Thanks for striking, writers!

The ongoing WGA strike may be bad news for TV, but as it turns out, it could rain down good things on book publicists.

Ok, just like everyone else, I’ve grown weary of reruns. My DVR is hungry for first run episodes of my favorite shows (thank you LOST, whose 2-hour season premier is Jan. 31), but I’m starting to warm up to the idea that here in the land of literary publicity, this deadlock in negotiations might just work out in our favor. The strike may a golden opportunity for us.

Take for instance, my client Traci L. Slatton, author of Immortal (Bantam Dell/Jan. 29), an epic “rags-to-riches to burnt-at-the-stake” work of historical fiction about an orphaned boy in Renaissance Florence. Traci landed a spot on the Sundance Film Festival circuit – if you happen to be strolling Main Street in Park City tomorrow, email me for the inside scoop on her reading.

With a portion of the entertainment industry crippled, Traci has received higher than anticipated press coverage at the film-driven festival. There’s also been talk by the BBC that the strike has brought more distributors and buyers than normal to the festival. Eleven weeks into the strike and news of possible breakthroughs, I’m actually hoping for a few more weeks of negotiations.

So, thanks to a darkened Hollywood, authors like Traci are reaping the benefits of the otherwise unfortunate writer’s strike, turning the heads of TV news-starved entertainment reporters who normally wouldn’t include literary headlines on their daily beat.