How to use this Page

The spring book festival season is underway. As a public service, here is a list of bad behavior I've observed and/or had to contend with.

Panel Moderator: 

1. Wait to contact panelists till two days before the event—or not at all. 
2. Be unfamiliar with panelists’ work: Not read author’s book (at least the first few chapters and website); not know who the literary agent represents; not know titles the editor has worked on. 
3. Have no agenda for the panel, or a vague one, e.g., “I will read brief introductions, and each of you should speak for 12-15 minutes. Then we will take a few questions.” 
4. Let panelists talk for so long that there’s no time for audience Q&A. (This happened with the panel in #3.) 
5. Talk a lot about yourself or read from your own book. Your job is to help the panelists shine. If they look brilliant, so will you. 

Panelist: 

1. Cancel at the last minute because you just realized that the finances won’t work for you. Or cancel due to “family reasons”—but keep the plane ticket the organizers paid for. 
2. Author: Leave book at home, or not have a reading figured out—and practiced!—beforehand. Agent/editor: Leave business cards at home. 
3. Read for 15 minutes when you’re asked to read for five. 
4. Monopolize the conversation and/or interrupt other panelists. 
5. Belittle the moderator (“If you’d read my book…"), other panelists (“I can’t believe you’d say such a stupid thing!”) or audience members (“If you’d been listening, you wouldn’t need to ask that question.”) 

Audience:

1. Leave your cellphone ringer on. 
2. Give copies of your manuscript or self-published book to panelists. 
3. Pitch your book during Q&A session. 
4. Ask self-serving questions instead of general ones. (“Why didn’t you answer the query I sent you six months ago?” vs. “What should a writer do if an agent hasn’t responded to their query after six months?”) 
5. Engage a panelist in lengthy conversation afterwards, when there’s a line of people waiting behind you. 

  I'll be at VaBook Festival next week. Now go forth and be good!

Add a Comment

Beyond the Margins unveils their bright new site design along with this: Toot It, Don’t Blow It: Interview with Book Promotion Expert Bella Stander. Included: My list of what should be on an author website.

On SheWrites, Lori Tharps (whom I met at this year's VaBook Festival), offers Countdown to Publication: My PR To Do List for her new novel, SUBSTITUTE ME.

Add a Comment

(This just in from a YA author who, for obvious reasons, wishes to remain anonymous.)

Prior to my publication date, I wisely took Book Promotion 101 and got Bella's handy dandy packet o' info. In that packet was the hilarious poem "The Book of My Enemy has Been Remaindered," which made me laugh aloud because I was sure that such a thing would NEVER happen to me.

Oh, how wrong I was.

But first, let me recap what the publicity department at my publisher did for me. They sent my book to reviewers. As far as I can tell, that's about it.

The book was universally well reviewed, and was placed on an important annual reading list for teachers and librarians nationwide. Not bad for a first-timer.

Beyond sending the book out to reviewers, I'm not sure what my publicity person did because I couldn't get anything else out of her. I tried to be helpful, I asked if there was anything I could do--if they wanted a bio or photo or anything, but they didn't seem open or receptive to that.

So I took the hint, and did else myself, including booking appearances at numerous book festivals, setting up signings and school visits, getting newspaper articles, teen targeted web reviews and NPR interviews and, of course, doing the things I knew I'd be doing myself anyway, like printing up book cards, and getting my website up and running.

My first book fest was an inhouse publicity eye opener. I booked myself into this fest which was in the state where the book I wrote is set. A no-brainer, if you ask me. Because my book was set instate, there was a feature article on me in the Sunday arts section of the newspaper.

I contacted my inhouse publicity person well in advance of the fest and made sure she knew it was happening so she could alert the regional sales rep to see that all went well. She congratulated me and assured me that everything would be fine. Weeks later, I contacted her again to give her the newspaper article and to remind her of the festival dates. Once again, congratulations and assurances. I figured all was right with the world.

Then I arrived at the fest. No books. None. Nada. Zip.

Luckily, having taken Book Promotion 101, I was prepared with book cards and book plates to sign for the many people who would have bought my book if they could have. When I returned from the fest, I contacted my publicity person and told her that the fest was wonderful, except...well, that pesky little detail: no books.

Her reply? I should have told her I was doing the fest so she could have been sure that books would be there for me.

Like a far too polite trouper, I refrained from forwarding her the entire chain of emails between us about the fest, and assured her that next time, by golly, I'd absolutely tell her where I'd be appearing and when.

Without going into any more gory detail, this is the rest of what happened between me and my inhouse publicity department. I set up more appearances. I contacted my publicist. My calls didn't go through and my emails started bouncing back. She'd left the house, I hadn't been informed and had, in fact, been without a publicity person for weeks.

I was assigned her former assistant. Another book fest came and went with NO BOOKS. Emails began to bounce back from the former assistant. She too had left the house.

I was assigned another assistant. She cheerfully returned emails, and made sure my books were at the next fest, though by that time there was little else she could do for me, although I asked. My title was now over a year old and the house had written me off.

A couple months later, the house remaindered my book, and offered me copies at deep, deep discount: $1.49 a copy. I promptly ordered 300 copies, since I figured I'd been handselling the book anyway and might as well continue to do so.

Then, mere DAYS after my book was remaindered, it was nominated for a state book award. With this award, the state puts forth a master list of titles, students throughout the state have a full year to read books from the list and then vote on their favorite. Of course, students have to be able to GET the book to READ IT. A conundrum, no?

Also, I've been told by an author I know who won this state award last year, that being on the master list generates lots of school visits and book sales, and that most books on state awards lists are at least two years old; it takes that long for books to filter through librarians and teachers. My book was a full quarter shy of two years old. Prematurely remaindered, methinks.

My agent asked my editor if the house was keeping books in stock through their own website so students from this state could at least order it from the house. Three weeks have passed. As yet, we've had no reply.

To add insult to injury, the day the 300 copies of my book arrived at my house, the FedEx guy knocked at my door and told me to sign for delivery of a pallet loaded with 25 boxes of books that was dropped at the end of my driveway because, and I quote, "It's a curbside delivery. You want me to break up the pallet? It's another $75 bucks."

Luckily I have a hand truck, a healthy back, and an attic that's high & dry.

So, the book is for sale on my website, I've donated copies to a teen readers website for a monthly contest, I'm doing a summer event at a local bookstore as part of a teen readers series and I'll handsell the book and, generally, I'm pretty sanguine about the whole thing now.

And I'm sure that, in time, I'll laugh at "The Book of my Enemy has been Remaindered," again. But not just yet.

Add a Comment

One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about Gilbert King: how he got his opinion piece, Cruel and Unusual History (which has a great kicker in the last graf), into Wednesday's New York Times.

Are you ready?

King had submitted a similar piece to the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which was rejected by both. He figured "what the hell," and wrote another on Sunday night, which he emailed to the Times on Monday morning. "They got back to me right away," he says. And that was that.

Moral: Carpe diem!

Add a Comment

Meg McAllister, McAllister Rowan Communications Group, has an uplifting antidote to PW's A Day in the Life of a Book Publicist:

Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy what I do, and the joy I take in being a productive part of the publishing process and its ensuing marketing industry. My partner Darcie and I are known for our "straight-from-the-hip" assessments of the publishing industry and the business of marketing books, and thankfully people like Bella create sites like this where we can come together to share ideas, express concerns and...hopefully...enlighten one another from time to time.

Authors are VERY brave people! Just the act of putting words on a paper can be nerve-wracking, but then sending a book out there (like a mother sending her child off for the first day of school) into the big world to be savaged by agents, acquisition editors, publicists and media, should come with a Purple Heart. So why do you do it? Being somewhat jaded (but we hope terribly charming with it) marketers, Darcie and I have come to view authors as brands, and the books they write as tools in a larger plan/agenda.

But this week I was reminded in a big way that sometimes an author writes simply to tell a wonderful story, and in doing so share a part of themselves that impacts millions. If you don’t already know who Randy Pausch is, I urge you to learn, hear, and read more about him. A highly acclaimed professor from Carnegie Mellon, Randy is making news daily, not for his academic accolades, or his vast knowledge in the computer science field, but because he’s dying.

A relatively young (at 46 just a year older than I), vibrant, father of three, Randy has an aggressive and terminal case of pancreatic cancer. In September 2007 he was told that he would have a relatively short time left to live. Faced with a diagnosis that would send most of us into a flood of tears and a tub of Hagen Daaz, Randy instead agreed to take part in an academic tradition known as “The Last Lecture”. The premise of The Last Lecture is what insights and messages would we share with the world, if we knew this would be our last opportunity to do so. Randy addressed a standing room only crowd at Carnegie Mellon and talked not about achieving greatness, but about realizing childhood dreams; not about dealing with mortality, but living each day with renewed wonder and joy; and most importantly, not about achieving personal success, but helping others achieve theirs.

If you haven’t seen the lecture Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, I implore you to invest the 76-½ minutes to do so, because it could change your life. Also please consider reading THE LAST LECTURE, which expands on Randy’s story, the lecture, and the impact it’s had on people throughout the world .

Randy’s lecture reminded me why I do what I do for a living. I want to promote books (though alas I am not promoting his) that have a meaning and a purpose that transcends Amazon rankings, bestseller lists, and units sold. I want to open the door to ideas and discussion. And I guess in my own way, I want to achieve success by helping others realize their goals.

So the point of my story is this: When you think about why you want to publish, why you want to promote, start by asking yourself why you write, and what it is you’re hoping your reader will really gain from reading your book. And when you have those moments where you’re bogged down with writer's block and insecurities, or when you’re that jaded (did I remember to mention charming?) publicist dealing with stress and media rejection, or when you’re that beloved publishing consultant dealing with everyone else’s hysteria while courageously dealing with her own issues and demons, perhaps Randy’s signature phrase will offer some inspiration: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Add a Comment

From publicist extraordinaire Darcie Rowan, McAllister Rowan Communications Group:

The relationship between a publicist and author is a lot like a marriage. You meet, you date, you fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after – or not! Often, an author will call just one publicist and decide on the spot to hire them without seeking other proposals or checking any references. This is like proposing to your blind date before you've met. We’ve said before that authors should approach hiring a publicist as a savvy, informed consumer. So with apologies to David Letterman, here are...

The Top 10 Signs a Publicist May NOT be Right for You

10) If a publicist takes more than a day to return your call or email inquiry, chances are she [or he, but we'll use "she" from now on] isn’t eager to speak with you. Or worse, is too busy to speak with you.

9) If she can't supply you with at least three references to talk with, you should stop and wonder why. Maybe she doesn’t have any clients that liked their campaign results?

8) If your publicist-to-be sounds like she doesn’t know or understand your genre, doesn’t have any knowledge of media in that area, or tells you that “relationships with the media don’t mean anything,” chances are she won’t know enough about your subject to do the best job for you. Move on, and find a publicist who is excited and thrilled to talk with you about your subject matter.

7) If your “intended” won’t offer a written proposal that outlines her vision and publicity plan for your book, you should stop and wonder why.

6) On the flip side, if a publicist offers to submit a proposal without actually seeing a copy of your manuscript, or shoots a proposal off within an hour of receiving it, chances are really good that you're looking at a boilerplate, “insert name here,” proposal that she uses for everyone and everything. A historical novel shouldn’t have the same PR campaign as a diet book.

5) If the “love of your life” PR pro doesn’t ask: "What prompted you to write this book? What is your publisher’s PR department doing for it?" and "What are your PR expectations?" she is not asking the right questions. And if she's not asking YOU the right questions, how is she ever going to come up with the right answers when PITCHING you to media?

4) If the publicist shows you sample materials/case studies with frequent misspellings, typos and severe grammatical errors, just imagine what your press release will look like! These bad habits will continue throughout the relationship.

3) If your "sweetie" is eager to work on your account without a written contract that outlines what you should expect from the campaign, be very careful. If you end up hating this relationship, you will have almost no legal recourse.

2) If you are told while you’re “dating” that you will definitely be on certain shows, but your contract doesn’t have any of that information, SPEAK UP NOW. Chances are the publicist only told you what you wanted to hear – not what is realistic!

And the #1 sign that your publicist may not be “The One”:

If she tells you, “Absolutely, your book will definitely be on Oprah.” Not only should she be avoided, she should probably be committed. Because she's either lying to you or to herself.

Add a Comment

The following article is by book publicist Meg McAllister of McAllister Rowan Communications. Note her use of "reality" and "realistic." Publicists use those words a lot when it comes to authors, and for good reason. As a publisher wrote me:

Most authors are far too idealistic and have too many silly, time-wasting notions of how this business works. It is best to dispel those notions early, so we save time and angst later. I have little indulgence for author naïveté. If you want to be successful in the publishing business, then know how it works or forego your right to whine about it later.

Book Publicity is Not for Wussies!
For most authors, the reality is that their responsibility to their book does not end with writing it. This can be a real wake-up call. More and more traditional publishers are encouraging (read: demanding) that authors contract with their own publicist “to augment what we will do for the book internally”--which in 7 out of 10 cases is little to nothing!

Due to the rising cost of everything from production to postage, publishers are even scaling back on standard review mailings. Instead, they're opting for email blasts and postcard mailings to solicit interest before sending books out for review. And the general rule is that they take a reactive rather than proactive stance with publicity. They wait for the media to call them; and with mailings, they generally place follow-up calls to about half of the recipient list.

They're not bad publicists; they're just responsible for an enormous volume of books and have very limited funds for each. That’s why, in most cases, your inhouse publicist will welcome an extra pair of hands; it’s a win-win situation for all.

Faced with that reality, as an author, you need to approach the decision of whether to hire a publicist with the same cautious optimism and objective strategy you did when deciding to write your book. If you invested a lot of time, effort, and money to write it, you're going to have to do the same to promote it. You’re making an investment in yourself (and your writing career!--Bella) and on something that will benefit you in the long run. So you should consider the hiring of a publicist in the same manner as you would any other investment--as a savvy consumer.

Here are some tips:

Educate yourself on what to expect.
You’ve found your way to Bella, so congratulations, you’re already way ahead of the game! (I didn't pay her to write that--honest!) Seek the opinions of people like her who’ll offer honesty and objectivity. If you suspect someone is telling you what they think you want to hear, rather than the truth, they probably are. This is not a good thing.

Think performance, not price tag!
You want a publicist with a track record, a reputation, a vision and a price point with which you feel comfortable. As when buying a new car, you should avoid high-priced bells & whistles you don’t need, yet don’t put your life on the line by choosing a clunker just to save a little money.

Talk to other authors.
Get the pros and cons from their point of view. Look for every side of the story: someone who chose the most expensive publicist, someone who chose the cheapest publicist, and someone who went the DIY route.

Talk to more than one publicist/PR firm before making a decision.
While you may end up going with the first one you spoke to, you should “date” around before making a commitment.

Vetting a publicist is a lot like filling any other job.
Don’t just take a publicist’s word for it – we get paid to spin – check references and ask questions about strengths, weakness and work habits.

Be realistic about your publicity budget.
You should have at least $5,000 in the kitty to start with. NEVER consider getting another mortgage on your house or taking a cash advance on your credit card just to pay for PR. If you plan properly and talk to publicity firms about working within your budget, in most cases you can come away with an effective PR effort.

Make the decision to hire a publicist with eyes wide open, and realistic, informed expectations.
Not only will you prove to your publisher that you are committed to helping sell your book, but that you're willing to spend your own money and time to do so. In some cases, if your campaign progresses further than expected, the PR department may be willing to allocate more money and thereby extend it.* Instead of being derided as a publicity wussie, you'll be lauded as a marketing genius.

*This just happened with one of my clients, who after spending lotsa bucks on an ace publicist and superb website, plus snagging terrific blurbs with zero inhouse help, is going from a "local tour" (i.e., signings close to home) to a publisher-sponsored West Coast tour.

Add a Comment

Hot off the send button: a new interview with moi has been posted at Lookbooks. She asked me some interesting questions - I just hope my answers were equally as interesting.

Meanwhile, I took a break from my dog-related woes and headed into the City for Teen Author Drinks Night. As always, it was great to drink, kvell and kvetch with other members of the New York kidlit posse.
I was very excited because my W-I-P involves bowling and I found out that fellow author Gabe Guarente LETTERED IN BOWLING on his high school team! I am SO going to pick his brain. Gabe, consider yourself warned :-)

I was also feeling good because when I explained to everyone at the table why I almost spilled my drink with excitement when I learned about Gabe's high school athletic endeavors, I got an "I wish I'd thought of that" and a "great title". So today I couldn't WAIT to get to work on the WIP but I had to write a column first, and that took longer than I thought it would. But even so, I blasted through my 350 word a day goal (I aim small so I can hit the target instead of fail) this evening. Part of it also has to do with the fact I realized in the shower the other day that I was starting the book in the wrong place and that was why I was having problems. Now it seems to be flowing nicely, so if I can manage to avoid any more dog or kid trauma, I'm hoping to really make some progress. Of course, this might not happen for the next four days because I'm babysitting my little nephews (ages 1 and 3) while my sister and hubby go to a wedding. It's been a while since I've been on 24/7 little one duty, so wish me luck!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention - I stopped in at Rich to Riches to get some Cheesecake Rice pudding in honor of Coe Booth (miss ya, Coe!) and also because my daughter would have murdered me if I'd returned home without it. Even if I *had* got her a signed copy of Sarah Mylanowski's Bras and Broomsticks.

Meanwhile on the Sandy front: I checked her into the vet this afternoon, because I can't have her around and being unpredictable while babies are around - they will do additional testing tomorrow...so fingers crossed.I've been prepping the kids - and myself, if I'm honest - for the fact that this might not have a great outcome. :-(

Add a Comment

Once a month a bunch of New York area authors who write for teens getting together for Teen Author Drinks Night or TADN. People always look at me strangely when I say I'm going for Teen Author Drinks, until I explain that it's not about corrupting minors, it's about already corrupted authors who *write* for minors. Organized by the inestimable David Levithan, we meet at a Soho watering hole.

Last night I braved traffic and parking tickets. Silly me, thinking that the NYPD wouldn't ticket me with only 15 minutes before parking on the street was allowed and running to go buy the most recent issue of the New Yorker, which has a great article written by a man with Aspergers Syndrome - talk about an expensive magazine...$65 ticket plus $4.50 for the mag.

Anyway, it as still worth it to hang with these wonderful peeps:



Don't know her name, Leslie Margolis, Gordon Korman and Kate Morgenroth



Bennett Madison showing off that he can tie a knot in a cherry stem with his tongue :>)




Mary Rose Wood and Sarah Beth Durst



Natalie Standiford and Elise Broach

Afterwards a bunch of us decamped to a local eatery for pizza and conversation, then of course it was time for DESSERT.

Sarah Beth, Coe Booth, robbiewriter and I were all Pinkberry Virgins and we were led into temptation by Leslie Margolis.

Here we are looking innocent (or at least trying to) prior to popping our Pinkberries.



Although I think I look psychotic rather than innocent.

Pinkberry is awesome. I had a regular Pinkberry with toppings of raspberry and CAP’N CRUNCH!

I have a funny story about the CAP’N. When I was pregnant with Son I craved really healthy stuff like prunes and mangoes. But when I was pregnant with daughter I craved two things, both of which were impossible to find in rural England. 1) Cold Sesame noodles and 2) Cap’n Crunch.

I woke up one night drooling because I’d been dreaming of cold sesame noodles. I even had serious discussions about if a takeout order of cold sesame noodles would survive being DHL’d from New York to Dorset. Unfortunately the answer was no.

I also drove all over London looking for a store that supposedly sold American stuff, in search of a box of Cap’n Crunch. It had closed.

But when I was five months pregnant we took a trip to Kiawah Island and I bought a huge box of Cap’n Crunch and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was fabulous, although probably not nutritious.

Anyway, after we finished our Pinkberry experience, Coe, Robyn and I headed over to Rice to Riches for our ritual purchase of delicious rice pudding. Daughter is in the dog house with me because she ate all the cheesecake rice pudding. Grr!

Add a Comment