Promoting author events on event listing websites
Atlanta’s Wordsmiths Books closed up shop yesterday, becoming the latest bookseller to fall victim to our foundering economy. As book publicists, we always try to schedule print and broadcast interviews in advance of bookstore talks to drive readers to the stores (where they will, presumably, buy books). This technique is somewhat dicey these days, not the least because the journalists themselves are facing layoffs.
Fortunately, a slew of websites have emerged that list and categorize author events. These include BookTour and LibraryThing Local. BookTour has lots of partnerships with other organizations including Indiebound and Goodreads, the idea being that you submit information once and it automatically appears on multiple sites. (The downside is that information can easily and inadvertently be duplicated.)
Bookforum Magazine is starting its own events calendar (similar to Artforum’s events calendar) at the end of the month / early next. Details of author talks (anywhere in the country) should be sent to Marketing Director Valerie Cortes at valerie[at]bookforum[dot]com. Or, you can simply include Valerie on your tour mailing list if that is more convenient:
Valerie Cortes
Marketing Director
Bookforum Magazine
350 Seventh Ave
Fl 19
New York, NY 10001
Another way to draw readers to an event is to hone in on the right readers. Yesterday evening, for example, I attended Lady Jane’s Salon, a reading series dedicated to romance fiction. A group of about 30 ladies (and gents) had packed into a Houston-street bar — a respectable crowd at any time, but particularly admirable given that the event succeeded New York City’s biggest snow storm of the season.
Gabi from Viking Penguin suggests using the site Meetup to find like-minded individuals. Groups are listed by location and interest and are run by moderators. Some groups are pretty general, like the outdoor adventurers who belong to The Next Adventure; others, like the the New York Turkish Coffee Group, have rather more specific interests. Like many networking sites, Meetup requires registration and groups must be contacted individually, so it takes time to list events (which are only listed with the approval of the moderator). Still, if you’ve written a book about Turkish coffee, where else can you reach out to 259 people professing a love for Turkish coffee? Actually, possibly at a site like Eventful.
With so many event listings sites available, book publicists can’t realistically take the time to submit information to each one, so authors, if you have time to lend a hand … No doubt I’ve left out other sites that list author talks nationwide. What are some of your favorite?
Time zone confusion
On Friday evening at 5:32 p.m., I received an email message from a radio host in California informing me that a requested book still had not arrived and that she needed the book by the weekend preferably, Monday at the latest. I don’t think I need to tell you how that one ended.
Fortunately, most people on the West Coast are attuned to the schedules of their cross-country counterparts (although hopefully this will serve as a reminder too). What can get really tricky for a book publicist is when we’re dealing with a host in one time zone vs. our own time zone vs. an author’s time zone. Throw in an overseas author (or host / reporter) and we’re screwed. Which is where a site like World Time Server comes in handy. Real handy.
You can not only look up the current time in any time zone in the world, but you can also input the time in one time zone and “translate” the time to another using the Time Zone Converter. (You can add a date as well to account for daylight savings.) For example, if a radio host in Kona wants to conduct an interview at noon in Hawaii, you can tell your author in Zurich, that would be 11 p.m. for him / her. (If you were me, you might also start playing around with the converter to see what time an interview in Coeur d’Alene, ID would be for an author based in, say, Lake Placid, NY, although I realize you probably have much better things to do with your time.)
One technique I have for trying to eliminate time zone confusion when I’m scheduling interviews for authors is to list both the host’s / reporter’s as well as the author’s time zone (if they are in different parts of the country). So rather than just telling an author in San Francisco that an interview with a New York host is at noon PT, I’ll write out “noon PT / 3 p.m. ET.” (Or, as has happened in the past, “6 p.m. PT / 3 p. m. ET.” When I’m looking at that written out, I — or the author or an assistant or someone – am likely to catch it; if all I’ve written on the schedule is “6 p.m. PT,” it’s unlikely anyone will realize anything is amiss until an irate host calls about a missed interview.)
When it comes to time zones, Google Calendar, one of my new favorite applications, just isn’t up to snuff. If you use the time function, it will change depending on the users time zone. If I, on the East Coast, enter an author event at 7 p.m. ET, an author in Chicago will see it at 6 p.m. CT. I’ve ended up not using the time function, i.e., marking an event / interview as “All Day” and then I add the time to the event name, e.g., “7 p.m. ET — Main Street Books.” (Dear Google — I wish there were way to turn off the time zone function in the Calendar …)
Anyone else have any tricks to help you keep your time zones straight?
