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 |
