Yes, these links will brighten the day, I just know it. First, a link to the After Words (C-Span) interview with Tierney Cahill, a lovely client - well worth the time, believe me - you're the real deal, Tierney! And here is a link to my latest review in the Oregonian of Portland Noir - as with many short story collections, it's a very mixed bag...but when it's good, it's very good...
Otherwise, I think I'll just leave it here for now.
Oh poor neglected bloggie. Days rush by, moods are up, moods are down and one feels, well, sort of disengaged, virtually, that is...Since several of you - okay, a couple, seem to find the entries about publicity of interest, I have bee thinking about what I could write, after my masterpiece concerning what we can and can't do. Plus, I have a new mac mini and damn, it's SO FAST, GEE WHIZ, I never..
Anyway.
I was lucky enough to work on Eve Pell's downright enthralling memoir, We Used to Own the Bronx. I had a feeling from the start that this book would be a) fun to work on, b) of interest to many, and c) a hit, of sorts. I was right. The book has done very well and Eve also had much success in NYC recently. See her website for links galore.
As a publicist - and this blog's "name" is meant to be humorous but true, too, you get used to people saying no or worse, people saying nothing, when you try to get da media involved. But this time - and trust me kids, it really does happen fairly often - getting coverage was not akin to pulling teeth and banging head against wall. True, Eve is well known and friendly and articulate, but even so, in the end, it's about content - and timing, to be sure.
When you get to work with a book that hits a nerve - be it fiction or not, there has to be SOME angle, some way to capture the interest of the public and the media.The tricky part - okay, the depressing part - is that often we work on books that are extremely well written, deserve lot's of attention, have some cultural relevance, etc etc - but because they fall into a nebulous gray area - not topical, to literary, bad timing, people are just fucking stupid in the media...things don't happen, even though they should...
Eve's book and its attendant success - at least from my perspective - is what keeps you going. I've always joked that I live vicariously through my cleints - but guess what? When it comes to the 9-5 (okay, 9-4) life, it's all too true.
I know, I know, it's always SO exciting when Rejection posts a new book review from the only place still allowing me space, The Oregonian. But try to contain yourselves, please. This is a review of a new novel by T. Jefferson Parker, The Renegades. You can read it here. The review is perhaps of mild interest because it points out a key issue for readers of mystery fiction: the ability to "suspend disbelief" and what authors do that makes it difficult, if not impossible. When we read crime fiction or mysteries, we know going in that much of what will happen in the story is not what would occur in real life - regular people don't turn into crack detectives and trap criminals or find missing loved ones. But when a skilled writer tells a story so convincingly we forget that it's not a fantasy, and the alternative universe we become submerged in is every bit as persuasive as the real life we actually lead. It takes a number of elements, expertly orchestrated for this to happen, and for me, a key one is plausible actions and dialog from characters, particularly the protagonist and supporting cast. In The Renegades, although Parker tells an amusing, sometimes exciting story, he falls flat on his face in this department. His lead protagonist doesn't act his age, nor does a 17 year old boy, who spouts off laughable lines and then does martial arts like Bruce Lee. Sorry, T, just couldn't buy it.
Just as your car - at least out here in the vast West - becomes an extension of your home, the bloggie becomes a representation of your inner life. Or something like that. As a result of a 4:30am revelation - yes, one of those kind, I decided to take down that negative crap of recent weeks and start anew. It's still Rejection Central, of course, but I want to focus on tangibles. Like this: Eve Pell on KQED Forum - what a great interview about her book, We Used to Own the Bronx. I couldn't put it down when I read it in galley and had the feeling this would make a splash when it was published and damn if I wasn't right.
And let me call your attention to a bit of classic Tod Goldberg, from a post called This is what it means to say Tucson, Arizona. There's little I enjoy more than Tod's recounting his strange encounters whilst on the road.
That's it for now, stay tuned.
When you are a publicist, you deal with many different types of people. And since you often end up spending a considerable amount of time with them, you soon learn their particular strengths and weaknesses, much the way a teacher learns her students' abilities, or a management type comes to understand the dynamics of the work place around them. A cross section of society, then, is what we deal with. And like any widely diverse bunch of humanity, there are nice people, there are not-so nice people and everything in between.
I've had clients who have had meltdowns, bad marriages, hissy fits, abusive behavior towards little ole' me and just plain general lameness. Thankfully, these people are not the norm - if they were I'm sure I'd be somewhere else by now.
As much as one wants to like all one's clients, (and many have gone on to become friends long after a job has ended) it's just not possible. Partly this is because not everybody clicks and that's fine, but it's also a function of what the client thinks you should be and what you are in reality.
1) We are not your therapist. Yes, we will listen to your stories of stupid editors, low event turnouts, rude store employees, low sales, dashed hopes. But c'mon, we are here to enhance, not be prey to your vampiric needs. I had a client who complained that I wasn't giving them enough "compliments". I wasn't gushing over good reviews and I wasn't enthusiastic about what efforts they themselves were putting forth. Guess what? It's your fucking book, and you should be charging ahead, hired a publicist or not. It's not really about you - it's about doing the job and hopefully helping you.
2) We can't always read every word of your book. Yup. We do understand how much of you is in that book - we respect you immensely for writing it. We certainly want to be familiar with its content, its style, its quality - but you are not our only client. And to sit here and read every word of every book (although exceptions are not infrequent!) we are working on is flat out impossible - when would the work get done? The media won't read your book either. And that's where we can help. That's why we pitch you in a way that is enticing. Well, we try anyway.
3) The more you annoy us, the less we seem to be able to do. Funny, huh? Sounds unprofessional. Sounds childish. Sad perhaps, but true.
4) I've had many people think that by hiring me they will magically get reviewed. Just like that. Of course, now that hardly any of the traditional venues for books getting reviewed exist anymore, this may not be an issue much longer. It's true that sometimes it all falls into place, the editor listens to us - when we get their attention -- but most of the time the decsions are made regardess of our desires. Shocking, isn't it?
5) Despite all the above, don't forget that we live our work lives vicariously - through you. We get a real buzz when the NPR interview comes through. We are happy to get up at 7am on a Saturday morning to see your appearance on the morning news. We are thrilled to see the feature in the insert name here paper. Hell, we like to see the little "best bets" things that are sometimes all we can get for you.
6) We can't work those glorious miracles all the time, but trust me, we want to.
In light of a recent episode with a (former) client, I felt like it would be a good idea to end the week with a brief description of just what hiring a publicist for your forthcoming book may or may not accomplish. Now, truth be told, it would be way more fun to write what we don't do - what the client can't expect, so I will do that soon.
1) we try (and let me say further that unquestionably, there are many slimy and stupid and worthless publicists out there who tarnish the righteous ones, um, like me) to get attention to your book/event/talk. Sounds simple, doesn't it? It's not. Competition is fierce, space is limited and while you and I know your work is of utmost importance, sometimes those myopic magazine editors/newspaper reporters/radio show producers/bloggers/websites fail to agree. Lord knows why.
2) We use our contacts, many cultivated and built up or bribed I mean coddled over the years, god knows I have watched those years fly by, too. The client is paying for our experience, our imagination, our hopefully realistic approach to getting said attention, one way or another.
3) we all have areas we do better in than others. I'm not a person you should ask about your business book. (although Regis McKenna, to drop a name, was quite happy with me!) Your book on horseback riding - another example. But give me some juicy political content, some environmental tract, some travel writing, some literary fiction (on occasion, what do you think we are, fucking magicians??) and I might - might be able to help.
4) why do we cost so much? Get out. Because like you, we have overhead - kids in college, office expenses, wives who want mink coats, stuff like that. And more importantly, we are willing to do things that you would look kinda silly at best doing for yourself. Like the fun task of cold calling, to name just ONE. We represent you, and because we (think) we have a degree of credibility, we can often get to people and places you may not even know about.
5) Yes, sometimes we fail. We fail to get that extra attention you deserve. We fail to meet your expectations (more on that doozy next week). We fail to meet that perfect configuration: right time, right place, baby.
6) But know this: we try, we really do.
more next week: how clients fail and why.
It's a little known fact that many think being a publicist is all about long lunches, hip and cool authors, good looking personal assistants and generally lubricious conversations in out of the way wine bars, like this one. Well, kids, it's just not so. No, in reality, much of our time here on the publicity frontlines is spent stuffing books and papers into envelopes and boxes. Sitting at the computer on the UPS web site. Printing press material, only to find out that the fucking printer has clogged heads and by unclogging them you have used up the remaining ink and so you have to leave and interrupt your rhythm and drive to Office Depot to buy replacements.
Oh well, somebody has to do it.
I'm working on the Tierney Cahill book, the new WritersCorps book from City Lights, about to start on a very unusual project about the history of women cops, and then a laff-riot called the White Guy: A field manual. Eve Pell's incredibly compelling memoir, We Used to Own the Bronx is about to launch as well.
Really, in the end, I'm pretty darn lucky to be able to do what I do. It's completely unnerving much of the time - can you spell "cash flow issues"? But still....
so here we are. Isn't it interesting how we can feel so GOOD now that Bush is gone, yet feel so nervous now, even though Obama is here to save the world?
But for me, in the end, this photo
says it all. All.
Here at Rejectionville, the rejection was rather objectionable in December. But now it's not December, so that's a good thing. Work has begun trickling in, and I'm looking forward to yet another collaboration with the ever prolific and excellent Madame Mayo, as her new book, THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE comes in May from the lit fic house Unbridled Books. It also looks like I am going to be working with Tierney Cahill, and boy does she have a story to tell - well, actually, she already has told it, but we want more people to hear it - you know, it's a publicity kind of thing....it's not official yet, so don't tell anyone until I give the secret sign.
Holtuncensored is off to a rollicking re-start and for that we are thankful.
Here's hoping things improve for my pal, dear Names4Things and I'm sure they will.
And finally, something I truly need to grasp: (and to paraphrase the Rolling Stones) clients are like streetcars..they come and they go.
I'm going now, too.
So, it gets even better (too bad the author's been dead for several years...) Metropole is now on the long list of translated literature honcho 3 percent's list of "best translated book of 2008.
Live it up Ferenc, old boy.
But there's even more: Jessa Crispin was scheduled to talk about Metropole on Chicago Tonight, a PBS show in - right, Chicago. But as I can't find a ref to her in their archives, I'm thinking that Mr foul mouth Gov was the topic of conversation and thus, the literary crap got pushed to the side.
But I could be wrong.
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