NPR Books Watch — 12/11-12/117

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 (22 last week)

All Things Considered: 4 (6 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (3 LW)

Fresh Air: 3 (3 LW)

Morning Edition: 2 (2 LW)

NPR.org: 5 (2 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 2 (2 LW)

Tell Me More: 0 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 5 (2 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (1 LW)

All Things Considered	Thucycides	Donald	Kagan
All Things Considered	Just and Unjust Wars	Michael	Walzer
All Things Considered	Waterbirds	Theodore	Cross
All Things Considered	Baseball Americana	Harry	Katz
Diane Rehm	Moon River and Me	Andy	Williams
Diane Rehm	Ford County	John	Grisham
Diane Rehm	Interesting Times	George	Packer
Diane Rehm	American Original	Joan	Bikupic
Fresh Air	Lovely Bones, The	Alice	Sebold
Fresh Air	Too Much Money	Dominick	Dunne
Fresh Air	Blackwater	Jeremy	Scahill
Morning Edition	Truth About Santa	Gregory	Mone
Morning Edition	Random House Fires Next Shot In Digital Book Wars
NPR.org	Year’s Most Mesmerizing Mysteries
NPR.org	Hannukah Lights 2009
NPR.org	In The Year’s Best Memoirs, Mirth And Melancholy
NPR.org	Best Books For A Book Club? Lynn Neary’s ‘09 Picks
NPR.org	2009’s Crop Of Great Gardening Books
Talk of the Nation	What on Earth Evolved	Christopher	Lloyd
Talk of the Nation	Fingerprints of God	Barbara Bradley	Hagerty
Weekend Edition Saturday	Inventory	The A.V.	Club
Weekend Edition Saturday	Highest Duty	Chelsy	Sullenberger
Weekend Edition Saturday	Ounce, Dice, Trice	Alastair	Reid
Weekend Edition Saturday	Why cant U teach me 2 read	Beth	Fertig
Weekend Edition Saturday	Churchill	Paul	Johnson
Weekend Edition Sunday	Dracula is Dead	Jim	Rosapepe

NPR Books Watch — 12/4-12/10

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: 22 (21 last week)

All Things Considered: 6 (4 LW)

Diane Rehm: 3 (4 LW)

Fresh Air: 3 (2 LW)

Morning Edition: 2 (2 LW)

NPR.org: 2 (1 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 2 (4 LW)

Tell Me More: 1 (2 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2 (0 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (2 LW)

All Things Considered	From Dickens Himself, Notes On ‘A Christmas Carol’
All Things Considered	Surviving Against the Odds	S. Ann	Dunham
All Things Considered	You Must Read This / Mrs. Bridge	Evan	Connell
All Things Considered	Three Books … / Afghanistan Unveiled In Three Eye-Opening Accounts
All Things Considered	Nadirs	Herta	Mueller
All Things Considered	Black Book, The	Toni	Morrison
Diane Rehm	When Art Worked	Roger G.	Kennedy
Diane Rehm	Yours Ever	Tom	Mallon
Diane Rehm	Moon River and Me	Andy	Williams
Fresh Air	Book Suggestions For A Passionate Holiday
Fresh Air	Thelonious Monk	Robin D.G.	Kelley
Fresh Air	To Live or to Perish Forever	Nicholas	Schmidle
Morning Edition	You Can’t Put A Bow On An E-Book
Morning Edition	Librarian Nancy Pearl’s Under-The-Radar Gift Books
NPR.org	World Of Novels: Picks For Best Foreign Fiction
NPR.org	2009’s Best Young Adult Fiction (Mostly)
Talk of the Nation	Black Is The New White	Paul	Mooney
Talk of the Nation	Seven	Jacqueline	Leo
Tell Me More	Does Sarah Palin’s Journey Contradict Her Politics?
Weekend Edition Saturday	Thank Heaven	Leslie	Caron
Weekend Edition Saturday	Superfreakonomics	Steve	Levitt
Weekend Edition Sunday	Heidegger and a Hippo	Thomas	Cathcart

NPR Books Watch — 11/27-12/3

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: 21 (30 last week, but really, the week of 11/13-11/19)

All Things Considered: 4 (6 LW)

Diane Rehm: 4 (3 LW)

Fresh Air: 2 (2 LW)

Morning Edition: 2 (3 LW)

NPR.org: 1 (4 LW)

Talk of the Nation: 4 (9LW)

Tell Me More: 2 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Saturday: 0 (1 LW)

Weekend Edition Sunday: 2 (1 LW)

All Things Considered	Raymond Carver	Carol	Sklenicka
All Things Considered	Three Books … / These Aren’t Your Geek’s Graphic Novels
All Things Considered	River Gods, The	Brian	Kitely
All Things Considered	My Guilty Pleasure / Eat, Pray, Love	Elizabeth	Gilbert
Diane Rehm	Annie’s Ghosts*	Steve	Luxenberg
Diane Rehm	Bringing It to the Table	Wendell	Berry
Diane Rehm	Stones into Schools	Greg	Mortenson
Diane Rehm	Surviving Against the Odds	Maya	Soetoro-Ng
Fresh Air	Dangerously Funny	David	Bianculli
Fresh Air	Up In The Air (Movie tie-in)	Walter	Kirn
Morning Edition	Neil Gaiman Asks: Heard Any Good Books Lately?
Morning Edition	Season’s Readings
NPR.org	Best Five Books To Share With Your Friends
Talk of the Nation	Making of a Stand Up Guy	Charlie	Murphy
Talk of the Nation	Pops	Terry	Teachout
Talk of the Nation	Our Insatiable Appetite For Cookbooks
Talk of the Nation	A Climate Change Reading List For Laypeople
Tell Me More	Without Fidel	Ann Louise	Bardach
Tell Me More	Murder in the Name of Honor	Rana	Husseini
Weekend Edition Sunday	Poor Man’s Provence	Rheta Grimsley	Johnson
Weekend Edition Sunday	Reality Behind Fantasy Fiction

Things to be thankful for

As it became clear this Thanksgiving weekend exactly how un-thankful some are, I thought I would focus instead on some (book publicity-related) things for which I am thankful.

– Informative blogs.  I wish I had more time to keep up with media and publishing blogs (many of which are listed on my blogroll).

– Mobile apps.  Applications like Facebook, Open Beak and Tweetdeck that run on mobile phones / PDAs are incredibly useful for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues and for staying abreast of the news.

– File sharing.  I’m a sucker for all things Google, but you have to admit, these crazy kids have a good thing going.  Google Calendar allows author and publicist to share a book tour itinerary.  Google Docs can also be used for sharing itineraries (or press material).  Google Wave, a mash-up of sorts between Google Groups, Google Docs and plain vanilla email, is the hot new app these days, although it’s being beta tested now so you can only use it if you have an invite.  (And if you have been invited, please realize that it is, in fact, your patriotic duty to accept and help test the product.)

– Syndication.  We’re all busy,  so one of my favorite book publicity tools is Booktour.com.  I enter author events on this site and they’re automatically picked up by numerous online calendars and websites.  Events also appear on the writer’s Author Page on Amazon.

– My colleagues.  I went to my 15th-year high school reunion this weekend and was asked — probably about 15 times — if I like what I do.  And the answer is that after 10 years at my publishing house, I can honestly say that I enjoy and am fulfilled by what  I do and appreciate and respect (most) of the people with whom I work, both colleagues as well as authors.

– All the lemons.  But let’s not go overboard with the love fest, here, because nothing’s perfect and it never will be.  The best I can hope for is that I’ll learn from my (and other people’s) mistakes, that I’ll gain valuable experience from any situation no matter how frustrating or infuriating and that I will think of silver linings / making lemonade instead of hiring a hit man.  (Oh, wait — did I say that out loud?)

– Frozen yogurt.  Well, life’s not *all* about book publicity.

***

As an author / book publicist, what are you thankful for?

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.