events (and when not to)

Friday night I was chatting with a novelist friend who said she was a little surprised her publisher wasn’t sending her on a book tour, given that her last four books have sold well (and that she had offered to pay her own way).  Admittedly, bookstore events have seen better days.  Still, it surprised me when my friend mentioned her publicist had refused to schedule a New York event for her.  (She’s a native New Yorker, who — four bestselling books ago — managed to pack The Corner Bookstore to within an inch of the fire marshal being called.)

Very mysterious.  Something wasn’t adding up.  Although we aren’t the same readers who catapulted Jacqueline Susan’s Valley of the Dolls to bestsellerdom as she road tripped across the country 40 years ago, a popular author speaking in her hometown is, well, a pretty safe bet.  (Or at least, as safe as they come.)

This got me thinking about why bookstore events should and shouldn’t be scheduled.  For the benefit of authors and book publicists, I’m listing some issues to consider while planning an author’s schedule.  (Thanks to the tweeps who already contributed to this post and readers please feel free to add your own ideas in the Comments section — or by emailing me — and I will try to update the post.)  Also, do share the list with all and sundry if you think it will be useful.

Note: This post has been modified from the original to reflect reader feedback.

Why you should not schedule a bookstore event:

— Topic: Some books, often of the self-help variety (finance, parenting, self-help, some cooking and humor) can present certain challenges for bookstores.  It doesn’t mean readers won’t buy these books — and it doesn’t mean talks won’t work in other settings — but are 50 people really going to pop into Barnes & Noble to listen to what types of nonallergenic foods they should be feeding their babies?  Book publicist Adrienne Biggs, who has scheduled many successful bookstore talks for lifestyle and self-help authors, advises stores, publicists and authors to rethink the “traditional” bookstore talk for these types of books.  That means that if anyone isn’t willing or able to be a little more creative with these events (regarding outreach, promotion, type of event, timing, etc.), it could end up being more productive to promote the book in other ways, i.e., by scheduling media interviews.

— Timing: With a handful of exceptions, bookstores like to hold events within about a month of the book’s publication.  Stores typically schedule events between two and six months in advance of the event / publication date in order to have time to adequately promote their events.  This means that suggesting events two weeks before a book’s publication date will not elicit a favorable response.  From anyone. 

— Hidden Costs: As The Bookish Dilettante’s Kat Meyer points out, even if an author pays his / her own way, events take time to set up and money to promote.  Event coordinators often work odd hours and typically aren’t planted in front of their computers when they are in the store.  They’re also juggling dozens of events and publicists and dates.  Case in point: I first got in touch with one events coordinator in December about an April event.  Between my trying to sort out the author’s availability and her trying to sort out the store’s availability, we only just finalized a date — two months and numerous email messages later.  Then, once an event has been scheduled, the store must then invest time and money in promoting it.  Finally, at least one (additional) staff member must be paid to oversee the event.  This just isn’t a process that can be ironed out with one phone call.

Why you should schedule a bookstore event:

— The author is local.  Many bookstores try their best to support local authors.  Plus, they know they can count on the support of the authors friends and family members.  (Fortunately for authors and bookstores, although these are the people who probably could wrangle free books from authors, they often end up buying books to support the author.)

— The author has a good track record.  Often, the best predictor of how an event will go is how the last (somewhat recent) event turned out.  This is one of those situations in which no track record won’t hurt an author (there are plenty of first-time authors who draw healthy crowds to bookstore events and plenty of stores willing to schedule events with these authors), but a good track can really help. 

— First editions:  Books on the Nightstand‘s Ann Kingman reminds us that some stores host first edition book clubs, whose selections can be dependent on an author coming to speak and sign books.   Also, for certain types of (mostly) genre hardcover books — mystery, science fiction, romance, etc. — but some others as well, signed first editions go over really well with readers whether or not the books are selected for book clubs.

— The store requests an event.  For logistical and financial reasons, publishing houses can’t schedule events at every single store that requests an author.  (And certainly, successful events have been held at stores that did not request authors.)  But when a store expresses interest in an author, it can be a sign they’ll try their darnedest to get a crowd and sell that book.  Michele Filgate of Reading is Breathing (and events coordinator at the Portsmouth, NH RiverRun Bookstore) says events are critical for independent bookstores who are trying to be/become community — as well as reader — destinations.  (Not that events aren’t important for the chain stores too.)  Plus, an added benefit, courtesy of Teleread‘s David Rothman: hand selling.  Author appearances keep books at the forefront of employees’ minds (and at the top of their recommendation lists).

— An investment in the future: Published & Profitable‘s Roger C. Parker notes that events can teach authors what questions readers will ask and what topics they’re most interested in.  For authors who have more than one book in the pipeline, events can be a good way to build a following.

***

What are your pros and cons?  Have you ever scheduled a bookstore event when you didn’t feel it was appropriate?  (Or vice versa?)

NPR Books Watch — 2/13-2/19

Here are the NPR interviews for this 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, 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 week: 25

All Things Considered: 4

Day to Day: 1

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 1

Morning Edition: 2

News & Notes: 1

NPR.org: 4

Talk of the Nation: 2

Tell Me More: 1

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2

Weekend Edition Sunday: 3

All Things Considered	Americans, The	Robert	Frank	Photography
All Things Considered	Soul of a People	David A.	Taylor	History
All Things Considered	Other Side of Desire, The	Daniel	Bergner	Health
All Things Considered	Murder at the Academy Awards	Joan	Rivers	Mystery
Day to Day	99¢ Only Stores Cookbook, The*	Christiane	Jory	Cooking
Diane Rehm	Cutting for Stone	Abraham	Verghese	Literary Fiction
Diane Rehm	Abraham Lincoln*	George	McGovern	Biography
Diane Rehm	Vagrants, The	Yiyun	Lee	Literary Fiction
Diane Rehm	Third Chapter, The	Sara	Lawrence-Lightfoot	Health
Fresh Air	Beautiful Struggle, The	Ta-Nehisi	Coates	Biography
Morning Edition	Snark	David	Denby	Popular Culture
Morning Edition	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies	Seth	Grahame-Smith	Humor
News & Notes	Sugar of the Crop	Sana	Butler	History
NPR.org	Books We Like / Looking In	Robert	Frank	Photography
NPR.org	Book Tour / So Damn Much Money	Robert	Kaiser	Politics
NPR.org	How to Live	Henry	Alford	Health
NPR.org	Books We Like / Family Planning	Karan	Mahajan	Literary Fiction
Talk of the Nation	Pluto Files, The	Neil deGrasse	Tyson	Science
Talk of the Nation	Sum	David	Eagleman	Literary Fiction
Tell Me More	Giants	John	Stauffer	Biography
Weekend Edition Saturday	The Mighty Queens of Freeville	Amy	Dickinson	Memoir
Weekend Edition Saturday	Nothing Right	Antonya	Nelson	Short stories
Weekend Edition Sunday	Wall St Journal Guide to the End of Wall St	Dave	Kansas	Business
Weekend Edition Sunday	Script and Scribble	Kitty Burns	Florey	Reference
Weekend Edition Sunday	It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time	Moira	Hodgson	Cooking

List of freelance book publicists

The other day, as a result of a question sent in my an author, I posted about in-house and freelance book publicists and realized it would be helpful for both publishing houses as well as authors to have as complete a list as possible of freelancers.

Herewith, the list of freelance book publicists.

A few things to note:

— In the interest of saving space, I have not listed the skills / services that pretty much all freelancers offer: writing press materials and booking media interviews.

— I’ve listed freelance book publicists separately from freelance book publicity firms.  I thought this distinction important to make simply because the latter, with larger staffs and wider expertise, have the capability to take on a much higher volume of projects.

— All websites listed are live links (at least as of today).  I have not verified other information, though — expertise, experience — and I’m trusting that people are being honest and accurate when they submit their information.  If you are looking for a freelancer, needless to say, check their website / talk with them first to see if their experience matches your needs.

— Because the list is a web page that can be publicly viewed, I have not listed names or email addresses (with a few exceptions).  Contact information can easily be found, however, on publicists’ web sites.

— If you are a freelancer and would like to have your information added (or if it is listed and I have inadvertently mangled it), please let me know.  I will keep the list updated.  Keep in mind, though, that due to space constraints I have had to cut some of the information that was submitted.

— Please also let me know what you think of the list.  Is it helpful?  What else would you like to see?  I’m happy to take suggestions (although whether I actually act on them will depend on how much time I have …)

Why haven’t I received my review copies yet? Part II

A couple book publicists commented on my Why haven’t I received my review copies yet? post from the other week and raised a couple legitimate issues that are would be worth clarifying for both publicity and media folk.

When advance copies of books are always in short supply, how do you choose who gets them?

First, I should probably define the oft-used but somewhat foggy term “advance copy.”  This could cover anything from bound manuscripts to “vanilla” galleys (text but no pretty picture on the cover) to galleys (pretty much looks like a book but with a paperback cover) to ARCs (advance readers copies).  I myself am still fuzzy on the finer points of advance copies, but basically, before finished books are off the presses, there are several early versions which are distributed to booksellers and the media.  (Think of them as the beta version of the book.)  For logistical reasons, publishing houses print a limited number of advance copies.

Those media venues that have long-lead times (trade publications, monthly magazines, some broadcast shows, book section editors) need books far in advance of the publication date.  Beyond that, there may be some weekly magazines or even blogs that a book publicist wants to get in touch with sooner rather than later because of their reach / influence.  Realistically, the greater the circulation / ratings / traffic of a media venue, the better the chances are of them snagging one of those precious few advance copies.  (Sites like Alexa and Technorati can tell you how influential a blog is.) 

How do you deny a review copy request?

This sounds odd — book publicists are, after all, constantly moaning about the dearth of opportunities for book coverage — but none of us have an unlimited supply of books to dole out.  Often, the number of review copies available will vary from one imprint to another (and perhaps also from one title to another).  If you’re uncertain about whether or not to send out a book, the safe bet is always to check with a supervisor or publicity director.

That being said, publicists and journalists should always keep in mind that no publishing house is ever obligated to send anyone an advance or review copy of a book (although, it is, of course, to our great advantage to send out review copies).  Personally, I do try to fulfill all legitimate requests for my books, which begs the question: what is legitimate?

Most of the time it boils down to common sense.  Are you still actively promoting a book?  Does the focus and demographic of a particular media venue make sense for a book?  We’re well within our rights to Google a journalist and ask why they’re requesting a book about X when they only seem to cover Y.  Or query why the readers of A magazine would be interested in B.  Or wonder why someone would need a review copy nine months after a book is published.  There’s nothing wrong with saying a book is not available (or no longer available) for review — book publishing is a business and the bottom line is we need to try to sell a lot books, preferably not through the profligate use of free and review copies.

Reporters with a legitimate interest in covering a book are *always* able to make a convincing case; when people get nasty, it’s generally a sign they’re gunning for free books.  As for those people who request every title under the sun, they pretty much get … nothing.  (It’s inconceivable that anyone could legitimately use almost all the titles in a catalog — many journalists specialize in a certain subject area or a handful of areas and even book editors who cover a wide range of topics know they’ll never get to all books on a list.)

Book publicists and journalists — feel free to weigh in.  What are your review copy request pet peeves?  And what frustrates you the most about the process?

***

As most of you know, I’ve been compiling a list of freelance book publicists and have been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to post the Excel spreadsheet containing the information.  (The WordPress forums suggested converting the Excel file to an image file — not quite what I was looking for.)  Then it occurred to me that I should perhaps read my own blog and try out Google Documents.  So hopefully that will work and the list will be up tomorrow.  (Feel free to comment if you have a better idea and yes, this is a reminder if you have not yet submitted your information but would like to do so.)

NPR Books Watch — 2/6-2/12

Here are the NPR interviews for this 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, 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 week: 22

All Things Considered: 6

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 3

Morning Edition: 2

NPR.org: 4

Talk of the Nation: 2

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1

All Things Considered	The Women	T.C.	Boyle	Literary Fiction
All Things Considered	The Mighty Queens of Freeville	Amy	Dickinson	Memoir
All Things Considered	The Book of Dead Philosophers	Simon	Critchley	History
All Things Considered	Stand the Storm	Breena	Clarke	Literary Fiction
All Things Considered	Three Books … / Three Books Explore Lincoln’s Complex Genius
All Things Considered	Book Tour / Things I’ve Been Silent About	Azar	Nafisi	Memoir
All Things Considered	Battle Brewing Over Electronic Books
Diane Rehm	Great Powers	Thomas	Barnett	Politics
Diane Rehm	As Time Goes By	Abigail	Trafford	Relationships
Diane Rehm	Passing Strange	Martha	Sandweiss	History
Diane Rehm	Abraham Lincoln	George	McGovern	Biography
Fresh Air	Reagan Diaries, The	Douglas	Brinkley, ed.	History
Fresh Air	Books We Like / Brothers	Yu	Hua	Literary Fiction
Fresh Air	Securing The City	Christopher	Dickey	Current Events
Morning Edition	The Tyranny Of Dead Ideas	Matt	Miller	Business
Morning Edition	Things I’ve Been Silent About	Azar	Nafisi	Memoir
Morning Edition	Honeymoon in Tehran	Azadeh	Moaveni	Memoir
Morning Edition	Lincoln’s Bicentennial Turns Into Lovefest
Morning Edition	At Ford’s Theatre, Lincoln’s Death Revisited
NPR.org	Books We Like / Absolute Sandman 4	Neil	Gaiman	Graphic Novel
NPR.org	Amazon’s Kindle Gets a Second Edition
NPR.org	Books We Like / Ghosts of Chicago	John	McNally	Short stories
NPR.org	Books We Like / Joy of Sex, The	Alex	Comfort	Health
Talk of the Nation	Elsewhere, U.S.A.	Dalton	Conley	Economics
Talk of the Nation	Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak	Larry	Smith	Relationships
Talk of the Nation	Not Quite What I Was Planning	Rachel	Fershleiser
Weekend Edition Saturday	Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet	Jamie	Ford	Literary Fiction

Are you sure you want to make that call?

I’ve railed often enough about people who cold call when sending an email with the information would be more efficient (although, as a publicist, I’ll book interviews by any and all modes of communication from carrier pigeon to Twitter) so I must confess I find it highly — if perversely — amusing when journalists call, and, frustrated by my barrage of questions, proceed to get impatient and … hang up on me.  (Yes — this has happened.  More than once.)

When I contact an author to facilitate the scheduling of an interview, I need to know a lot.  I need to know the possible day, time and length of the interview.  I need to know who else is being interviewed if it’s not a book interview.  I need to know if the interview is live or taped and if it’s live whether there is listener call in.  I need a studio / main number the author can call if something falls through at the last minute.  If it’s not a show I’m familiar with, I need to know about the show and who else has been interviewed.  This is all pretty basic information that an author should have prior to doing an interview (and, really, prior to deciding whether to do an interview).  All book publicists  should be asking these questions and hosts / producers should be willing to pony up this information.  (Hint: boilerplates come in handy right about now.)

If you think calling to book an interview is easier than sending an email, you might think again.  Calling me is a commitment.