NPR Books Watch — 5/21-5/27
One convention down; one to go. Friday is BBC (Book Blogger Convention).
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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.
* indicates the interview is a rebroadcast.
***
TOTAL book stories for the past week: 17 (26 last week)
All Things Considered: 2 (2 LW)
Diane Rehm: 3 (5 LW)
Fresh Air: 2 (4 LW)
Morning Edition: 3 (3 LW)
NPR.org: 3 (4 LW)
Talk of the Nation: 1 (3 LW)
Tell Me More: 1 (1 LW)
Weekend Edition Saturday: 1 (2 LW)
Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (2 LW)
| All Things Considered | Food Styling | Delores | Custer |
| All Things Considered | You Must Read This … / Night Soldiers | Alan | Furst |
| Diane Rehm | Passages in Caregiving* | Gail | Sheehy |
| Diane Rehm | Slow Love | Dominique | Browning |
| Diane Rehm | Bottled and Sold | Peter | Gleick |
| Fresh Air | Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, The | Stieg | Larsson |
| Fresh Air | Private Life | Jane | Smiley |
| Morning Edition | Rush Limbaugh | Zev | Chafets |
| Morning Edition | Upper House, The | Terence | Samuel |
| Morning Edition | Emily Dickinson’s Garden | Marta | McDowell |
| NPR.org | Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House | Meghan | Daum |
| NPR.org | What We’re Reading: May 25-31 | ||
| NPR.org | Anthropology of an American Girl | Hilary Thayer | Hamann |
| Talk of the Nation | Finding Chandra | Scott | Higham |
| Tell Me More | Blueprint, The | Kirk | Franklin |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Dangerous Book of Heroes, The | Conn | Iggulden |
| Weekend Edition Sunday | Carrier | Bonnie | Rough |
BEA
I must admit — I am egg-hausted (as is the rest of the book publishing industry). Tuesday, I attended the opening CEO panel about “The Value of the Book” at Book Expo America (and very nearly fell off my seat when Farrar, Straus & Giroux’s President and Publisher Jonathan Galassi scoffed at the thought of consumers spending time reading enhanced ebooks) and also the 7x20x21 panel about the future of publishing. Wednesday, I helped hold down the fort at the booth and met lots of folks including Michelle from Galleysmith, Trish from Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’?, Nicole from Linus’s Blanket, and Stephanie from Stephanie’s Written Word. I’m really looking forward to catching up with lots more book bloggers this Friday at Book Blogger Convention.
Ironically, for a conference at which change was the buzz word — changes in traditional book publishing, changes in the media, changes in reader habits — BEA was held in the Neanderthal version of a convention hall otherwise known as the Javits Center. As many tweeps know, I have been complaining bitterly on Twitter about the lack of extra power outlets there. Has anyone ever heard of a convention center that did not have extra power outlets? Even in the Internet Cafe?! So of course my laptop started dying, then my MiFi card (I think I saw somewhere that the Javits Center was charging $45 / day for WiFi access), then my cell phone. (In all fairness, the lack of 2.0 amenities is not BEA’s fault — the Javits Center has a monopoly on, well, space in Manhattan, so they pretty much call all the shots.)
Thursday I’ll be on the floor pretty much all day, which means I most definitely deserve a reward from Cupcake Cafe.
NPR Books Watch — 5/14-5/20
So who’s in town next week for BEA? And of course, BBC (Book Blogger Convention), on Friday, May 28. (I’m really excited to be joining some fellow bloggers on the marketing panel!)
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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.
* indicates the interview is a rebroadcast.
***
TOTAL book stories for the past week: 26
All Things Considered: 2 (2 LW)
Diane Rehm: 5 (4 LW)
Fresh Air: 4 (2 LW)
Morning Edition: 3 (1 LW)
NPR.org: 4 (4 LW)
Talk of the Nation: 3 (3 LW)
Tell Me More: 1 (1 LW)
Weekend Edition Saturday: 2 (1 LW)
Weekend Edition Sunday: 2 (1 LW)
| All Things Considered | Reluctant Fundamentalist, The | Mohsin | Hamid |
| All Things Considered | Revolutionaries | Jack | Rakove |
| Diane Rehm | Anthill* | E.O. | Wilson |
| Diane Rehm | Undaunted* | Zoya | Phan |
| Diane Rehm | Mosque In Munich, A | Ian | Johnson |
| Diane Rehm | Other Wes Moore, The | Wes | Moore |
| Diane Rehm | Actor and a Gentleman, A | Louis | Gossett Jr. |
| Fresh Air | Bottled and Sold | Peter | Gleick |
| Fresh Air | Somewhere Inside | Laura | Ling |
| Fresh Air | Slow Love | Dominique | Browning |
| Fresh Air | Tattoos on the Heart | Father Gregory | Boyle |
| Morning Edition | Ilustrado | Miguel | Syjuco |
| Morning Edition | End of the Free Market, The | Peter | Bremmer |
| Morning Edition | Dead Republic, The | Roddy | Doyle |
| NPR.org | Long Song, The | Andrea | Levy |
| NPR.org | Island Beneath the Sea | Isabel | Allende |
| NPR.org | Private Life | Jane | Smiley |
| NPR.org | Pregnant Widow, The | Martin | Amis |
| Talk of the Nation | Nomad | Ayaan Hirsi | Ali |
| Talk of the Nation | Invisible Gorrilla, The | Christopher | Chabris |
| Talk of the Nation | Kill Shakespeare | Conor | McCreery |
| Tell Me More | Foxy | Pam | Grier |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Innocent | Scott | Turow |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Last Hero, The | Howard | Bryant |
| Weekend Edition Sunday | Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover? | Julian | Baggini |
| Weekend Edition Sunday | Red Pyramid, The | Rick | Riordan |
NPR Books Watch — 5/7-5/12
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.
* indicates the interview is a rebroadcast.
***
TOTAL book stories for the past week: 25 (25 last week)
All Things Considered: 2 (2 LW)
Diane Rehm: 4 (3 LW)
Fresh Air: 2 (2 LW)
Morning Edition: 1 (3 LW)
NPR.org: 4 (6 LW)
Talk of the Nation: 3 (2 LW)
Tell Me More: 1 (1 LW)
Weekend Edition Saturday: 1 (4 LW)
Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (1LW)
| All Things Considered | Blue Moment, The | Richard | Williams |
| All Things Considered | Great Oom, The | Robert | Love |
| Diane Rehm | Island Beneath the Sea | Isabel | Allende |
| Diane Rehm | Undaunted | Zoya | Phan |
| Diane Rehm | Feed Your Pet Right | Marion | Nestle |
| Diane Rehm | Passages in Caregiving | Gail | Sheehy |
| Fresh Air | Last Call | Daniel | Okrent |
| Fresh Air | Game from Where I Stand | Doug | Glanville |
| Morning Edition | War | Sebastian | Junger |
| NPR.org | Heroes for My Son | Brad | Meltzer |
| NPR.org | What We’re Reading, May 11-17 | ||
| NPR.org | Parrot and Olivier in America | Peter | Carey |
| NPR.org | Troll King, The | Kolbein | Karlsson |
| Talk of the Nation | Father Of Us All | Victor Davis | Hanson |
| Talk of the Nation | Red Families V. Blue Families | Naomi | Cahn |
| Talk of the Nation | Teach Like A Champion | Doug | Lemov |
| Tell Me More | Mom Still Likes You Best | Jane | Isay |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Day for Night | Frederick | Reiken |
| Weekend Edition Sunday | Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday | Laura | Burnett |
NPR Books Watch — 4/30-5/6
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.
* indicates the interview is a rebroadcast.
***
TOTAL book stories for the past week: 25 (25 last week)
All Things Considered: 2 (3 LW)
Diane Rehm: 3 (4 LW)
Fresh Air: 2 (3 LW)
Morning Edition: 3 (5 LW)
NPR.org: 6 (4 LW)
Talk of the Nation: 2 (3 LW)
Tell Me More: 1 (1 LW)
Weekend Edition Saturday: 4 (2 LW)
Weekend Edition Sunday: 1 (1LW)
| All Things Considered | Outnumbered | Cormac | O’Brien |
| All Things Considered | Spoken from the Heart | Laura | Bush |
| Diane Rehm | Red Thread, The | Ann | Hood |
| Diane Rehm | Walk in My Shoes* | Andrew | Young |
| Diane Rehm | Island Beneath the Sea | Isabel | Allende |
| Fresh Air | Publisher, The | Alan | Brinkley |
| Fresh Air | Stuff | Randy O. | Frost |
| Morning Edition | Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, The | Phillip | Pullman |
| Morning Edition | Wide Awake | Patricia | Morrisroe |
| Morning Edition | Life is What You Make It | Peter | Buffett |
| NPR.org | Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself | David | Lipsky |
| NPR.org | What We’re Reading, May 4-10 | ||
| NPR.org | Invisible Bridge | Julie | Orringer |
| NPR.org | I, Zombie | Chris | Roberson |
| NPR.org | For Better | Tara | Parker-Pope |
| NPR.org | Wilson | Daniel | Clowes |
| Talk of the Nation | Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House | Meghan | Daum |
| Talk of the Nation | Stroke Diaries | Olajide | Williams |
| Tell Me More | Council of Dads | Bruce | Feiler |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Get Capone | Jonathan | Eig |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Rewired | Larry | Rosen |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Lives Our Mothers Leave Us | Patti | Davis |
| Weekend Edition Saturday | Get Capone | Jonathan | Eig |
| Weekend Edition Sunday | 52 Loaves | William | Alexander |
Road rash: Lessons learned by an author
Charles Shields, author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, has been promoting his book since its publication in 2006, and kindly offered some tips about radio interviews.
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If you’re a bit of geek, radio interviews are exciting! You get to visit the studio and see all the equipment. Or, even if you’re just interviewed by phone, you get to overhear all the “backstage” chatter. Here’s what to do to make your radio interviews increase your book sales.
- The 15-minute rule: be at the station 15 minutes early to get comfortable and have a sound check; be at your phone 15 minutes early because the station will call you and also do a sound check.
- Know the host’s name and use it several times: DJs have to make a living and want their audiences to think they’re well-connected.
- Know the region in which your interview is airing. Could be some weather-related event there that deserves your sympathy (hurricane) or admiration (springtime in the Rockies).
- Have five-six talking points written out in case the host asks boring questions, or strays from the book, or you don’t know what to say. NEVER wing it. One of these talking points should be the most interesting experience you had writing the book. A lot of interviewers will ask that.
- Speak slowly — listeners haven’t heard your voice and are trying to imagine you. This also will calm you down, if you’re nervous.
- Never tell an dicey anecdote or joke. In a country as diverse as ours, you could easily offend someone. But it’s okay to be humorous.
- Steer the interview back around to your book. Softball questions like, “So, do you like writing?” won’t sell your book.
- Thank the host effusively, not just “thanks.” You just got free advertising that would have cost big, big money!
- Immediately afterward, note the name of the station, the location, and the time of the interview in your promo journal. For your next book, a publisher will want to know your publicity track record.
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What are some of your radio tips?
