How to prepare an author for an interview

The other day a freelancer called to schedule an interview with an author.  I asked some questions — as I usually do — about the length of the piece, when it would run, and what exactly it was about.  He refused to email much information and was cagey over the phone, so I contacted the editor.   As it turned out, the editor was put out at being asked these questions and reacted by promptly canceling the piece.  Que sera.

But this is quite odd because part of a book publicist’s job is to try to get journalists interested in interviewing authors; part is to make sure authors are prepared for these interviews so they don’t waste journalists’ — and their own — time.  So it’s important that publicists brief authors on the interviewer, the media outlet and the story.  Last week the Bad Pitch Blog, a popular PR blog, posted about this in The Interview Brief.

Realistically, most book publicists won’t prepare “interview briefs” as extensive as the ones described by the Bad Pitch Blog, but it’s still important to review the basics with authors (and authors should ask for details if they are not provided) including:

— When is the deadline for the piece?

— When is the piece expected to run?

— Has the piece been assigned or is the writer “on spec,” i.e., still attempting to pitch the story to editors?

— How long is the interview?  (And for radio, is it live or taped?)

— What is the story angle (and who else is being interviewed)?

— What is the show (media outlet) like?

Journalists can help by providing this information in their initial query — even if the message doesn’t reach the right person the first time, it will get the ball rolling when the book’s publicist does get the query.

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What else do you as a publicist make sure to tell your authors?  (And authors — what else do you need to know about a journalist / media outlet that helps you give a good interview?)

NPR Books Watch — 8/21-8/27

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.

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TOTAL book stories for the past week: 28

All Things Considered: 8

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 1

Morning Edition: 2

NPR.org: 7

Talk of the Nation: 4

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1

*Rebroadcast

All Things Considered	African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard	Robert C.	Hayden
All Things Considered	Force of Christendom, The	Tom	Holland
All Things Considered	Searching For Christian Imagery In ‘Harry Potter’
All Things Considered	We ARE Americans	William	Perez
All Things Considered	Cold	Bill	Streever
All Things Considered	Three Books … / Stranded?  Three Books to Save Your Life
All Things Considered	Graham Greene’s Unfinished Murder Mystery
All Things Considered	NurtureShock	Po	Bronson
Diane Rehm	Price of Perfection*	Max	Mehlman
Diane Rehm	Say Everything	Scott	Rosenberg
Diane Rehm	Homer’s Odyssey	Gwen	Cooper
Diane Rehm	Dancing at the Rascal Fair	Ivan	Doig
Fresh Air	Healing of America, The	T.R.	Reid
Morning Edition	Mirrors	Eduardo	Galeano
Morning Edition	Heart of Power	James	Morone
NPR.org	Snakehead, The	Patrick Radden	Keefe
NPR.org	Wauchula Woods Accord, The	Charles	Siebert
NPR.org	First Look: ‘Catching Fire’	Suzanne	Collins
NPR.org	Jaws	Peter	Benchley
NPR.org	Johnny Hiro	Fred	Chao
NPR.org	Dominick Dunne, Best-Selling Author, Dies
NPR.org	Rhino Ranch	Larry	McMurtry
Talk of the Nation	Unscientific America	Chris	Mooney
Talk of the Nation	Mighty Long Way, A	Carlotta Walls	LaNier
Talk of the Nation	Never Make The First Offer	Donald	Dell
Talk of the Nation	Nora Ephron’s Favorite Julia Child Recipes
Weekend Edition Saturday	Question of Freedom, A	R. Dwayne	Betts
Weekend Edition Sunday	If Ignorance Is Bliss	John	Lloyd

NPR Books Watch — 8/14-8/20

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.

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TOTAL book stories for the past week: 23

 All Things Considered: 3

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 3

Morning Edition: 3

NPR.org: 3

Talk of the Nation: 4

Tell Me More: 2

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1

*Rebroadcast

All Things Considered	Dear President Obama	Bruce	Kluger
All Things Considered	Three Books … / Books About Music? They Don’t Have To Sound Flat
All Things Considered	Glass of Water, A	Jimmy Santiago	Baca
Diane Rehm	What Else But Home	Michael	Rosen
Diane Rehm	Battle for America 2008, The	Dan	Balz
Diane Rehm	To Live or to Perish Forever	Nicholas	Schmidle
Diane Rehm	Price of Perfection	Max	Mehlman
Fresh Air	Happy Marriage, A	Rafael	Yglesias
Fresh Air	That Old Cape Magic	Richard	Russo
Fresh Air	Losing the News	Alex	Jones
Morning Edition	Paper Butterfly	Diane Wei	Liang
Morning Edition	After 67 Years, Archie Chooses Veronica
Morning Edition	Mysteries You Might Have Missed Along the Way
NPR.org	My Father’s Tears	John	Updike
NPR.org	Asterios Polyp	David	Mazzucchelli
NPR.org	Perfect Life	Jessica	Shattuck
Talk of the Nation	Craft of Cheesemaking	Liz	Thorpe
Talk of the Nation	Too Good to be True	Erin	Arvudlund
Talk of the Nation	Little House On The Prairie’s’ Wilder Women
Talk of the Nation	Born Round	Frank	Bruni
Tell Me More	Love and Obstacles	Aleksandar	Hemon
Tell Me More	Acceptance	David L.	Marcus
Weekend Edition Saturday	Personal Effects	J.C.	Hutchins

How to work more efficiently in publishing

We’re publishing more books today than ever before.  But not necessarily with more hands on deck.  Long gone are the days when mad men could read newspapers at their desks and drink themselves into oblivion on the clock.  Today, we have to get more work done, more quickly.  Here are some tips:

* Specialize (yourself): Don’t struggle to do a mediocre job at something that someone else could do really well, really easily.

For example, book publicists shouldn’t be afraid to ask for an author’s help putting together pitch letters or interview alerts.  As  a publicist, I will never know a book as well as an author no matter how thoroughly I read it, and it’s inefficient for me to be trawling through a manuscript with a red pen attempting to pull out the smoking guns when an author could achieve a better result in a fraction of the time.  Likewise, authors should not attempt to pitch their books to writers / producers (unless they’re already acquainted) — publicists, with expertise and information at their  fingertips, will do a better job in less time.

* Specialize (your applications): To maximize efficacy and to save time, use applications as they were intended.

For example, write press material (and manuscripts, of course), in Word but maintain contact lists in a database such as Excel.

* Network with colleagues.  And no, I’m not just talking about Facebook (although that is a good way to keep in touch with people).

For example, recognize that email can be a cumbersome mode of communication when discussing complicated and / or ongoing issues.  Consider setting up a discussion group like Google Groups or Yahoo! Groups in which questions can be segregated by topic and supporting documents (photos or text) can be uploaded to a central location.

* Sync with colleagues.

For example, if managing schedules and meetings (either internally or with authors) gets hectic, consider using Google Calendar or using the meeting invitation function in Outlook.  I once used Google Calendar to keep track of an author tour involving three people (and three different and often overlapping schedules).  It was a lifesaver. 

* Don’t reinvent the wheel.  There are very few occasions that require information to be retyped.  Not only does that waste time, but it introduces the possibility of errors.  Many of them.  Large publishing houses often have the luxury of creating / buying databases and systems that store and report information.  You can reap some of these benefits with free applications like Google Docs or Basecamp (the latter of which I’m guessing is — or was — used by Crown since they’re mentioned on the home page).

For example, rather than emailing a document — a list of publicity hits, for example — from person to person, you can upload the information to a central location accessible to all approved users (or to everyone, if you so choose).

* Avoid redundancy.

For example, functions such as Word’s “Track Changes” allow you to edit within a document.  Although I know editors grumble about having to use Track Changes throughout an entire manuscript, it is a pretty handy function when you’re talking about a page of two of press material. If you’re reviewing a press release, for example, rather than scribbling inelligible notes in the margins which then have to be interpreted and incorporated into the release, consider using Track Changes that will illustrate exactly what was changed, but allows the publicist to accept all the changes with a click of a button.

* Communicate: There’s nothing like not being able to get the ball rolling because you haven’t heard back from one person.  A message doesn’t need to be urgent to demand the courtesy of a response before, say, three weeks.  Also, be truthful and open — we make books, folks, not nuclear weapons.

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How do you save time?  What are your shortcuts?

NPR Books Watch — 8/7-8/13

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.

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TOTAL book stories for the past week: 30

All Things Considered: 5

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 4

Morning Edition: 8

NPR.org: 4

Talk of the Nation: 2

Weekend Edition Saturday: 1

Weekend Edition Sunday: 2

*Rebroadcast

All Things Considered	Confessions of Edward Day	Valerie	Martin
All Things Considered	Major Farran’s Hat	David	Cesarani
All Things Considered	My Guilty Pleasure / Peyton Place	Grace	Metalious
All Things Considered	Magicians, The	Lev	Grossman
All Things Considered	Defector, The	Daniel	Silva
All Things Considered	Girl Who Played with Fire	Steig	Larsson
Diane Rehm	Battle for America 2008, The	Dan	Balz
Diane Rehm	In Fed We Trust*	David	Wessel
Diane Rehm	In Praise of Doubt	Peter	Berger
Diane Rehm	Confessions of Edward Day, The	Valerie	Martin
Fresh Air	Julia Child: An American, Forever In Paris
Fresh Air	Role Models	John	Waters
Fresh Air	Inherent Vice	Thomas	Pynchon
Fresh Air	Retail Revolution	Nelson	Lichtenstein
Morning Edition	Death Message	Mark	Billingham
Morning Edition	Rain Gods	James Lee	Burke
Morning Edition	Murder in the Latin Quarter	Cara	Black
Morning Edition	A Classic List Of Must-Read Children’s Books
Morning Edition	Collateral Damaged	Charles	Geisst
Morning Edition	Quiet Flame, A	Philip	Kerr
Morning Edition	Is The Recession Hurting Women’s Fiction?
Morning Edition	Fabulous Feud of Gilbert and Sullivan	Jonah	Winter
NPR.org	Everything Matters!	Ron	Currie
NPR.org	Swimming	Nicola	Keegan
NPR.org	Chew	John	Layman
NPR.org	Love Warps the Mind a Little	John	Dufresne
Talk of the Nation	Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens	Frank	Oppenheim
Talk of the Nation	American Chinatown	Bonnie	Tsui
Weekend Edition Saturday	Battle for America 2008, The	Dan	Balz
Weekend Edition Sunday	Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder	Rebecca	Wells
Weekend Edition Sunday	Wrestling with Moses	Anthony	Flint

Ode to change

Over at Booksquare, a thoughtful publishing industry blog, Kassia Krozser penned Competing for Eyeballs, in which she exhorted publishing companies to change the way they (we) reach readers.  (Patience, Kassia — you can sometimes still hear the clack of typewriters as you walk down the halls of a publishing house.)  And publishing consultant and Cursor founder Richard Nash posted about the evolution of independent bookstores.

As a book publicist, my role is to reach readers through venues like the media (or bookstores), so these are issues that directly or indirectly affect what I do.  Of course, word of mouth always has and continues to win over new readers, but while the “word” has not changed, the “mouth” has — now, people are as likely to hear about books from Twitter and GoodReads as from friends and family (or their local newspaper).

For many readers, books are also popularized by movies, as Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicity points out.  (These are called “movie tie ins” in publishing speak.)  These aren’t new, of course, but it seems like there have been more movies based on books in recent years.

The point is, readers, as Kassia said, are moving at the speed of light (Exhibit A, the Networked Book).  And that means that publishers need to, well, move.

NPR Books Watch — 7/31-8/6

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.

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TOTAL book stories for the past week: 18

All Things Considered: 2

Diane Rehm: 4

Fresh Air: 5

Morning Edition: 2

NPR.org: 2

Talk of the Nation: 2

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1

All Things Considered	Guy	Raz	China Safari	Serge	Michel
All Things Considered	Ben	Greenman	Three Books … / 1969: Racy Reads From A Landmark Year
Diane Rehm	Diane	Rehm	Let the Great World Spin*	Colum	McCann
Diane Rehm	Diane	Rehm	Slippery Year	Melanie	Gideon
Diane Rehm	Diane	Rehm	In Fed We Trust	David	Wessel
Diane Rehm	Diane	Rehm	Leading the Charge	Tony	Zinni
Fresh Air	Terry	Gross	Nobrow	John	Seabrook
Fresh Air	Terry	Gross	In Defense of Food	Michael	Pollan
Fresh Air	Terry	Gross	Fordlandia	Greg	Gandin
Fresh Air			Snakehead, The	Patrick Radden	Keefe
Fresh Air	Maureen	Corrigan	Best Friends Forever	Jennifer	Weiner
Morning Edition	Lynn	Neary	Wicked Prey	John	Sandford
Morning Edition			That Old Cape Magic	Richard	Russo
NPR.org	Simon Maxwell	Apter	You Are Here	Colin	Ellard
NPR.org	Laurel	Maury	Goats Infinite Typewriters	Jonathan	Rosenberg
Talk of the Nation	Neal	Conan	Liar in Your Life, The	Robert	Feldman
Talk of the Nation			Chaos Scenario	Bob	Garfield
Weekend Edition Sunday	Liane	Hansen	Sacred Hearts	Sarah	Dunant

How Twitter works and why people in publishing should consider using it

Someone walked into my office the other day and saw my Twitter screen.  Caught in the act?  Actually, it was about 4:30 p.m. ET on a Thursday and I was in the middle of a #followreader discussion about successful book promotion strategies.

You see, Twitter is possibly the most robust network to link readers and the publishing community since Gutenberg built his printing press.  I realize Twitter doesn’t work for everybody and I’m not suggesting that everyone use it — there are days when even I don’t have the time (or simply can’t be bothered) to type even 140-character status updates — but what must be recognized is  that Twitter is no longer the latest fad among tweens; it has since evolved into an incredibly powerful communications tool (and it can be fun, too).  I realize I’m pretty much preaching to the choir with this post, but please feel free to share the following with colleagues / authors.

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Most people now know the Twitter basics: you have 140 characters to update your status and you have a list of people whose status updates you follow and a list of people who follow your status updates.  But for all practical purposes, what does that mean?  Why should authors and people in the publishing industry use Twitter?  Here are some reasons why:

— Networking: Although most publishing houses, literary agencies and book publicity firms are in New York — which means many of us see each other in person — many are not.  And of course, media exist all over, as do readers.  Twitter is how we meet.  Publisher @artepublico uses Twitter to connect authors with the media.  @calli526, a book publicist, uses it to connect with the media.

— Promotion: Twitter can be used to talk up a book, blog, event, author, giveaway or pretty much anything else.

— Feedback: For example, @benrubinstein polls his followers for ideas and suggestions.

And here are some specific examples of how Twitter works:

— #followreader is a weekly publishing discussion conducted on Twitter on Thursdays at 4 p.m. ET and moderated by @charabbott and @katmeyerwho also blog at Follow the Reader.  (Summaries of the discussions are posted on the blog for people who miss the Twitter conversation.)  Here’s a tip, though: for Twitter discussions, it’s best to use an application that’s optimized for chats like Tweetchat.

— @RustyShelton and his colleagues at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicity  developed a Tweet the Author service.

— Author Anastasia Ashman posts about how she uses Twitter.

— @meredithkessler points out that Robert Olen Butler’s @TweetsFromHell was picked up by @LATimesbooks and followed by major critics and Butler fans.

— Literary agent @janet_reid found a panelist for a publishing conference via Twitter and has also used it to fact check some locations/spellings/customs.

— When I write a blog post, I try to tweet about it (and include a link to the post).  That means my post could potentially be seen by the 1,267 people who follow me.  Realistically, a tweet won’t be seen by all of one’s followers, but even if only a fraction of those people see an update and click through to the link, that still amounts to a lot of eyeballs.  (And certainly a lot more eyeballs than if you’re not using Twitter.)  Similarly, some authors will tweet about upcoming events to let readers know where and when they will be speaking or about reviews and interviews.

— And lastly, how do you think I found the examples for this post?  Yup, you guessed it.

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What are your Twitter success stories?  Do share.