The Book Publicity Blog

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), subject category and interview hyperlink.

TOTAL book stories these past week: 17

All Things Considered: 6

BookTour: 1

Bryant Park Project: 1

Morning Edition: 3

Talk of the Nation: 5

Tell Me More: 1

Bella Stander from Reading Under the Covers posts about the trials and tribulations of the book publicist.  On the other side of the fence, Ed Champion of Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits vents about the frustrations of dealing with wacky book publicists.

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Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists posts about the different types of book trailers (including the “elevator pitch,” the “graphic montage” and the “author field trip.”)

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GalleyCat reports that W. W. Norton is using a Twitter account to update readers on authors in town.  I pretty much haven’t had time to log in to my Twitter account since, well, I set it up, but that all sounds good.  (I did just try logging on to Twitter to check out the Norton account but it’s taking a *really* long time.)

For those of you who work on (or are interested in) translations, Chad Post of Three Percent has posted an updated translation database of all works in translation published this year.  This is truly a work of art.

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Since I know we now all have Kindles (not), you may want to check CollegeDegrees.com for some Kindle tips.  Don’t be mislead by the post’s title (Hack Your Kindle) — most of the tips are pretty basic and seem handy for a novice Kindle user.

Okay — not so morning brief anymore, but I forgot to send this before the morning marketing meeting and then I went to moderate the Publishers Publicity Association lunch panel.

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Paper Cuts reports on the New Haven Review, a publication that reviews books that have *not* been reviewed in other major publications.  Bless them.

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Miriam from Hachette sent along this link yesterday to a review on YouTube of Child 44 (yes, published by Hachette) that was also picked up by GalleyCat this morning.  As of this morning, the video had been viewed 200 times — not a lot for YouTube, but hey, 200 times more than if it hadn’t been posted.

Abby from Viking Penguin passed on this link from the (London) Guardian that summarizes a decade of changes in the book industry, from the advent of Amazon to the Kindle.

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The PR blog Catching Flack talks about why people are resisting social media including lack of understanding and the belief that blogging does not improve image or productivity.  Hmm …

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), subject category and interview hyperlink.

TOTAL book stories these past two weeks: 41

All Things Considered: 6

BookTour: 2

The Bryant Park Project: 4

Day to Day: 2

Fresh Air: 8

Morning Edition: 6

Talk of the Nation: 6

Tell Me More: 2

Weekend Edition Saturday: 2

Weekend Edition Sunday: 3

Ben from Viking Penguin reports that WNYC is moving.  As of June 16, the new address and main phone number is:

160 Varick St

New York, NY 10013

646-829-4040

Don’t know if you might need to log in to view this Wall Street Journal piece on book trailers, so I’ll pull out a few facts that hit me:

“There is scant evidence, however, that the average book trailer actually has much impact on book sales. Despite Doubleday’s recent video upload for the self-help book ‘We Plan, God Laughs,’ by Sherre Hirsch, the book has sold only about 3,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70% of U.S. book sales. And even though Jami Attenberg’s trailer for her novel ‘The Kept Man’ is reminiscent of Miranda July’s short films, only 3,000 copies of Ms. Attenberg’s recent book have sold. Most trailers cost about $2,000 to produce.”

On the other hand, Jen Lancaster’s book trailer for Such a Pretty Fat apparently got her bookings on morning shows across the country.  And the trailer for The Average American Male garnered thousands of views on YouTube and the book has sold 25,000 copies.

Looks like the jury’s still out on this one …

If you’re an author considering blogging (or someone in publishing encouraging an author to blog), keep in mind that actually writing the blog is only one part of the equation.  Another piece of the puzzle is getting people to read the blog.  Social media guru Chris Brogan explains how to get and expand an audience for a blog.  Copyblogger also posts about how to increase blog traffic.

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Booktour.com, a site that lists author events across the country, has made some changes, including providing an interactive map of events in your area.

Big author tour (and a race this weekend) so I didn’t get a chance to put together the NPR Books Grid last week.  This Thursday’s will have two weeks of data.

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According to MediaBistro’s Revolving Door Newsletter from Friday, New York Times arts writer Lawrence Van Gelder is retiring.

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Jerome Weeks reports that former Dallas media escort Leonore Markowitz has passed away.