Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists

Hey readers...

2009-09-08T08:32:00.007-05:00

Our blog has a new home! Head on over to http://phenixpublicity.com/blog to keep reading.

Hearing Critics...But Staying Focused

2009-09-04T10:37:00.005-05:00

My friend Scott Jeffrey has a great post on his blog today titled "Ignore the Critics" where he lays out eleven highly successful books next to a dissenting opinion from a critic.

For example:

Manuscript: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Literary Opinion: “The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.”

Oops.

Beyond the novelty of reading through dissenting literary opinions on some of the greatest literary works of our time, Scott's blog post makes a very important point about how focused we have to be in today's "everyone is a critic" atmosphere.

Reviews aren't just for authors anymore. Sites likes Yelp.com, blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and other social media platforms make it possible for readers, customers, competitors, even friends, to post an opinion on anything from coffee shops to books to passers-by.

The anonymous nature of many internet reviews can lead people to be much more scornful with comments than they would dream to be in person. Such reviews often have a domino effect when the reviewed read them and let themselves react emotionally. The often out-of-line response then becomes the story rather than the product or service that the review was about.

The power-to-the-people aspect of social media is what we love about it, but it also presents some challenges to our psyche.

When you hear criticism of your book, your speaking, your publicity work, your job, etc...what is your first instinct?

Do you take it personally and get defensive or do you hear the opinion and remain confident in yourself?

Let me give you an example of someone who was pointedly criticized, responded gracefully but remained confident in the face of that criticism.

Kick Butt Coffee is a new coffee shop in Austin, TX. As many of you know, our city is known for it's "Keep Austin Weird" vibe and this coffee shop--complete with live music, mocha martinis, martial arts decor and offer on its website to "get a black eye next time you visit"--is everything but run of the mill.

The owner, Thomas R. Gohring, decided that if he was going to stand out from the crowd in a city full of stand-out acts, he had to be different.

Gohring's Kick Butt Coffee has generated mostly positive reviews on Yelp.com, with many customers calling it their favorite coffee house in Austin. However, like anything that is out of the ordinary, the coffee shop has also had a couple sub-par reviews.

A recent review, from Ellyn E. called it "her worst coffee house experience ever," before saying the "insanely loud horrible grunge band" drove her and other customers away. She also cracks on the Americano.

Put yourself in Gohring's shoes for a minute...you've invested in a new coffee shop--in the midst of a recession--and someone has written a biting review, where they seem to go out of their way to be a bit dramatic about the (bad) experience. It would be easy to respond with a "you don't know what you're talking about" tone or even question your own logic in including live music at your coffee shop.

But Gohring does neither. Here's his response:

"Ellyn...sorry to hear you had a bad experience at our new shop. The bands myspace music samples are nice and not too loud. I will address this with them. We are known as a huge supporter of local musicians, live music venue at night. But it is not a good thing for customers to leave because of the music. I appreciate you bringing that to my attention. I am surprised about the americano. Sorry yours wasn't to your satisfaction. (Update, even though it is brand new the decaf grinder's burrs were bad.) The flat screens are my idea, sorry you didn't like it."

He acknowledges the issues that can be improved and lets the customer know he appreciates her feedback, but remains confident in the vision he has for his coffee shop.

We need to do the same thing with online chatter. You have to hear it and, at times, respond to it, but you certainly don't have to let it get you off track and you never have to respond emotionally.

Stay focused and above the fray and let your idea...your book...your service...whatever it may be...make the impact you meant it to make.

ANNOUNCING: Winners of the Social Lives book giveaway!

2009-08-27T09:16:00.009-05:00

And the big winners of our free giveaway for Wendy Walker's Social Lives is ......(drumroll please)....

Evidence of An Artistic Life! (At least, that is what her blog name is!)

AND

Melissa from Frugal Creativity!

Congratulations, ladies!

And to all those that didn't win: fear not, we're doing ANOTHER book giveaway next month for an amazing memoir, Halfway to Each Other. (Amazon says it pubs Sept. 1, but it actually pubs Sept. 25). It's received early raves here, here, here, and also here.

Back to Social Lives for a moment. As Glamour.com's Little Miss Fortune wrote about it the other day, "recession lit" - a.k.a books like Social Lives, The Penny Pinchers Club, et. al - represent a departure for women's fiction from the credit card-wielding, clackety-clack high heeled heroines of Chasing Harry Winston and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Little Miss Fortune described recession lit as "a new type of chick-friendly fiction packed with characters who are dealing with the reality of today’s economy." Her readers weighed in on this trend, and had lots of interesting thoughts. Like this one:

"This sounds right up my alley. I've given up reading the sort of rich-bitch-socialite-professional-arm-candy books because I keep wanting to slap those fluttery tweety birds. But a-hah! Recession Lit! Yes to that- gimme some realism!" -spikesnsilk (awesome commenter name)

So we want to know, P&P blog readers: What do you think about recession lit? Intrigued? Tell us in the comment section.

And while you think about it, have a gander at the new book trailer for Social Lives!

What your publicist wants you to know

2009-08-27T08:00:00.002-05:00

I chatted with a few friendly book publicists yesterday about what works best when it comes to the author-publicist relationship. Here are five simple pointers to get you started.

1. First things first, talk strategy. It's a good idea to start with a timeline for the campaign, a defined target audience and set expectations. Sure, dream big, but remember, Oprah isn't for everyone. If you've watched her recently, you already know she tends to be celebrity-driven. So unless that's you, be realistic in your goal-setting. Rely on your publicist to steer you to your target audience through the most appropriate media channels (even, gasp, new media!) and trust their expertise.Speaking of new media, consider outside-the-box marketing ideas that go beyond traditional publicity. Twitter is one platform many authors are using to creatively network with potential readers, and they're rolling out ultra-savvy campaigns that spur traditional media. This P&P client landed coverage on Jacket Copy, the L.A. Times book blog, for her Twitter Kindle giveaway aimed at promoting her upcoming book Perseverance.

2. When it comes to the "influencer" mailing - you know, all those celebs who "need" your book? - don't leave it to your publicist. That's an ideal project for your assistant, an intern, or even yourself, if you have the time. Allow your publicist to spend her/his time working directly with media, rather than on those media big mouths who may or may not be interested.

3. Hey, fill us in. We need professional (and recent!) headshots, your contact information, and everything that will help us understand how you climbed the ladder to budding author/aspiring artist/sought-after expert. Aside from what we can learn about you on our own and from the book itself, what's your story? We'll be asked, so the more we know about you, the more equipped we are to respond appropriately. Be willing to do some homework like writing contributed pieces, maintaining a blog, and utilizing Twitter.

4. Communicate. If you're not an email person, tell us. Be clear about that early on. I recently dusted off my faxing skills for a client who is still holding out on a home computer. Missed interview opportunities are unfortunate and can be avoided if your communication mode is defined, efficient and most importantly, two-way. Some authors are missing the boat by being unavailable or too selective when it comes to early morning or late night interviews and market size. Allow your publicist to filter the best requests to you.

5. In keeping with solid communication, also trust that your publicist is working on your behalf even when you aren't calling them anxiously. So relax when activity seems to have slowed. Becoming a media starlet or hitting bestseller status isn't an overnight process. An over-eager author can bog down the process when they blow up the phones, duplicate media contact efforts or email assault the publicist. Your publicist can devote several hours a week to crafting lengthy emails that allay your fears... or he/she can be a better steward of that time, using it to pitch media. It's up to you. Stay informed by establishing an efficient reporting method with your publicist so can be sure you are receiving regular, detailed updates.

Think positive. Be creative, accessible, resourceful. And have fun!

Monday web roundup

2009-08-24T17:18:00.003-05:00

Here’s a roundup of book news to get your week started off write--I mean, right:

--Apparently Agatha Christie and Quentin Tarantino have something in common. Who knew?

--Also, what do the Lockerbie bomber, Dick Cheney, Janet Jackson and Tom Ridge have in common? They’re all penning tell-all books.

--Oh, and this is what’s on Dick Cheney’s bookshelf.

--Director Peter Jackson explains how he adapted the book The Lovely Bones to film in this short featurette.

--And I don’t think the president will have much time to enjoy Martha’s Vineyard if he actually reads everything on this reading list for the week. What, no Julie & Julia?

--Would you watch an “Antiques Roadshow” for books? I don't know if I could handle all the excitement.

--Elisabeth Gilbert talks to the New York Times about the anxiety she felt writing the follow up to Eat, Pray, Love.

--And finally, with all the vampire lore out there in the literary realm, I guess it had to happen: Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is being sued for copyright infringement.

Ad hero, Emu & You: Stretching Creativity

2009-08-21T10:32:00.011-05:00

You can’t blame an advertising major for wanting to quote an ad giant.

At some point in my educational career, I was told the quote, “To be interesting, you must first be interested.” I’ve always attributed the spark of brilliance to James Webb Young, an ad hero and author of the essential guide, A Technique for Producing Ideas. True or not, it sounds like something he’d say.

In his book, Young talks about great creative people being intrigued by the world around them. How great visionaries seek out random info about a variety of topics. Are you curious about hairless emus? Then read about them. Do you want to be able to name significant Roman generals? Study ancient battles. (Or sleep with the history channel blaring in the background) Young encourages people to delve deeply into areas that may not seem relevant to what they do. Why? Because a wide knowledge enables engaged, inquisitive people to see relationships that others might not. For example, the creative team who wrote this ad took two completely separate objects—a vacuum and a plane—recognized a connection, and perfectly communicated the message.

What does this have to do with PR?

PR is the work of relationships. Publicists to media contacts, authors to audiences, authors to media, the combinations are endless. What if instead of seeing possibilities through objects, we saw possibilities through people? Authors should stretch their bounds in terms of who they are having conversations with.

Fellow Twitter-ers, have you ever had that moment where you are on the page of a new follower and you’re scanning their Tweets, evaluating as you read? I do. I’ll admit it. I go through and think, is this relevant to me? What if instead of asking ourselves if it’s relevant, we open ourselves to the new knowledge we might gain? Even if it’s out of our normal realm of Tweets.

To be interesting, you must first be interested.

In our media training, we talk about social media in terms of involvement. Participation. Being interested not in who is following you, but interested in those you follow.

Let’s step outside of social media. Authors should stretch themselves in how they position their books. See the unexpected relationships. Who can you talk to? Who can you get to listen to your book outside of your initially chosen audience? Where can you read? What cause/group can you connect with that will greater push the distribution of your message?

Example: If you wrote a children’s story about a lost mitten, go read while organizing a clothes drive.

I recently attended an Austin Association for Women in Communication’s luncheon. In a discussion on leadership, the speaker used a word I wasn’t expecting. Service. Authors, consider these questions. How can you demonstrate that your book cares about someone else & is cognizant of someone else’s issues? How does your book engage in your community? Is it based on your hometown? Is it about a group of people you met in your community? How do you and your book serve?

Don’t just entertain. Listen. Respond. Help. This is advice we should all heed, myself included. After all, as JWY may or may not have said, “To be interesting, you first must be interested."

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Kick off your Manolos, dig into recession lit with "Social Lives"

2009-08-19T12:31:00.006-05:00

Last week, Ruth La Ferla's eloquent piece in the Style section of The New York Times forecast a new trend for women's fiction: "recession lit." "Once unabashedly focused on the perks of wealth and fame, this spate of new fiction is tackling the recession and its attendant woes," wrote La Ferla. In the story, she quoted this section from Social Lives, a novel coming next month by our client Wendy Walker.

“There was little equity in the house after the loan for the new wing they’d put on last year, and the severe drop in the housing market,” she frets. “Nothing remained in the checking account beyond what was needed to pay the bills.”

Can you relate, dear Reader?

GalleyCat interviewed Wendy last Friday about the new economic reality facing women's fiction. Specifically, they asked her about the experience of publishing exactly two novels that focus on women in wealthy communities: one pre-recession (Four Wives), and one mid-recession (Social Lives). From Financial Times onward, everyone in the publishing industry - as well as those who make the the publishing industry possible, readers - are keeping an eye out for writers and books that grapple with the tightened purses of our times. Call it the Age of Recess.

Because we here at P&P are taking the recession lit trend as seriously as anyone, we thought we'd offer something to our plucky readers who could use a little freebie. A moment of escapism while you ignore your 401K, browse online sales, and brew coffee at home! See how the once very, very privileged ladies of Wilshire are navigating the recession waters, in particular Jacqueline Halstead's husband, whose hedge fund husband is being investigated for fraud. (Read Wendy's blog post - and a very moving reader comment - about her character Jacqueline here).

We'll select two winners for this book giveaway. To enter, just leave a comment below, and don't forget to include your email address so we can notify you. Contest closes next Wednesday!

Twitter giveaway – Perseverance: True Voices of Cancer Survivors

2009-08-17T17:32:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow marks the release of Carolyn Rubenstein’s new book, Perseverance: True Voices of Cancer Survivors, which shares the stories of 20 young people who exemplify success in the face of adversity, and the life lessons Carolyn learned from these brave survivors.

The author has decided to celebrate with readers by giving away four Kindle wireless reading devices via Twitter Tuesday, August 18, through Friday, August 21. To enter, simply include the hashtag #perseverance in ONE tweet ONE time during the contest timeframe. A winner will be randomly selected each contest day and will be notified of their Kindle prize in a Twitter direct message. If you still have questions, visit her blog for complete contest rules.

Carolyn will appear on the NBC’s “The Today Show” on August 31 to discuss Perseverance and to mark the beginning of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (September). She is a featured blogger for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.com.

#FollowFriday: Blog Edition

2009-08-14T09:49:00.003-05:00

I'm a big fan of #FollowFriday on Twitter. It's a great chance to give shout-outs to friends and colleagues, while also building new relationships.

I think FollowFriday also works for blogs, so today I'm going to recommend a few smart blogs I think you should be following:

The Book Publicity Blog -- Ok, if you read our blog you're probably already following this one but it's a must-read for publicity types.
Enlightened Business -- Scott Jeffrey consistently provides smart tips, resources and ideas for creative professionals
Lisa Tener's Writing Blog -- Wondering how to find an agent? Need help with your proposal? Working on an internet platform? Lisa's your coach.
Michael Hyatt's Blog -- Mike's blog gets plenty of good publicity because he's earned it with quality content. A must for leaders in the publishing industry and beyond.
BookPros[e] -- Everything from distribution info to how to use quotation marks correctly.
Texas Pages Blog -- Michael Merschel is one of the best book review editors in the country and does a fabulous job of providing Texas literary content here.
Follow The Reader -- We love NetGalley and the many cool things they do, including this blog.
GalleyCat -- This is my favorite publishing industry blog--Jason and Ron do a tremendous job day in and day out.
Welcome to Optimism -- This is my wild card pick. W+K is leading ad agency and this is their UK blog. Great insight into the creative process. I'm a huge fan.

From book to film

2009-08-10T17:18:00.006-05:00

Lots of literature on the silver screen this year—here are some of the latest book-to-film tidbits:

Julia Child’s famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has shot back to the bestseller list some 50 years after first being published. The film “Julie & Julia” reached #2 at the weekend box office.

For all the romance lovers out there, “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” based on the bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger, hits box offices this weekend. (This means you male moviegoers who dragged your significant other to “G.I. Joe” last week have some payback coming. And his name is Eric Bana.)

A new trailer has been released for director Spike Jonze’s interpretation of Where the Wild Things Are. Personally, can’t wait to see this one! Less CGI, more monster suits, I say.

Have you seen the new trailer for the adaptation of The Lovely Bones? It’s directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings notoriety, who introduces the trailer. If you ask me, any work of literature is safe in his hands.

Speaking of Peter Jackson, he updated fans on the status of The Hobbit film at this year’s Comic Con. (It’s not quite green-lit, but the book will be translated into two films.)

And the folks at GalleyCat report that Julia Roberts was seen at a Brooklyn bookstore yesterday filming scenes for the upcoming adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love.

Join P&P's web design team

2009-08-07T11:25:00.005-05:00

It's time.

Actually, the time passed a year or two ago. Time for a new website for Phenix & Phenix.

Why?

We talk to clients until we are blue in the face about the fabulous benefits of building their sites on a social media-friendly platform and it's time for us to make the jump as well.

Luckily, we're almost finished building a new one.

That's where you come in. We're looking to our friends, clients, media contacts and other colleagues to let us know what you would like to see from a P&P website. Here's a taste of what's coming:

A blog hosted on our actual website? Check.

A "why you should visit us in Austin" page? Check.

Significantly upgraded online press rooms for each client? Check.

Video content from great potential guests? Check.

The ability to easily share content? Check.

Moderately cheesy head shots from our staff? Check.

Case studies, praise and other background on P&P's 15 year history? Check.

The ability to opt-in to a monthly email regarding potential guests/sources for your newspaper, radio show, blog, TV program, etc.? Check.

We're interested in hearing from you as we put the finishing touches on our new site--what would you like to see from P&P?

How can we provide the resources, information and tools through our website to make it as effective as possible for you?

Let us know by posting a comment or emailing me at rshelton@phenixpublicity.com. If it is a cool idea, we'll publicly credit you as a member of the P&P web design team on Twitter.

Biting the hand that feeds

2009-08-06T18:16:00.011-05:00

***This post is written by Kelly Stonebock, new publicist at P&P.

Author’s social media success turns to silence

Curious indeed. While perusing Twitter, I stumbled upon this Texas Monthly article with native Austinite author Julie Powell. The film adaptation of Powell’s book Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, starring Meryl Streep, releases tomorrow. While reading, I was stopped dead in my tracks at the following Q & A:

TM: I noticed you stopped posting on Twitter. Why did you stop tweeting?

When someone asks me about Twitter, I feel like I’m 82 years old. I stopped tweeting—I was actually given a gag order on the tweeting—because Sony Pictures wanted to handle the whole advertising tweet campaign, and, you know, Twitter is such a promotional tool which is exactly what I don’t like about it. I mean, I love Facebook. I’ll Facebook all day, but Twitter to me feels much more corporate, and I’m not that interested, so when they told me I couldn’t twitter, I was like, happy to not do it.

My jaw remained agape for a moment.

To a certain extent, I understand. Sony wants an aggressive Twitter campaign. Ok. I can handle that. But for an author to relinquish ownership of her own personal brand— herself as an author, a cook, a normal person —astounds me. My mind flashed to a childhood memory of twisting plastic, rigid Barbie doll arms to position them as I wanted. It seems manipulative. It seems deceiving.

It seems common.

Yes, this Pollyanna realizes that there are celebrity Twitter accounts where corporate puppeteers feed us our required 140 characters hourly. I get that. But what those suits (who undoubtedly smile maniacally in their swivel chairs at misleading the public) don’t realize is that they’re not using Twitter as effectively as they could for their clients.

Twitter allows for a conversation. It humanizes what could very well just be a name on a book cover to a dynamic, engaging person to which other people can relate and connect.

It’s microblogging. It does most things that a blog can do.

I’m shocked that Julie is apathetic. She paid attention when blogging became relevant. And good thing she did,

it got her a book deal and a major motion picture.

Good reads

2009-08-05T14:50:00.017-05:00

This afternoon, a change of pace: a few of our recommended reads this Summer.

Tolly: In Defense of Food! I was inspired to read it after seeing "Food, Inc.," which released a few weeks ago. Michael Pollan does such a great job of restoring the relationship between food and people: I can't stop thinking about this one line where he's talking about a berry ("so this berry walks into a bar"....heh), saying it tells us when it wants us to eat it. When it gets a bright, deep hue, it's saying: "I'm ready for you to spread my genes now." I love that. I love it when berries talk to me. I'm still not an angel when it comes to food, but I'm 50x more conscious about what I buy, and am determined to plant a garden when Texas returns to sub-surface-of-the-sun temperatures. Thanks Michael.

Rusty: Reminisces of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre, originally published in 1923. I like it because it's more about the market's mentality than gimmicks, stock picks or trends (which are often outdated or played out before the book is published). It's timeless for that reason and most brokers will tell you it's still their favorite book on investing.

Merritt: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenberger. I am both fascinated and dumbfounded by the concept of time travel, but Clare and Henry's love story is intoxicating (I might have a literary crush on Henry DeTamble). Next up, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. I am excited to get the full scoop on the founding of Facebook. Why it is a good summer read? The front cover has a picture of a red bra and a lipstick-stained martini glass. Enough said.

Stephanie: My bookshelf skews toward stories that are introspective and ones that take me to another place, hence my obession with travel memoirs, foodie books, and other firsthand accounts that show us the limitlessness of possibility. My latest read happens to also be a shameless plug for a book we're working on, Halfway to Each Other by Susan Pohlman. Unfortunately, the masses won't find it in stores until September, but pre-order on Amazon now. The book is the true story of how Susan and her husband rescusitated their marriage by moving the whole family to Italy for a year. Cozy up with some vino as you are whisked to the dolce vita and soon you'll be unplugging your TV, putting down your iPhone and booking the next flight to the Italian Riviera.

Kelly: The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. It's the fictional story of a family that's torn apart when the father is accused of being a spy during the Iranian Revolution. The story is told from each family member's perspective: the father, the mother, the daughter and the son in America. The book is loosely based on the author's own life- she fled Iran when she was ten. In the biography section of the book, she talks about what it was like as a little girl to leave her house. For the longest time she wondered if anyone moved the toys in her room. When writing this story, Sofer paid the same amount of attention to details. It's beautifully written. Also Patrick Rosal's My American Kundiman. He's a former bboy turned poet who understands sounds so well that his poetry flows off the page like a hip-hop track. Seriously. Poems range in this book from subdued and wistful to in-your-face-confident.

Now go read a book.

Hot or not? The White Male

2009-08-04T15:48:00.007-05:00

Oh, handsome white boy! You've reigned over our hearts for so long. Your innocuous good looks. Your Abercrombie ads. Your sly, "who me, cultural privilege?" grin. Omg, sooooo cute!!

And yet....

It's an unsure time for The White Guy. Well, sort of. According to Taylor Antrim of The Daily Beast, bookstores around the country are practically swimming in white man anxieties right now:

"[We have] a short stack of late-summer reading that’ll make you wonder: Why is white male discontent so naturally literary?....the novel, better than any other written form, accommodates those small-bore anxieties, the quotidian, often shameful preoccupations that turn us inside out but don’t really measure up to the global events of the day. You’re a white guy who’s a little depressed, your eye is wandering, and you sort of want a fast car? Try putting that into an Op-Ed. But for the novel, nothing is beneath notice."

Well-put, Taylor (and well-quoted, GalleyCat). It's interesting, because for a long-time in the publishing world, the formula has been:

Neurotic literary white guy + literary publisher = BF (best friends)

But according to the same story, white people overall will be a minority by 2042. Now that the White(ish) House is baROCKin', is the Woody Allen-esque hand wringing of well-to-do white guys enjoying its last literary hurrah?

Well in all honesty, anything this blogger could say on that would probably be a gross overgeneralization. Except for this:

Neurotic literary white guy + literary publisher + gayness = BFF (best friends forever!)

(See: David Sedaris).

As we look ahead to the literary tomes of tomorrow, it will be interesting indeed to see whether the White Guy anxieties we all know and love will keep their heralded place at our local bookstore, or whether they'll fade away faster than you can say "my therapist in Manhattan."

Your local news...on YouTube

2009-08-03T17:56:00.004-05:00

First it happened to your local newspaper when bloggers began taking over the traditional roles of reporters and editors. Now your local news station may also going the way of the digital dinosaur. The New York Times reported today that YouTube is branching out from its usual fare of laughing babies and random people getting tazed to offer “News Near You":

"YouTube, which already boasts of being 'the biggest news platform in the world,' has created a News Near You feature that senses a user’s location and serves up a list of relevant videos. In time, it could essentially engineer a local newscast on the fly. It is already distributing hometown video from dozens of sources, and it wants to add thousands more." Read more here.

Will this mean no more local nightly news programs or author-friendly morning shows? Probably not. But it does mean that even more everyday folks (in other words, broadcasters without broadcasting licenses) may become a significant and viable form of local media like never before.

Friday morning quick hits

2009-07-31T12:11:00.005-05:00

It is hard to top yesterday's wedding videos (which I'm still laughing at) but here are a few of the things that are getting our attention this morning.

Publicists: have you checked out Twittorati?

The tagline is "where the blogosphere and the twittersphere meet" and while that may not wow you, the site is actually very useful for PR types.

Much like Muck Rack, which provides a real time stream of journalists' tweets (along with their titles), Twittorati provides a real time stream of top blogs on Twitter. It also provides a ranking of the Top 100 blogs (which we're curiously absent from) and a list of each tweeter connected with those blogs.

For example, Huffington Post is #1 and on the site you'll see links to the handles for five of the editors and a stream of recent Huff Post tweets: Glenn Beck meltdowns, Beergate...you get the idea.

We are fans.

Speaking of Huff Post, are you reading Carolyn Rubenstein?

Arianna's newest blogger has been providing very cool content on perseverance.

Conveniently, she has a book due out from Tor/Forge in a few weeks on the same topic. How's that for timing?

This is an amazing book that we're honored to represent and, frankly, we're not sure if we have an author that has a schedule more packed than Carolyn.

Ready for this?

She blogs regularly for Psychology Today, Huffington Post and herself.

She Tweets. She Facebooks. She newsletters.

She runs a nonprofit organization, “Carolyn’s Compassionate Children” (CCC), a group that began as a pen-pal program for kids with cancer that now provides scholarships and support to childhood cancer survivors.

She wrote a book and is in the middle of a very time-consuming publicity campaign.

Oh, and while she's doing all of this she's also a full-time student, pursuing her PhD program in clinical psychology at Harvard University.

Her publicity team really appreciates her.

I should note that we're having a blast with this campaign because in addition to getting to work with Carolyn, Ben and the fabulous publicity team at Tor/Forge, we're also getting a chance to work alongside super-publicists Angela Hayes and Grace McQuade at Goldberg McDuffie, who are working with Senior Publicist Amy Currie to line up some very impressive opportunities for the book.

Keep an eye out for Carolyn this fall and head over to Huffington Post for a good taste of her work.

New media continues rise, begets old media coverage

2009-07-30T18:13:00.007-05:00

If you haven’t heard by now, circulation at print media outlets is on the decline and new media is making a significant uptick. But, landing coverage from more traditional outlets is still coveted by anyone looking for exposure. Understandably so, traditional media offers authors credibility that new media is still working to earn. As if the writing wasn’t already on the wall I’d like to make two cases for the changing face of media content:

Case one:
As newspapers are forced to lay off reporters due to budgetary problems, where will they go? You guessed it: new media. This recent post by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch discusses how 1,500 writers are now working for AOL.com. Arrington says hundreds of them are former writers for media elites like BusinessWeek, New York Times and USA Today, to name a few. Why should you care? Well, that means new media just got a whole lot more credible. Journalism isn’t dead, it’s just changing.

Case two:
I mentioned earlier that traditional media is still important. It has a stamp of credibility that authors and experts want and need. However, the way we’re seeing traditional media garnered is changing. In the not-so-distant past reporters and producers would respond to great ideas offered by way of a pitch. While there’s still a place for traditional pitching, there’s an obvious shift to an environment where journalists want to find their own experts and/or content. Why should you care? This means a larger focus on online outreach may be the key to garnering the traditional coverage that most experts are looking for.

Here’s an example. This YouTube video has been splashed across network television, mentioned on morning radio, and the like. What started as a video of a wedding party dancing down an aisle has become a national sensation. Not only has it landed the couple on “TODAY” but has even been spoofed by fellow YouTubers.

Age of the memoir

2009-07-27T18:01:00.002-05:00

There was an interesting article this weekend in The New York Times about the boom in popularity of memoirs following Frank McCourt’s successful 1996 book, Angela’s Ashes. A storyteller at heart, McCourt had shared tales about his “miserable Irish childhood” in Limerick aloud for years during his time as an English teacher at New York’s Stuyvesant High School. It was only natural, then, that when he finally published his memoir, it would become a beloved book that captured the imaginations of readers everywhere.

However, in the spirit of “Hey, I can do that...,” pretty soon everyone thought they had an interesting life story to tell. Memoirists started coming out of the woodwork to capitalize on the popularity of the genre, and still do today. Now, with books like Eat, Pray, Love landing Oprah spots and movie deals, many hopeful authors are under the impression that their spiritual journey, too, is exactly what the bestseller list is missing. (Just ask THE INTERN.)

The memoir has become, as the article states, “an easier route to fame and fortune than the novel.” And if your experiences aren’t exactly fascinating enough to captivate audiences, well, then, you might just add a little something here and there to make it spicier—or least less insufferably mundane. (Just ask James Frey.)

In all fairness, having that nonfiction element to offer the media when publicizing a book is often what makes a strong literary campaign—which is why it’s often what publicists and publishing houses encourage from authors. (And also why it’s easier to get a memoir published than a novel in the first place!)

But the industry may have created a monster by indirectly encouraging authors to write about their real life experiences, rather than the fictional stories they might have written instead. Not only has it led to blatant fabrication in some cases, but in others...well...let’s just say not everyone writes memoirs like Frank McCourt.

Spanning the world … well, the literary world

2009-07-24T09:57:00.013-05:00

A few things popped out at me this week, and I thought I might share with all you aspiring literati types. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these tidbits of literary news and musings:

Eat, Pray, Love … for best results, rinse and repeat
Earlier this week, PW discussed the Hyperion deal with Michael Cooper, ex-husband of Eat, Pray, Love’s Elizabeth Gilbert. His new memoir, Displaced, will offer the flip-side to Eat, Pray, Love. Is it just me or does this at all sound like: “The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All”? For best results, rinse and repeat. I wonder what Ms. Gilbert thinks of this.

All aboard!
In case you haven’t noticed, the social media train is here. Check out this PW article on the changing literary landscape and how social media is fueling the changes. This is a must-read.

Move over Kindle, there’s a new kid on the block
Plastic Logic, Barnes & Noble and AT&T have partnered up to create what could be the Amazon Kindle’s biggest competitor yet. With access to B&N’s massive book library and AT&T’s 3G system, the Plastic Logic e-reader will certainly give Kindle a run for its money. Some differences between the two:
- The Plastic Logic e-reader has built-in Wi-fi, unlike the current crop of Kindles
- AT&T's Wi-fi hotspot network also seems to be part of the deal
- U.S. owners will be able to get online for new books in many more locations
- For business-related documents on the web, the e-reader supports PDF and Microsoft Office format documents

The INTERN speaks out
Ok, I’ve saved the best for last. If you’ve ever been an intern you completely understand the grunt work that comes with the territory: hours of filing, licking envelopes, getting coffee. I could go on. We stumbled on this blog of wonderful hilarity and just had to share. This intern and blogger, known as THE INTERN, works for a publishing house and gives the inside dish on the publishing house floor. Special thanks and a shout out to THE INTERN who brought a smile to our day. Enjoy!

Vive le Twitter

2009-07-23T14:51:00.024-05:00

For a few lessons on Twitter this afternoon, let's look to the Tour de France, where we're just a few days away from that famous ride down the Champs-Elysees.

Austin is Lance Armstrong country. From his bike shop, Mellow Johnny's and the coffee shop, Juan Pelota, to SIX, his bar/nightclub and the new Lance Armstrong Bikeway, icons of Lance's success are a part of our city's landscape. Look down, you're even likely to see one of the many faded "Go Lance" street paintings reminding us of his 1st, 2nd, 3rd...7th win. When he won the last TDF, he threw a free concert at Auditorium Shores featuring his then-girlfriend Sheryl Crow (and played drums). So you got the picture - cancer advocacy, community investment and athletic talent aside, Lance is steeped in Austin's culture.

But Lance's celebrity status reaches far beyond Austin City Limits, thanks in part to social media. On Twitter, @lancearmstrong has more than a million and a half followers. The seven-time TDF champion is clearly passionate about social media and it's easy to see why it's working for him. Just take a look at his loyal fan base and his booming nonprofit organization, LIVESTRONG, with which Lance uses the 140 character updates to connect with us in such a way that just by following him, we feel an exclusive part of his inner circle.

Lance is a great example of the power and possibilities of Twitter. He uses it frequently (at least a dozen updates a day) to break stories related to racing, the bike industry, and cancer research. He tweets video and snapshots from his "office" (usually something along the lines of a mountain road out of Aspen - jealous!) and allows all of us to peer into his world. From news of his new son Max [6 week old @maxarmstrong1 has almost 7,000 Twitter followers - WHAT??!] - to his favorite training routes to post TDF-stage thoughts, his Tweets make us that much more endeared to him.

Following yesterday's tour stage, Lance mentioned an upcoming 'announcement' about next year's Tour de France lineup, so you can imagine the buzz that brewed until today's big reveal. We all scoured the web to investigate. And by last night, the crafty Twitterati had it nailed - Lance would announce a 2010 team sponsor - RadioShack Corporation. It wasn't until 11am today that Capitol Sports & Entertainment with RadioShack made the official announcement with a release on the wire. Acting on their game, CSE rolled out the Team RadioShack website and Twitter account right on cue. Four hours later, the team already had almost 5,000 Twitter followers. If Lance's 2010 teammates are as fast as his behind-the-scenes entourage, we'll be looking at another Maillot Jaune.

Allez Lance!

So there are two things that we in publishing and publicity can take away from Twitter, Lance and the Tour de France. Today, twitter is a legitimate source (and the fastest news-spreading tool) for breaking headlines, and more than ever, it is an invaluable when it comes to building and maintaining a personal brand.

BOOK GIVEAWAY meets far too many puns: Name your favorite frappuccino, win "A Cold-Blooded Business"

2009-07-21T09:27:00.012-05:00

Do you know what today is?

FREE PASTRY DAY AT STARBUCKS!

I know, I know. It's only 9:47am CT right now, and we're sure you're already munching your complimentary cranberry scone. But it's summer, which means there's a good possibility you're also enjoying....a frappuccino.

And who do you have to thank, in large part, for the bottled frappuccino? Why, that would be Mark Mangelsdorf, friends. The killer featured in Marek Fuchs' new true crime book, A Cold-Blooded Business.

Why exactly is a successful corporate star - from a Bible Belt town, a Harvard MBA, who helped introduce the world to grocery store frappuccinos and was praised in Howard Schultz's Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time - now sitting in jail for a 20+ year old cold-case murder?

Wouldn't you love to know.

Simply respond to this blog post, or join us on Twitter (find us at twitter.com/phenixandphenix) and Tweet your favorite frappuccino flavor. The winner will receive a copy of this fascinating tale from The New York Times' Marek Fuchs. You MUST use hashtag #acoldbloodedbusiness to enter, and we will select a winner by 4pm CT today. RT'ers ("retweeters") of the contest may get special consideration...

As for us? Mocha frappuccinos all the way!

So you want to write an op-ed…

2009-07-20T16:21:00.004-05:00

It’s no wonder so many authors covet a spot on the opinion pages of top daily newspapers—not only do many readers today turn directly to the editorial section, but a well-written, controversial op-ed featured in the likes of The New York Times or The Washington Post can create a lasting national buzz. A successful op-ed can thrust a relatively unknown author into the national spotlight; and, unlike feature stories, you control the article’s content and message. But before you decide to give America a piece of your mind, there are a few things to consider to ensure your op-ed submission is a success:

1. Know the news cycle
Before you even sit down to write an article, do some research and brainstorming for topics. What are people talking about today? Keep in mind what news topics and social trend stories are hot at the moment, and how you can add to the debate. Just because they’re called the opinion pages, doesn’t mean the editors who choose the content don’t want newsworthy articles.

2. Compliment your credentials
What is your expertise? If you’re an author of a new diet book, you’re going to have a hard time placing an op-ed about 401(k) legislation. But write an article about a new study on the benefits of retirees lowering their cholesterol, and you just may have something. Remember, don’t write the article about your book. Mentioning your book title in an opinion piece is a big no-no—this is what we call an ad-itorial rather than an editorial. Instead, center your op-ed on hard news and relate it to your book’s subject matter. The opinion page editor will include a short bio at the beginning or end of the op-ed that will mention your book title along with your credentials.

3. Stick to a reasonable word count
Many opinion page editors say they prefer a piece to be no more than 750 words. Though this may not always be the case, it’s a good idea to keep your word count somewhere between 700-750 so you don’t discourage the interest of editors who might otherwise want to run the article.

4. Roll with the punches
No two opinion page editors work the same way. Some, especially the top dailies, will request an exclusive, while others will not. Some will simply decline an op-ed they don’t like, while others will work with you to make it better, offering suggestions for how to improve it. If you receive feedback from an editor, use it! These are valuable insights certain to benefit any future op-eds you create; and if you make the suggested changes quickly and re-submit, it may even influence the editor to feature your revised version.

5. Keep it simple
You’re not writing a dissertation, you’re writing what is essentially an opinionated news article. Read the paper and check out news sites online to get a feel for the language journalists utilize in their stories. Don’t say in 20 words what you can easily say in 10. Also, reporters begin their news stories with a “lede,” a tightly-written paragraph or sentence that tells the reader exactly what the story is about, before launching into other details and context. Model your op-ed in this way, and you’ll be sure to catch an editor’s eye—otherwise, if you bury your lede, they may get two paragraphs in and simply stop reading.

6. Source your assertions
Though this is an opinion piece, it doesn’t give you free reign to make wild assertions with nothing to back them up. Make sure to support your argument with recent statistics and research by either citing a study in the text, or providing a separate source document. This will make your piece more credible to opinion page editors and their readers.

Once you’ve written a stellar op-ed, submit, submit, submit! Opinion page editors receive hundreds of article submissions a week, so don’t be discouraged if your first choices don’t respond, or decline—if you’ve kept these simple tips in mind, your op-ed is sure to grab the attention of a top daily.

Ding, dong old media’s dead … or is it?

2009-07-16T17:10:00.009-05:00

Can you almost hear the munchkins cheering “ding, dong old media’s dead,” as the whole world declares the proverbial bucket of water has been dumped and old media is “meeelllttting, I’m melllting” – I digress. Think again. According to a recent article on “Fast Company,” researchers at Cornell have found that traditional news outlets still lead the blogosphere by 2.5 hours when it comes to breaking news. That’s almost light years by web standards. So, before we get ready to dump water on old media and watch it melt away, maybe we should take a step back and look at how old and new media are and will continue to work together. Here’s a breakdown of the Cornell study:

- Instead of examining a few case-study pieces of news and making behavioral conclusions from limited cases, researchers used a powerful algorithmic search. 1.6 million mainstream media and blogs were analyzed in real-time
- Specific phrases were sampled from each site and compared to how they appeared elsewhere – kind of a text-based fingerprint
- By comparing where these “fingerprint phrases,” or memes, first surfaced, and then watching for them to pop up elsewhere online, the Cornell team has uncovered how news propagates online
- The main result: It's still the traditional news portals that tend to break the news. Blogs followed up the stories an average of 2.5 hours later
- In 3.5 percent of the cases news broke on blogs first, before later being picked up by the news sites. Indicating an increasingly professional blogosphere

Study: Who is online, and what are they doing?

2009-07-15T09:15:00.005-05:00

The Austin-Based New Media Lab gave us some food for thought yesterday. As book publicists, we are always trying to figure out who is online and who isn't, and we were surprised at some of the findings. For example: less than 20% of my fellow Gen Xers are blogging? What? Maybe it was it all that Nirvana and directionless youth stuff we grew up with?

More from the report:

Myth #1: The Internet is for Teeny Boppers

False! Extrapolating from the data:

- 5% of people over age 62 create web content (blogs, podcasts, etc). That means that in a room of 20 people aged 62 or over, at least ONE posts content to the internet.

- In a room of 17 senior citizens, at least one has joined a social network.

- One of every nine seniors you know actually comment on blogs and post critiques and ratings. Which actually makes sense, if you think about it: Who's more opinionated than Grandpa? You try adjusting the thermostat.

Myth #2: Tech savvy behavior is totally mainstream

False again!

- Only 30% of GenY and 19% of GenX create content.

- No age group uses RSS readers at a rate over 18%. (Odds are YOU reading this don't quite understand RSS readers either.)

- 19% more GenYers than Young Teens join social networks. This implies that the highest rate of social networkers is in the college category. This one will be a demo to watch closely, it WILL change over the next three years, according to NML.

So what can we learn from this, book publicists?

-Don't assume senior citizens are anti-internet. "Interwebs, is that The Google or something? You kids and your crazy machines!!" Dismiss that stereotype, and accept your grandmother's Facebook invite.

-Do pay attention to Millenials (i.e. Gen Y). Only 30% of them are creating web content, but that number will probably grow. Pitch accordingly.

-Do learn how to use an RSS reader (like your humble blogger did a few ~~years~~ weeks ago).

To read the rest of NML's interesting report, click here.

From page to screen

2009-07-14T10:21:00.005-05:00

You can’t throw a stone in the blogosphere this week without hitting a post about the latest Harry Potter volume to make it to the big screen, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

From initial reviews, it looks to be an excellent translation from book to film—but this isn’t always the case. Filmmakers are charged with transforming a beloved text to something palatable for the screen, which often means taking a hatchet to many readers’ favorite parts.

So in celebration of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and our love of books on film, I did an impromptu poll around the P&P office. Here’s what a few of our publicists had to say about their favorite—and least-favorite—book-to-movie adaptations:

Tolly
Hit: "Pride and Prejudice" (The six-hour BBC miniseries version, of course.)
Miss: "The Last Unicorn" (“It totally freaked me out as a kid! Although that probably has to do more with me being 5 than it being inherently flawed. But I loved the novel.”)

Shelby
Hit: "X-Men: The Last Stand" (“I don't know if it counts, but I'm a huge comic book-to-movie fan!”)
Miss: "Fahrenheit 451" (Apparently not a fan of Truffaut...but with those dated 1960s special effects, I don’t blame her.)

Elizabeth
Hit: "The Shawshank Redemption" (It’s so popular as a film, you can actually take a Shawshank trail that traces places featured in the movie.)
Miss: "The Notebook" (“It alludes that they both die together to spend eternity in heaven together - but in the book, he lives she dies and spends the next years missing her dearly.”)

Merritt
Hit: "Bridget Jones' Diary" (British fans were actually upset by the casting of American Renée Zellweger as the popular novel’s heroine—but the movie ended up a hit with audiences everywhere.)
Miss: "Congo" (“People walked out of ‘Congo’ because they loved the book, but hated the movie.”)

Amy
Hit: "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" (Or, really, just any of the Lord of the Rings films. They stayed true to the books, while also not being afraid to take some creative license for cinematic effect.)
Miss: "Queen of the Damned" (I don’t think they could have been more off-base with this one if they tried. Just terrible.)

Feel free to share your own picks in the comment section! Which are your favs and worst offenders?

Tweet the Author: Susan Heim

2009-07-10T10:36:00.009-05:00

What: Tweet live with award winning author, editor and popular mommy blogger, Susan Heim about her latest book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More.

When: Wednesday, July 15th, from 1-2 PM CST

Where: Twitter (hashtag #tweettheauthor)

How: As part of the "Tweet the Author" discussion, Susan Heim will be chatting/tweeting live on Twitter for the full hour to answer questions and chat with fans, readers, bloggers and others.

To join in on the live discussion with Susan, you will need to have a Twitter account. Assuming that you do, here are step-by-step instructions for joining the chat:

1. Log in to your account and type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column.
2. Hit enter and bring up the live discussion with Susan. At this point you will be able to view recent questions from readers and her answers.
3. To refresh the discussion, type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column again and hit enter or refresh your page.
4. To ask a question or make a comment, simply type out your tweet and add the #tweettheauthor hashtag to the end (this essentially identifies your tweet as part of this specific discussion).
5. Once you have tweeted your questions, update the page and it will show up in the live chat.
6. If you have any questions or issues joining the chat, please contact rshelton@phenixpublicity.com or DM us @PhenixandPhenix.

More about Susan Heim:
As an award-winning author and editor, popular mommy blogger, and mother of twin boys, multiples expert Susan Heim wears many hats both personally and professionally. In her latest role as co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC, March 2009), Susan has collected 101 heartwarming stories from parents and siblings of twins and multiples, as well as adult twins, filled with time-tested advice and humorous tales.

After the birth of her fraternal twin boys, Austen and Caleb, Susan set out to create an interactive community and resources where parents just like her could come for answers. From her own website TwinsTalk.com, where parents share tips, advice and stories about raising twins and multiples, to the pages of TWINS Magazine, Susan's expertise and real-life insights have helped thousands learn how to temper twin tantrums, find baby products for multiples, and spare their own sanity as they raise multiple babies.

In addition to her articles and online communities, Susan also is the author of four books on twins, multiples, and parenting. Her first parenting guide, Oh, Baby! 7 Ways a Baby Will Change Your Life the First Year (Hampton Roads Publishing, 2006), won a Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Award, an iParenting Media Award and a Mom's Choice Award. More recently, It's Twins! Parent-to-Parent Advice from Infancy Through Adolescence (Hampton, 2007) won the 2008 Gold Mom's Choice Award, and was a Finalist in the Parenting/Family category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

In Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More, Susan and fellow parents - as well as grown twins - offer readers a peek into the playful, magical world of multiples.

"The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More explore the many joys and challenges of being twins and raising multiples," Susan says. "The special bond they share, the challenges they face together, the trouble they get into, and the mysteries surrounding twins are all evident in tales submitted by twins, parents of multiples, and friends and relatives of these special siblings."

Susan has three additional books schedules for publication in the fall 2009: Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family, Chicken Soul for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Women and Mom's of Multiples' Devotions to Go (Extreme Diva Media, Inc.). When she is not writing books or editing manuscripts, she is an online columnist for MommiesMagazine.com, and a parenting expert for AllExperts.com, ParentsConnect.com, and SelfGrowth.com. For more information about Susan Heim and her books, please visit susanheim.com, or her blog, www.susanheim.blogspot.com.

Easy as 1, 2, 3: Rule of thirds makes social media a snap

2009-07-09T16:27:00.004-05:00

As social media continues to be all the rage, I find myself―and the rest of our team―going to great lengths to keep a pulse on social networking trends and best practices. I was fortunate enough to participate in a great tele-seminar this afternoon, hosted by Heidi Sullivan and Jay Krall from Cision Global Media, on Understanding Social Media. There were many useful sub-topics discussed in the forum, but one bit of information I found particularly relevant and applicable to anyone using social media and trying to figure out not only if it’s needed but what to do with it. This is a must use, social-media rule to live by:

Rule of thirds:
So often, we see authors set up a social media account and then we get the inevitable: Now what? Here’s the 411 on how to come up with content:

1. One-third of your content can be promotional: Mention the great things that are going on―your book publicity, events, accolades, etc.

2. One-third of your content should be sharing oriented: What interesting, relevant articles have you read lately? Are you a health author? Share a great article on a new study that’s been released. You know that phrase you hear us publicists use again and again: news you can use.

3. One-third of your content needs to be conversation oriented: Social media is all about being, well, social. Converse with others in your network. Create a dialogue. The more online social capital you have the better off you’ll be.

Tweet the Author Recap: The 3-hour tour

2009-07-08T15:54:00.008-05:00

Today's highly anticipated 1-hour 'meet the author on Twitter' session became a 3-hour tour of all things Brandon Sanderson. Turnout was record-setting.

Okay, so we're only in our 2nd week of the new weekly series, but we've tested the waters and we're excited to know that the concept has been well-received.

It's doesn't hurt that today's guest was the author of a current NYT bestseller -- an epic fantasy mastermind with a seriously loyal following. Brandon's virtual author appearance went so well in fact, that Twitter just couldn't keep up - it locked him out after exceeding the number of posts allowed in an hour.

He kept a mean pace with the incoming "Tweet the Author" questions and under anther household account, kept chugging along. Last we checked, the party is still in progress at #tweettheauthor. For all you latecomers, it's not too late to jump in & get the scoop on his latest book, Warbreaker.

For a few of the 140 character highlights, read on:

Q: What is the most important part of writing that you have learned to be a successful author?
A: 1) Persistence. 2) Revision. 3) Characters with distinct viewpoints. 4) Use of concrete detail.

Q: Can reveal anything about the setting in Kings?
A: The setting with be the most unique I’ve done. Entirely new ecology.

Q: Now that you've published more, what order should people read your books in? Both Fntsy & non-fntsy readrs
A: Non fantasy readers I’d give Elantris to first. Fantasy readers I’d give Mistborn to

Want to catch up on the rest? Enter #tweettheauthor in your Twitter search box and get comfy. Again, big thanks to Brandon for joining us today!

Have a seat, Kindle: Barnes & Noble nabs #1 Books spot on "Top Free Apps"

2009-07-07T16:16:00.005-05:00

We were excited to see on GalleyCat today that Barnes & Noble has taken top honors in the "Top Free Apps" category under App Store's "Books" category, just a little over a week from the release of their new B&N Bookstore App. We were also pleased to see that in addition to searching event calendars for author readings, the new app allows users to watch video interviews with authors (speaking of....we might know somebody who does author interviews......!).

But truth be told, like GalleyCat, we were downright shaking with geeky glee when we learned about the snap-and-search feature. As B&N explains, users can simply snap a picture of a book, and in seconds, gain product reviews, editorial reviews, and customer ratings - even locate it at the nearest B&N, and reserve it for pick-up.

I know book lovers - I know! Finally, we are getting as techy as the music crowd! Before you know it, Pandora will have swept in to generate reading lists based on our favorite books and/or authors! Oh wait, someone already has.

James Frey, Jackie O, MJ and more...

2009-07-06T17:36:00.004-05:00

Happy Monday! Here’s a brief round-up of some interesting book-related tidbits from across the web:

-Governor Mark Sanford’s book deal has been canceled for, um, obvious reasons.

-The U. S. Department of Justice is investigating a settlement involving Google Book Search for possible antitrust violations.

-TIME profiles a blog called Awful Library Books that—you guessed it—lists the cheesiest, dated books that can be found at your local library. I think I remember a few of these from the old card catalogue at the Ector County Public Library, myself...

-Also, this isn’t so much breaking news, but still makes me gasp in horror: Director extraordinaire Michael Bay has apparently acquired the rights to an unpublished James Frey novel about teenage aliens. Or something like that. We’re pretty sure this one is fiction this time.

-The Christian Science Monitor’s Chapter & Verse blog posted an entry about authors visiting book clubs as a marketing tool.

-Jackie O and Bobby Kennedy? Torrid affair? You be the judge. This falls under the “We Just Can’t Get Enough Kennedy Family Drama” category.

-Apparently a couple of Chinese writers threw together a biography on Michael Jackson in 48 hours, fewer than 10 days after his death. After all, who could be a better authority on MJ than two guys in China who "never met or interviewed Jackson" but wrote the book based on their "accumulated knowledge about the king of pop." Put my copy in the mail.

-And I agree with this EW.com post about keeping the sex out of Harry Potter films. Leave the steamy scenes and romance to Twilight!

How join the "Tweet the Author" discussion with Andy Andrews

2009-06-30T16:08:00.005-05:00

It has been about a week since we announced the first "Tweet the Author" chat with Andy Andrews, which will take place tomorrow on Twitter from 1-2 PM CST and we are excited about the initial reaction.

This is a fairly new concept and we have since received a few questions (even from experienced tweeters) on how to join in on the discussion with Andy.

Here is a step-by-step guide to taking part in the discussion tomorrow:

- To join in on the live discussion with Andy on Wed afternoon, you will need to have a Twitter account.

- Log into your account at 1 PM CST and type in #thenoticer in the right hand search column.

- Once you do that and hit enter, it will bring up the live discussion with Andy and you can view recent questions from readers and Andy's answers.

- To refresh the discussion, type in #thenoticer in the right hand search column again and hit enter or refresh your page.

- To ask a question or make a comment, simply type out your tweet and add the #thenoticer hashtag to the end (this essentially identifies your tweet as part of this specific discussion), refresh the search and it will show up in the live chat.

If you have any questions or issues joining the chat, please contact me at rshelton@phenixpublicity.com or DM us @PhenixandPhenix.

Tweet the Author: Brandon Sanderson

2009-06-30T12:38:00.009-05:00

What: Tweet live with New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson about his newest book, Warbreaker.

When: Wednesday, July 8th, from 1-2 PM CST

Where: Twitter (hashtag #tweettheauthor)

How: As part of the "Tweet the Author" discussion, Brandon Sanderson will be chatting/tweeting live on Twitter for the full hour to answer questions and chat with fans, readers, bloggers and others.

To join in on the live discussion with Brandon, you will need to have a Twitter account. Assuming that you do, here are step-by-step instructions for joining the chat:

Log in to your account and type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column.
Hit enter and bring up the live discussion with Brandon. At this point you will be able to view recent questions from readers and his answers.
To refresh the discussion, type in #tweettheauthor in the right hand search column again and hit enter or refresh your page.
To ask a question or make a comment, simply type out your tweet and add the #tweettheauthor hashtag to the end (this essentially identifies your tweet as part of this specific discussion)
Once you have tweeted your question, update the page and it will show up in the live chat.
If you have any questions or issues joining the chat, please contact me at rshelton@phenixpublicity.com or DM us @PhenixandPhenix.

More about Brandon Sanderson:

One of the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy literature, Bran do n Sanderson's latest novel, Warbreaker (Tor Hardcover | 0-7653-2030-4 | $27.95 | June 9, 2009), debuted on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list.

But the road to the bestseller list wasn't without bumps.

Five years ago, Sanderson was a college student by day and a hotel front desk clerk by night. He wrote while sitting at the hotel desk from 11 pm—5 am, did homework from 5—7 am, went to class until about 4pm, went home and sleep, then started all over again. He wrote 12 unpublished manuscripts that way, before a chance encounter led him to send his unagented manuscript to an editor at a convention.

More than a year passed and Brandon had given up all hope. When the editor finally got the chance to pick it up and read a few hundred pages, he immediately knew he wanted to buy it. Sanderson’s first published book, Elantris (Tor, 2005), earned a Publishers Weekly starred review was chosen by Barnes and Noble.com editors as the best fantasy or sci-fi book of the year.

Today a best-selling author, Sanderson continues to offer his fresh brand of fantasy with the Mistborn series. He was recently chosen by the wife of the late author Robert Jordan to complete his international bestselling Wheel of Time series, which will release in November.

Visit the author's website for additional information.

WLOT Wrap-Up and Tweet-Up!

2009-06-29T11:49:00.019-05:00

We had a great time at the Writers’ League of Texas Conference this past weekend--it’s always nice to meet writers and authors face-to-face. Hopefully those who attended learned a lot from networking with agents and fellow writers and listening to some excellent seminars.

This year Phenix & Phenix sponsored the event and participated in a couple of panels. Senior publicist Tolly Moseley moderated a panel called "Media Madness: How to Land Ink, Airtime, and Buzz" and had this to say about it:

The two most common questions I get as a publicist are: A) How can I get on Oprah? and B) How can I get my book reviewed by the New York Times? So at Sunday's panel, Allen Chen (editor-in-chief of Austinist), Jennifer Stayton (host of "Morning Edition" on KUT-FM, Austin's NPR affiliate), and Kimberley Jones (books editor of Austin Chronicle) joined me to discuss the ways authors and their publicists can grab media's attention. Knowing how to pitch your own book is a very valuable skill, so we wanted to give attending writers and authors some insights on the things media members look for. We lobbed questions on our panelists on topics ranging from "what email subject line makes you actually open a pitch?" to "how do you decide who gets a book review?" to "man, why doesn't Oprah just say no and stop booking every little guest opportunity that comes her way?" (just kidding on that last part).

We got very nuanced answers from our panelists. While Kimberley Jones is really focused on a book's content when deciding who gets coverage, Allen Chen is a little more interested in an author's backstory and their involvement with the local community. Jennifer Stayton comes at book coverage from a news angle, so what she really needs is a tie to a local, current event before she books an interview. The one consistent answer we got from our panelists is the frequency they're being pitched: they receive, at minimum, 100 pitch emails a month about books or authors. Of those, less than 10% will get coverage. So if you don't get the booking you wanted this time, authors, remember that it really is competitive out there! Research the outlet, find a unique way to link your book in to the show's/website's/paper's audience, and eventually, you WILL land something.

Saturday's "Perils of Publicity" panel discussion went very well. I was excited to be there with Phil West, Susan Blount, and Nashville's Julie Gerke. We talked about the changing face of literary publicity, social media strategies, and fielded questions from the audience.

What surprised me most about the audience were the horrified and overwhelmed looks we received as we encouraged authors to plug in online via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other avenues to build their platforms. While some authors consider this to be more work--and it certainly is--I encouraged the audience to think about the opportunity it provides for them to take their writing futures into their own hands.

Five or ten years ago, authors had no hope but to catch the attention of a literary agent or editor with their proposal. If that agent or editor didn't like what they saw, there was no way to prove there was a market for the work. Now, a highly-trafficked blog or a large Twitter following allows an author to do just that. Obviously you can still catch an agent's attention without this type of platform, but I hope the audience left excited about the opportunities that such a platform gives an author.

To that end, we also sponsored a “Tweet-Up” at the conference to encourage everyone to be a part of the Twitter phenomenon. There were quite a few authors who already had Twitter accounts, although some were at a bit of a loss as to how to use it. As we explained to them, Twitter is an ongoing, online conversation, and you’ll get out of it what you put into it. There are some great posts about Twitter and how writers can use it here and here. Not surprisingly, many in the book world have joined Twitter and are offering a wealth of insight and information about the industry. For a huge list of book industry "tweeters," click here.

At the Tweet-Up, we asked people to write down their Twitter handles, as well as their websites and book titles (if they had them) and tweet from the conference using the hashtag #wltcon. We’re posting the full list of participants so that these authors can find each other online and start networking with their peers:

Kendra Crispin; @Dancing Writer; Title: Emerging from the Shadows
Tena Laing; @TwinTexTwo; Title: Tokyo Mingled
Matt Schulz; @MatthewSchulz; Title: Cooperstown Band
Sara; @chikitlinski
Eric Gibson; @ecgibsonphd; Title: Nine Lords of the Night
Jay Ehret; @TheMarketingGuy; Title: Straddling the Fence
Beth Sample; @Beth_Sample
Linda Pennell; @LindaPennell; Title: The Calling
Bob Doerr; @rddoerr
Brad Whittington; @SitOnTwit; Title: Welcome to Fred
Alan J. Porter; @ealanjporter; Title: James Bond: The Illustrated 007
Holly Wonder; @hollywon
Sandy Lawrence; @sandylawrence
Matt Patterson; @mepatterson
Toby Heidel; @redplanetaudio
Belinda Acosta; @BelindaGene; Title: Dames, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz
Senay Ozdemir; @femalealchemist; Title: The Wax Club
Writers' League of Texas; @WritersLeague
Shennandoah Diaz; @shennandoahdiaz; Title: A Coyote Among Us
Jason Myers; @jaypers
Lindsay Powell; @Lindsay_Powell; Title: Eagles Over Germania
Stacy S. Jensen; @StacyWrites
Shannon Morgan; @nomadshan; Title: Briar-Bound
Lydia Ondrusek; @littlefluffycat

These authors came by our table but didn’t have Twitter accounts yet, so maybe we can encourage them to start:

Darrell Berry; Title: Early This Morning
David Nowlin; Title: Maggie Mulligan and the Priceless Gem of Fare-Rune
Rhonda Leverett

If you were at the conference but didn’t get a chance to “Tweet-Up” with us, just leave your name and Twitter handle in the comments.

Thanks again to the Writers' League for hosting such a great event. We look forward to next year's!

Twitter chat: Writers' League of Texas Agents Conference

2009-06-26T10:15:00.007-05:00

The Writers' League of Texas Agents Conference kicks off today here in the Capitol City and we'll be bringing you live updates via Twitter on hashtag #WLTCON.

Tune in for highlights from many of the great discussions that will be taking place over the course of the weekend including former William Morrow publisher and keynote Michael Murphy.

There will also be lots of buzz about book publicity, especially in the face of a very changing media landscape so don't miss these two panels:

"The Perils of Publicity: How to Build a Platform and Buzz for Your Book" moderated by WLT Board Member Susan Blount on Saturday at 1:45pm CT. Three book publicity pros including P&P managing director Rusty Shelton will chime in their thoughts on how to promote yourself and your book before you even land the book deal.
"Media Madness: How to Land Ink, Airtime, and Buzz" sponsored by yours truly - Phenix & Phenix - on Sunday morning at 9 CT. You'll hear from Austin Chronicle's Kimberley Jones, KUT reporter and Morning Edition host Jennifer Stayton, and the Austinist editor Allen Chen about how authors and publishers can effectively work with the media.

For a full conference lineup, go here. See you on Twitter #WLTCON!

Would you like to "Tweet the Author" on Wednesdays?

2009-06-25T12:44:00.011-05:00

You've read the book. It's awesome--but you have a question that's been nagging you since the end of chapter five.

What was the author thinking with that plot twist?!

If only the author were dropping by your local Barnes & Noble you could put him on the spot and learn more about the story behind the book.

Sigh--you live in Amarillo and it is unlikely the author is going to appear in person at your local bookstore.

What to do?

For those readers who don't have a chance to meet the author in person, how about "Tweeting the Author" on Twitter?

In an effort to connect readers with some of the coolest authors in the industry, we are pleased to announce the start of a new live weekly "Tweet the Author" discussion where great authors join a live chat with readers on Twitter on Wednesday afternoons from 1-2 PM CST.

Who will we hear from first?
Andy Andrews, best known for his book, The Traveler's Gift and now the The Noticer (Thomas Nelson) which is now sitting on the New York Times bestseller list for the sixth consecutive week.

How can I chime in?
On Wednesday, July 1st, from 1-2 PM CST Andy Andrews will tweet with readers on the #thenoticer hashtag. To join the chat just search "#thenoticer" in the right hand column and hit enter. That will allow you to bring up all of the recent "tweets" in the discussion.

At that point, type in your question or comment to Andy--but make sure you add "#thenoticer" to the end of your question so that it will be added to the current discussion and Andy will be able to respond.

Stay tuned -- a big announcement about the July 8th featured author is coming soon!

Get Shorty: American Short Fiction comes to Austin, Texas

2009-06-22T15:44:00.003-05:00

Hey Austin literati, there's some fun happening this week:

American Short Fiction Summer Reading

American Short Fiction is celebrating their Summer issue with us Austinites, and sent over this mini-release to us:

"Come for an evening of music, fiction, and drinks! Christie Hodgen is flying in from Kansas City to read from her brilliant story featured in the current issue, actress Kelli Bland will be performing from Patrick Somerville's "The Universe in Miniature in Miniature," and poet (and new Austinite) Laurie Capps will also read. Emceed by ASF favorite, Owen Egerton! Refreshments will be provided by Live Oak Brewing Company."

So there you have it: beer and books! What could be better? Details on the event:

Friday, June 26
7:00-9:00pm
Cafe Caffeine
909 West Mary St.
Austin, Texas

Hope to see some of you locals out there!

How to market to college kids

2009-06-16T14:13:00.005-05:00

One of the many reasons that we love being in Austin is the great pipeline of talent we have for our intern program from the University of Texas and other central Texas Universities.

Our interns helps us do research, pack press kits, handle mail-outs and--from time to time--write blog posts.

Today's post is from Jaclyn Thomas, who is a member of one of the toughest demographics for authors, publishers and publicists to reach--the college crowd.

As Jaclyn points out below, although college kids are busy and have little-to-no disposable income, they do buy cool books and this post is all about how to give your book the best chance at being one of them:

Between studying for exams, keeping up with family members and friends, and finding free food on campus, college students don’t have a lot of free time or money to read books for pleasure. As a college student, I very rarely have time to read anything other than my textbooks. When I do read for pleasure, it’s because a book has been recommended or given to me, because, let’s face it, I’m not going to spend what little money I have on a book that may or may not be worthwhile.

I started thinking about the last three books I read and why I read them and I realized that the first two were highly recommended by my friends and the third was given to me. So, does this mean that I am somehow out-of-the-loop in terms of hearing about new books or are companies methods of reaching out to college students just not effective?

Until I started working for P&P, I frankly wasn’t receiving any information about new books. Granted I never actively searched for new books, this seems very strange to me because I’m by no means living in a cave. College students are so busy trying to stay on top of school work and maintaining a social life that they don’t even think about finding out about new books. If information about a book isn’t put right in front of us, we’re not going to see it.

So how are companies trying to reach out to college students about new books? Most companies are currently using a few tactics to target the college audience and some attempts are more successful than others.

Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace: Many companies are jumping on the social networking bandwagon and promoting books through these sites. Using social networking sites to promote books could be the most effective way to reach college students because they allow members to instantly share and review the books they like with all of their friends. With budget and time constraints, the power of friends and recommendations is incomparable. This is the genius of Facebook: it puts it all in one place. We can see what books our friends like and then, if we hear enough good things, we may go and do further research about purchasing it. Grade: PASS

Traditional Media, Book Reviews, Author and Book Websites: Unfortunately, while this marketing tactic may be successful for other target markets, these types of websites are ineffective for the college student demographic. We all have at least two email addresses, Facebook, Twitter, and even MySpace pages to check every time we get online. This means many college kids don’t have the time to look up information about new books to read unless the information is on a site we’re already on. On the off chance a college student has the time to Google search a particular book, if a link to a Facebook page pops up on Google first, the other websites don’t stand a chance. Facebook offers the power of friend referrals that personalized book websites can’t. Grade: FAIL

YouTube: Book trailers are becoming a popular promotional tactic that I think could be right on the money. However, this is still an up-and-coming tactic that many college students don’t know about. Although I didn’t know about book trailers until I started working for Phenix and Phenix, I feel that this marketing tactic still has the potential to be very successful among college students. Every student I know visits YouTube on a weekly, if not daily, basis, including me. Students are much more likely to watch a promotional video for a book than to read descriptions online about it because it takes less effort. Also, book trailers can be easily reviewed by, shared with, and sent to friends. Grade: PASS

So, just to wrap up, if you want to generate buzz among college students, be smart about how you promote your book. We have very little time to read for fun and probably won’t read anything not recommended or given to us. Also, keep in mind that the book being promoted has to be good enough to be recommended to others. Clever marketing campaigns alone aren’t going to be enough for college students to recommend your book to someone close to them.

If you want us to read it, promote your book on social networking sites or on YouTube because the sad truth is that we’re probably not going to take chances or put in a lot of effort to find the information ourselves.

Back to the scene of the crime: publishing heads back to Austin

2009-06-10T13:58:00.008-05:00

In case you haven't heard, it didn't go so well the last time the publishing industry headed to Austin.

The scene of the crime was SXSW Interactive.

Remember?

New Think; Old Publishers; infamous hashtags (#sxswbp); snarky tweets; frustrated geeks; and another public flogging of the publishing industry.

The Casual Optimist called it a 140 character assassination. Booksquare said "there wasn't a single new think in the room." Medialoper connected "crash" with "burn" in its analysis.

Although I think the panelists were walking into a lion's den at that event, it doesn't change the fact that it produced some very negative press thanks to what many considered to be a lack of new think.

Since then, the clichés have flowed like wine at a book party. “It’s time for publishing to turn the page and embrace digital content delivery.” “Book publishers need to close the book on risky multi-million dollar advances.” Ad nauseum.

This recession has been just that—a wake-up call for numerous industries that have been avoiding change—including publishing. But now that the economy has the publishing industry’s attention, how should we respond?

Would heading back to Austin be a good start?

Many in publishing seem to think so, as a star-studded group of literary agents, editors and authors will be in attendance at the 16th annual Writers League of Texas Agents Conference the weekend of June 26-28th.

The event features provides a full schedule of panels and lectures on a variety of writing and publishing topics, including “Is It Really a Book? How to Tell if Your Big Idea Is Book Worthy” (with Gail Ross), “Publishing Insiders: How Books Are Bought and Published” and “Querial Killers: How NOT to Get an Agent” (with agent Katharine Sands, author of Making the Perfect Pitch).

Perhaps most notably, M ichael Murphy, former publisher at William Morrow and founder of Max & Co. Literary Agency and Social Clu b (love that name), will deliver the keynote speech titled “Sitting in a Cardboard Box, Saying Vroom Vroom & Pretending It’s a Car: Book Publishing 2009.”

“For the last six to nine months, the book business has felt much closer to Revolution than Evolution. It seems that all of us in publishing are obsessively talking about the bottle rather than the wine,” says Murphy. “My talk at the conference could well add to the clutter and confusion as I try to make sense of what's going on. But I also aim to offer a glimmer of hope to any writer aspiring to be read.”

Here's betting Murphy sets the tone for an event that allows us to continue the dialogue on how our industry can evolve in a way that reflects the high level intellect, innovation, creativity and savvy of those working in it.

Those attending the WLT Agents Conference are likely to find fresh ideas, tips for polishing their manuscript, the latest publicity tactics, great networking opportunities, 100 degree heat, Shiner Bock Beer, great enchiladas and an awesome night life.

I'll be looking for some new think and will keep you updated throughout the weekend via our Twitter account and the event's hashtag (#wltcon).

Full conference press release available here.

15 Years of P&P

2009-06-05T08:46:00.009-05:00

We are 15 years old this month!

In honor of our 15 year anniversary, here is a collage that features a small sampling of the many books we have had the pleasure of representing through the years.

Before you guest post, read this.

2009-06-03T09:22:00.011-05:00

So you've been invited to be a guest blogger. This 'virtual op-ed' invitation is often a great opportunity to weigh in under the banner of a reputed news organization or an individual blog, and a great place to gain a little publicity for yourself as well. Keep in mind, what you say within the blog, could be quoted elsewhere and the rules of traditional journalism also apply here within the blogging community. Need a few pointers before you post? Read on.

State your opinion. When writing as a guest blogger, feel free to add commentary to the issue at hand, but stay on task and whatever you do, avoid the temptation to push your book. Book mentions are usually reserved for the byline.
Honor the guidelines. Shoot for approx. 500-700 words to keep from being too verbose and ask for a set of guidelines from the editor so you're clear on the assignment.
Fact check your work. That includes stats, figures, research and especially quotes from other sources. Just like traditional journalism, watch out for statements that could be libelous or slanderous.
Credential yourself. You owe it to the readers to let them know why you are a trustworthy source. Provide the blog editor a one paragraph bio, remembering to highlight significant media attention you may have had in the past. Make sure you have a professional headshot available too, as they often accompany most guest posts.
Welcome edits. When your post hits the chopping block, keep in mind the editor will read for clarity, grammar and spelling, and will likely contact you if significant changes are necessary. Expect a few rounds of edits, and be flexible on the headline.
Research. Catch up on other guest blog posts to get a feel for their tone. Don't forget to clue into the comments, so you're prepared for the kind of response your post may generate.
Respond. Once the post is live, pay attention to reader comments and don't be surprised if a few aren't exactly in your favor. Be personable and engage in the conversation by posting additional points that clarify the argument or answer reader questions. If the conversation becomes hostile, sometimes it's best to remove yourself from the dialogue entirely and allow your publicist to act on your behalf.

Quick Hits

2009-05-26T17:12:00.010-05:00

What, no BEA?!

This is the first post Memorial Day Tuesday that I haven't been gearing up for Book Expo America in six years. We made the decision to send a very small crew this year for a few reasons, including a recent trip to NYC for a launch party and a guess that this year's event won't be much of one.

I will miss a few things about BEA, including seeing good friends, getting a good pulse for the fall lists, swiping a few free galleys, the first-ever BEA Tweet-up and, you know, high-fiving the Pope:

I won't miss trying to catch a cab during a Friday afternoon downpour, waiting 20 min for $5 coffee, sore feet from walking the show floor all day or 6:30 AM breakfast meetings.

If you will also be vicariously attending BEA through Twitter, join me in following the BEA 2009 hash tag on Twitter: #BEA09.

For those heading to NYC, check out the Book Publicity Blog's list of things to download before you make the trip.

The Noticer is a bestseller

Late last week we received word from Thomas Nelson that The Noticer debuted on both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. It is #6 on the NY Times Hardcover/Advice list and #15 on the WSJ nonfiction list.

This book has been the subject of a large amount of well-deserved buzz this spring and is one of the best team-based campaigns we have been involved with.

For those of you who have yet to take part in the social media movement inspired by the book, The Noticer Project, you can read pages and pages of notices on the website and begin noticing those who have made the biggest impact on your life there as well.

It has been exciting to watch a campaign that has combined the best of traditional media with social media for the same purpose--to attract readers to a very good book by one of the best storytellers in publishing.

Amidst the shots publishing takes from those who label it slow-to-adapt and too dependent on print media, this launch is a very good example of how the industry is adapting and finding ways to reach readers in new ways.

For those who haven't read the book, through the end of May, Thomas Nelson is running a special where if you buy a copy of the book you can receive it in every format with which it is available. I highly recommend it.

"Micro persuasion" is the new black

2009-05-14T08:23:00.014-05:00

I don't know if it's the adorable graphics on Twitter, or the fact that words like 'tweet,' 'twittering,' and 'tweet-up' make us feel like we're communicating in cartoon-language, but many authors and book industry individuals can't help but smirk - still - when we extol the very real virtues of Twitter.

"But you can interact with consumers in a way you normally wouldn't!" we cry. "Even media tweets! Oprah has started tweeting!!"

"Yeah yeah, 'Twitter.' I get it. Real cute. Have you called the New York Times yet?"

Phrases like "old media" and "new media" are fraught with connotations ("stodgy" and "over-hyped" come to mind), so let's not even go there. Instead, Dear Reader, I'd like to turn your attention to an article that released this week from The New York Observer about publishers' changing attitudes towards social media. Here's a chunk:

"The central insight driving much of the outreach that publishers have undertaken online is that, if used with finesse and attention, social media platforms like Twitter can be used deliberately to generate that invaluable, heretofore elusive phenomenon known as word of mouth...publishing houses have sought to integrate themselves and their authors into various online communities of readers, and to interact—meaningfully!—with the individuals who participate in them. While they make no attempt to conceal their affiliations, the publicists and marketing people who man their companies’ accounts on Facebook and Twitter aim to be seen not as corporate promoters, but as friends taking part in a conversation."

Most people now understand what the point of social media is. If the book-buying public is a classroom, and Oprah, The Today Show, and The New York Times our teachers, Facebook and Twitter are the notes we pass in class. It feels fun, almost conspiratorial, and if you're already on-board with social media then I don't need to preach to you anymore. Except to say:

Our "teachers" have taken up the notes. And they want in on the party.

I've been hearing a lot about "the open web" lately, and the gist is basically this: EVERYTHING, all media, is going social. "Well, duh, that's what the comments section is for," you say. But by "social" we don't just mean "interactive" - the open web will reverse the top-down way media currently works (saw a book on the The Today Show, blogged about it, my readers bought the book), and instead, foster a network of online channels where the biggest stars interact the most places. From MicroPersuasion.com:

"Tomorrow, as everything becomes social, you will be able to shop Amazon directly from within your iGoogle page without ever having to visit the site. What's more, Amazon will show you what your Gmail address book friends have publicly said about a product and/or its category in any one of thousands of online communities. Finally, to help you further Amazon will offer an aggregated view of your friends' friends opinions in a way that protects their identity....

Marketers need to really embrace the fact that it's peers and their data, rather than brand, that will become the primary way we make decisions. The greatest rewards will go to those who embrace and participate in as many communities as they possibly can in credible ways."

For the sake of argument, let's switch out "marketers" for "publicists" and "brand" for "big media" - Oprah, Today Show, etc. If micro persuasion pans out, we'll pay a LOT more attention to those little notes our friends are passing us, rather than the algebra lesson our teacher is writing on the blackboard. (Especially if your friend is @johncmayer, in which case you might have to deflect his 10,000,000 daily notes with a sturdy Trapper Keeper).

Now, book publicists have always placed a high premium on relationships, but that's about to go into overdrive as we look down the road to 2010 and beyond, as consumers become the media. In five years, we may very well be saying, "Oprah likes Eckhart Tolle's new book? Who cares? My ex-boyfriend, my second cousin, that girl I met at a party last weekend and my accountant all like the new Martha Beck book, so I'm going with that."

Chicken Soup for the Soul honors America's moms

2009-05-07T12:35:00.003-05:00

To Chicken Soup for the Soul, every mom is a power mom, and tomorrow the brand is throwing a Mother's Day bash in Manhattan to honor America's moms.

Here is a shot of our very own Tolly Moseley in front of the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble with a sign promoting tomorrow's event (Barnes & Noble has done a terrific job promoting it with us).

If you live in NYC or surrounding areas and you are looking for the perfect way to honor your mom for Mother's Day, we hope to see you at the event!

Here are the details:

Every Mom is a “Power Mom!”
You are cordially invited to:

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms
Book Launch Party
Friday, May 8
1:00pm
Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble, 1972 Broadway, New York City

Just in time for Mother’s Day, this book launch will honor stay-at-home moms, multi-tasking moms, Blackberry moms, mompreneurs, rock star moms, and every mom in between!
A very special “Power Moms” panel will be hosted by some of our story contributors:

Liz Lange, Founder of Liz Lange Maternity
Jane Green, bestselling author
Victoria Colligan, Founder of Ladies Who Launch
Amy Newmark, Publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC
Wendy Walker, Editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms

The panel will be followed by Q&A and a book signing.
We hope you can join us for this event!

Presented by:

Shop Local

2009-05-06T14:59:00.006-05:00

For all of our authors, we encourage them to set up book signing events when their book releases and during their publicity campaign. We think this is a great way to build local support! We also encourage our authors to add a link to their website where readers can purchase a copy of their book. This link is usually Amazon.com.

But as Josie Leavitt, a blogger for Publishers Weekly points out, if authors expect local bookstores to carry their books, to feature their books on a variety of applicable displays and to host events for them, authors should add links to the local bookstores in their area.

For more advice from Leavitt, check out http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266/post/1970043797.html

Quick hits: Friday, May 1st 2009

2009-05-01T10:16:00.002-05:00

Happy May Day and good morning, ya'll.

I'm getting ready to speak about literary publicity this weekend at the Dallas/Fort Worth Writers Convention. I love speaking to writers groups and I’m certainly looking forward to this event.

Before we all sign off for the weekend, I thought it’d be fun to take a look at some of this week’s happenings in the industry and literary world. Here’s a round up of relevant headlines:

Congrats to this year's Edgar Award winners
The Mystery Writers of America announced this year’s Edgar Award winners. This prestigious annual prize is named after, appropriately, Edgar Allan Poe. Some highlights in the winner’s circle include “In Bruges” for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and The Killer’s Wife by Bill Floyd for The Simon & Schuster-Mary Higgins Clark award. Take a look at the full list here.

No more religion beat at the DMN
Sad news: The religion beat at the Dallas Morning News was laid to rest this week. According to Rod Dreher's post on BeliefNet, the last two religion reporters are being reassigned to cover schools. You can read Dreher's take on the decision here.

Kindle's popularity growing among the over 40 set
CNet had an interesting article in their "Crave" column yesterday: 70 percent of Kindle owners are over the age of 40. David Carnoy posed the question, "What's the average age of Kindle owners?" back in March and received 700 responses. The final tally yielded some interesting results.

The timeliness of the message
I don't know if you guys have heard, but apparently there is an illness called "Swine Flu" sweeping North America. (That was sarcasm.)

This latest epidemic has fueled book sales and deals for a couple of authors. John M. Barry released The Great Influenza over five years ago. As of Thursday, the book had reached the top 100 on Amazon's best seller list. The book covers the ins and outs of the 1918 influenza pandemic. On Thursday, Henry Holt announced they are publishing biologist Nathan Wolfe's The Viral Storm, a book about the ways in which viruses and humans evolve together. Sounds like a beach vacation read, eh? See the full story here.

I (heart) Geeks
Yahoo's "Book Talk" offered up a fun interview with "self-proclaimed geek" Garth Sundem on Wednesday. Sundem's latest book, The Geek's Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People, offers a pi's worth of facts for the Geeks among us. I say "a pi's worth" because the book contains 314.15 tidbits for readers. Per the article: "314.15 facts -- which is a decimal computation for pi -- in a compendium of usable and totally useless bits of information that geeks would relish." Obviously, this book speaks to me. My favorite Q&A from the interview:

Q: Is it easier being a geek now?

A: "I think it is because geeks now can connect, they are online and have support groups and they find they are not alone. Culturally we've gotten geekier. It's an information age. Even the cool kids are on Facebook which should be geeky but it's not! Look at Hollywood: in movies back in the 1980s like National Lampoon we would laugh at the geeks. Now we laugh with them."

What to do when your email goes down

2009-04-24T08:08:00.011-05:00

This week we had a brief email scare.

Email issues are scary for anyone but to a publicist, an email hiccup is akin to a stockbroker losing his trading software to a power surge or a rural mailman losing his alternator on the first leg of his shift--tough to do your job well without it.

But it wasn't always this way--when did we start to rely so much on email as publicists?

Over the past year I have marveled at how much our jobs as publicists have changed. You know the reasons--from media conglomeration to social media platforms--being a good publicist now is as much about being a savvy social media advocate and strategist as it is giving a great phone pitch.

However, when you look at how much publicity has changed over the past 5-10 years, we have transitioned from an environment of almost exclusively phone pitching (don't forget the old fax pitch!) media contacts to email pitching.

Email is the perfect medium for pitching because it allows publicists to get their media contacts all the information they need in a format that they can manage amidst deadlines and other pulls on their time.

So, when a publicist's email goes down--even for a short period of time--it is a stressful event. As an author or publicist, what do you do when you have email problems?

Here are some tips for making the most out of a brief email hiccup:

- Write! We used our brief email hiccup to catch up on press materials for a number of campaigns. Email has a way of becoming a distraction throughout the day and having some down time to work on new pitches, press materials and other documents for our clients was a blessing.

- Get on the phone. We used the email issue as an excuse to talk with a number of media contacts. Although email has become a convenient way to pitch, it doesn't provide the same level of personal communication that a good phone conversation does.

- Catch up on projects that have gotten behind. Again, email can be a distraction and you can use the down time to catch up on projects that may have fallen behind.

- Use the hiccup as a reminder to back up your email files. Most of us use our email accounts to do more than communicate--we store information we know we will need at a later date. Thankfully, we backed everything up at our office but make sure you have similar protections in place.

Our world is changing--first email, then Facebook and now Twitter. For our parents it was letters, then phones and then faxes. We can get so caught up in these different technologies and the conveniences that they provide that sometimes we lose productivity in other areas of our business.

Our brief email issue allowed us to catch up on a few projects and reconnect with a number of media contacts over the phone. I think it was a blessing in disguise.

When your email goes down in the future, take a deep breath and look at it as an opportunity to catch up on other areas of your business.

Twitter Dumb?

2009-04-20T16:10:00.014-05:00

Tweet, Tweeted, Twittering, Tweeter, and of course, Twitter. This is the new language of today. In fact, even Oprah Winfrey herself has joined the Twitter bandwagon sending tweets to all of her "fabulous" celebrity friends. But for some, Twitter is a bit overwhelming. No need to fret, help is on its way. Here are the basics for understanding Twitter:

Twitter asks one question and one question only: "What are you doing?" To answer this simply complex question, users can answer via the web, instant message or mobile texting within the 140 character limit. Example: Writing a blog post on Twittering.

But with only 140 characters, users must be mindful of the length of their tweet. For example, if I wanted to share the link to my blog post, I would exceed the 140 characters. However with the convenience of tinyurl.com, I have the option of making a long URL tiny. Example: http://phenixpublicity.blogspot.com/2009/04/twitter-dumb.html to http://tinyurl.com/cm8orx

Now that you know what to say and how to say it on Twitter, here are few more helpful hints to decoding tweets.

# - hashtag. Placed in front of terms to make it easier to search for on search.twitter.com
i.e., Sci-Fi authors at #Phenix Publicity

@ - reply. Indicates you are replying to a specific user or mentioning a user in your tweet
i.e., For more info about what's going on at #Phenix Publicity, check out @PhenixandPhenix

RT - retweet. A repost of someone else's tweet
i.e., @PhenixandPhenix tweets, "New children's author celebrates Earth Day April 22."
I want to post this tweet as my update: RT @PhenixandPhenix New children's author celebrates Earth Day.

So now, everyone go out and tweet away!

Still confused? Feel free to check out the sites below for more information:
Qwitter - A website allowing you to track when followers quit following you on Twitter

Ping.fm - A website which allows you to update all your social networks at one time

The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter - Great information with more glossary terms, Twitter etiquette, articles, applications and use with cell phones

The Noticer Project: What is all the fuss about?

2009-04-17T08:04:00.020-05:00

It has been fun to watch so many people putting the inspiring and perspective-changing message of Andy Andrews' new book, The Noticer (Thomas Nelson), to good use through The Noticer Project.

It is an important movement at a time when many of us can use a pick-me-up amidst the seemingly endless sea of bad news found in the media. Not only is it gratifying to be "noticed" by someone for the impact you have made on their life, but I personally got more out of remembering all the gifts I've been given through the years.

Often we get too busy with our daily lives to think about how lucky we really are. I know I do--this helped put things in perspective. Thanks, Andy!

I thought it might be helpful to provide a central location for those who have blogged about The Noticer Project. Most of the posts are individuals noticing their five, while others feature commentary about the concept itself. For those of you still wondering who you might notice, these posts may give you a good idea.

This is by no means a complete list and doesn't feature the many notes throughout the Facebook universe. Have I missed you? Shoot me an email.

Pages and pages of notices on TheNoticerProject.com

Tales From The Mom Side

The Burton Review

Christy's Book Blog

Heart to Heart With Holley

Michael Hyatt

Kelley Klepfer

Lessons From The Scrapbook Page

Rediscovering The Church

I'm Just Saying

Write for a Reader

The Journaling Gina

Snohomish County Undressed

The Accidental Traveler

Laura's Book Blog

One Leg at a Time

The Princess and the Monkey

BooMama

Christian Retailing

Sweet Tea and Theology

The Long Road 2 Heaven

A Tentmaker's Journey

Adventures From the Sewing Studio

Brain Drops

Critty Joy

The Writing Place

Alarms and Introductions

A Better Woman for God & Family

Wunderblog
Michelle Cushatt
Because Someone Cares
Giving up on Perfect
Heart to Heart With Holley
Chick With Books
Sarah Hay's Blog
Chefdruck Musings
The Fuzzy Blog
Pastor Joey's Wife
Ides of May
A Writer's Edge
Blogging Mayor

Be Well Stanford
Bloggin' 'bout Books
God-Wrestler
Scrambled Dregs
Laura's Imperfect Blog
It's My Life
Connecting to Impact
The Surrendered Scribe

Remember that you can send a personal email to those you plan to "notice" directly from The Noticer Project website. By doing so, you also add your voice to the many notices that can be found there and give a more public recognition of your five.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-04-15T12:07:00.005-05:00

We have quite a few fans of Jane Austen’s works on the Phenix & Phenix team. In fact, when we had our media analysis meeting for Jane Austen Ruined My Life a few months ago, it was a resounding, “YES, we want this book.” Personally, I’ve never been able to get into to Austen’s works, although I certainly understand their redeeming qualities.

However, I do like a good Zombie story and/or flick. What do they have to do with each other?

This, dear reader, is what they have to do with each other:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance (Quirk Books) by Seth Grahame-Smith hit the shelves earlier this month to great success. As of this writing, the book is in the top 5 on The New York Times’ Paperback Trade Fiction Best Seller List. The “literary mash-up” opens with this take on the immortalized first line of Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." Indeed. This week, Grahame-Smith granted The Toronto Star a fun interview about the book and how it came to be.

According to Slashfilm.com, studios are now clamoring for the movie rights to the Zombie-ized retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Also, last week Publisher’s Weekly reported that Grahame-Smith has inked a new, two book deal worth six figures with Grand Central Publishing. His first mash-up with Grand Central: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Per PW: “The proposal for Grahame-Smith's new book sold at auction Wednesday and the story is a loose sketch of Lincoln's life with one twist--honest Abe is the world's most skilled vampire hunter.”

What literary mash-ups would you like to see?

Kris Saknussemm coming to Austin update: BEERLAND!

2009-04-10T09:45:00.004-05:00

Kris Saknussemm, author of Private Midnight, will be giving a reading next week at Beerland on Red River. He'll be speaking against a backdrop of live "broken word mutant jazz." Um, we can't wait??

See you there, Austin!

Take me back to Manhattan: Jack Ford's book launch recapped

2009-04-10T09:10:00.007-05:00

This week, I had the wonderful privilege of attending Jack Ford's book launch for his new book, "The Osiris Alliance" (Ovation Books, April 2009). Held at the prestigious Yale Club in NYC, the event was a great success and those in attendance were truly genuine in the regard they held for Jack. Many may recognize Jack as the former chief legal correspondent for NBC News, but let me briefly give some background:

Jack is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning television news anchor and former trial lawyer. Since becoming a journalist, he has served as an anchor and correspondent for NBC News, ABC News and Court TV. He is recognized as one of the top legal journalists in America and currently co-anchors TruTv’s “In Session.” A graduate of Yale University, where he is currently a visiting professor, and the Fordham University School of Law, Ford has also been the recipient of a number of honorary degrees, recognizing his professional accomplishments and his extensive public service work.

For all of his accomplishments he is quite the gentleman, refreshingly humble and truly a one-of-a-kind guy. The trip to New York was a whirlwind. I flew in and caught a cab into the city on Tuesday afternoon. The event was that evening and right around the corner from my hotel and Grand Central Station.

Numerous friends, family and colleagues were in attendance to support and celebrate Jack and “The Osiris Alliance,” some of which included Dan Abrams, NBC News chief legal correspondent, Ashleigh Banfield, “In Session” anchor, Katie Couric, “CBS Evening News” anchor, and Jamie Floyd, “In Session” anchor. I was pleased to meet Jack’s wife, Dorothy, and his extended truTV family. Jack signed copies of “The Osiris Alliance,” told his story about how John Grisham pulled him aside and told him to just write the book and posed for pictures with friends and family.

I flew back to Austin the next day and was surprised to see snow flurries on my trek back to JFK. Snow in April was a big deal to this Texas girl!

Where social media meets a perspective-changing movement

2009-04-08T11:22:00.010-05:00

I must confess: I haven't been this excited about a campaign in a while.

As you will read below, there is an amazing amount of buzz building for Andy Andrews' new book, The Noticer (Thomas Nelson, Apr. 2009).

Thomas Nelson is a longtime client of ours and they regularly bring us great books by leading authors. They also push the envelope with their creativity and willingness to step outside the box. We're happy to be working with them and Andy Andrews on The Noticer Project, which launched yesterday.

What is The Noticer Project?

If you haven't been asked this question already, I hope someone will pose it to you over the coming weeks.

If asked, you can explain that The Noticer Project is a worldwide movement to "notice" the five most influential people in your life and it is inspired by Andy Andrews' new book, The Noticer. The movement started yesterday and I'm excited to see a number of people already taking part.

For more details on The Noticer Project, please visit the offical website here or join the Facebook group here.

You can also read a letter from Andy about why he's so excited about The Noticer Project here.

What is the goal of The Noticer Project?

Every once in a while a book comes along that has the right message at just the right time and proceeds to impact lives around the world. I think many would agree that we are in need of such a perspective-shaping message right now.

Many of you have read the New York Times bestseller, The Traveler's Gift, written by author and speaker Andy Andrews, which walks the reader through the seven decisions that determine personal success. Many people point to this book as a "game-changer" in their lives--a book that put them back on the right track. As powerful as The Traveler's Gift was and is, I think Andy's new book, The Noticer, has the potential to impact even more lives.

To say we're living in challening times is a major understatement--and a bit cliche--but with many struggling to find a new job, pay their mortgage and keep food on the table, it can be very difficult to keep the right perspective on life.

Andy Andrews knows this from personal experience--he not only lost both of his parents at a very young age but also became homeless soon-after, having to resort to living under a pier. Andy has long since gotten back on his feet but he knows firsthand how many are feeling right now.

Andy seems to have known that this book had the potential to not just entertain, but also engage readers to put its principles into action. In The Noticer, he talks a lot about perspective--something that many of us lose grip of as a result of the busyness of our daily lives.

The main question in many of our minds was how to turn the principles of the book into action.

Then an idea--what if we encouraged people to take a minute and notice those people who have impacted their lives--wouldn't that be an experience that put things back in perspective for many people? After all, when we think about the gifts we have thanks to the important people in our lives, it tends to put financial strains and other stresses back in perspective.

Andy decided to launch The Noticer Project out of a hope that people wouldn't wait until it's too late to notice those people that have made a positive impact on their lives. Far too often we take those treasured relationships for granted and end up sending a letter to the family after a funeral to tell them how much of an impact their loved one had on our lives (while hoping the lost loved one knew what we thought of them when they passed).

Why is it so hard for us to "notice" those people before it is too late?

That's where The Noticer Project comes in--it's a movement to push the pause button on our busy lives and "notice" five people that you owe a great debt to thanks to their love and care through the years.

Noticing those people can be as private (a hand-written note or taking an old teacher to coffee) or as public (posting on your blog, joining the Facebook group or posting a note on Facebook like I did here) as you want it to be. Andy's team has also set up a website that allows people to publicly notice their five.

When it comes down to it, the important thing is not how you "notice" your five, but that you take time to say thanks. When you do that, not only do you let them know how they have impacted you, but you also gain a new perspective on the gifts within your own life.

Here are a few public examples of those taking part in The Noticer Project:

Shelly Burns, Lindsey Read Nobles, Shannon (Potamus Prefers), Marie Burton, Bethany Hiitola, Kelly Klepfer, Christine (The IE Mommy), myself and many others around the country.

Head over to The Noticer Project website for a running scroll of those being noticed.

Why am I so excited about The Noticer Project?

I think The Noticer Project is going to be a great experiment on the power of social media to advance a meaningful agenda. The "25 Things" movement saw great success on Facebook and although The Noticer Project is more focused on others than it is ourselves--as the "25 Things" note was--I'm hoping that people see their various social media platforms (from Facebook to Twitter) as great tools for publicly "noticing" those who have impacted them.

I hope that you enjoy reconnecting with those five on your list as you take part in The Noticer Project.

Mt. Hermon Conference: Day 4

2009-04-06T16:35:00.005-05:00

Have I mentioned how big the redwoods are out here? Radio towers with branches.

A few of us broke away yesterday to go redwooding at the state park near Mt. Hermon. The towers graciously posed with us as I filled my digitial camera with pictures (which don't do the trees justice).

Very cool stuff. If you're in California and can breakaway to see these thousand-year old trees, you'd be smart to do so.

Today is day four of the Mt. Hermon writers conference and we're having a blast. This morning was the moment of truth for my publicity track attendees. We practiced television interviews--each author brought a list of ten sample media questions and we ran through as many as we could before the three minute buzzer went off. For many of these authors it was their first interview and I was impressed with the quality of their answers.

We worked on several tips for TV interviews, including:

- Use narratives and examples to illustrate points. Show not tell is a virtue as a writer and the same principle applies to TV interviews.

- Credential yourself early in the interview. Lead into your first answer with a statement like "In my twenty years of experience as a counselor, I've learned..."

- Have tips and resources available for viewers on your website to save you time during an answer and add viewers to your site. Use a statement like this "I list the top ten tips for avoiding spring break travel stress on my website."

- Lead into answers with a list--it not only keeps you on topic, but it also lets the host know when you're done answering. For example, "My research has shown that these three things are the biggest threats to married couples, first..."

All of the authors did well and I'm excited to watch as they build their platforms beyond the conference.

Twitter is a hot topic at Mt. Hermon this year. The younger authors are busy trying to explain to the older authors why it makes sense for them to dive into another social networking platform. After all, many of them recently gave in and made the jump to Facebook.

Last night my new buddy Andy Merrick gave a late night presentation to a room packed with authors on why Twitter matters to them. He had an uphill battle from the start because many of the authors in the room were against another drain on their time and if you've ever tried to explain Twitter to someone who has never seen it, you know that it's not an easy thing to do.

After some discussion and a few good examples from Andy, many of those in the crowd began to be swayed. As I sit in the coffee lounge right now there are authors fanned out around the room trying to figure out how to begin their new Twlifes.

Although many of them are still skeptical, in a few days they will be writing blog posts telling their friends how useful it has become for them. Remarkable thing--this Twitter.

If you are interested in following some of the Mt. Hermon early adopters, Thomas Umstattd has posted a helpful link here. Those of you interested in searching for Mt. Hermon 'tweets' can search the hash tag #mthermon

Mt. Hermon Quick Hits

I've been communicating back and forth with the office and we've got a tremendous amount of buzz building for the launch of The Noticer Project tomorrow. Who will you notice? Learn more about the grassroots movement here.

One of the authors in my morning track, BJ Hamrick, has a great blog for teens here.

I know I mentioned this but it's really remarkable to hear the chatter around this coffee shop--60-70 year old authors saying things like "follow me" and "did you just 'tweet me'?" Good stuff.

Have I mentioned that Bill Butterworth is funny? Another great performance from him last night.

I'm ready to see my family--my man Luke (18 months old) is going to be twice as tall when I get home. Can't wait to see him.

Mt. Hermon Conference: Day 2

2009-04-04T16:09:00.007-05:00

Still sunny and 70 degrees out here. Amazing stuff.

Today was the first day of my major morning track, titled "Bring on the Media." I'm still not sold on the title--it sounds like I'm encouraging an author/media smackdown or something.

"Who wants some--did you say something, Redbook?"

I've seen a few public back and forths between authors and journalists and while they can be entertaining (if you're not the publicist caught in between), I'm more interested in making sure the class doesn't feel intimidated by the publicity process.

I started things off by commenting that the changes within the media over the past six months make the publishing industry look stable by comparison. As publicists, we're having to evolve almost daily as the media consolidates, changes and in some cases just disappears.

For authors watching that process from the sidelines, it can be worrisome, if not flat-out depressing. My morning track is all about prepping authors for those new challenges--and more importantly, new opportunities.

A few of the things we covered today:

- Social media is all about building authentic relationships--not hawking books.

- Media members are searching for sources and guests online and if you don't have a good website with fresh, professional information--you're missing out on opportunities.

- Thanks to blogs, Twitter and other apps, authors have more control than ever over their platforms. No excuses remain for not plugging in online.

- Buzz doesn't build overnight--it's a result of hard work and a unique/entertaining perspective communicated to an ever-growing audience over time.

- Don't be intimidated by social media--learn as much as you can about how to approach it and dive right in.

Mt. Hermon Quick Hits: Day 2

Bill Butterworth is one funny dude. He gave his first talk last night and the guy had us eating out of his hands.

I've got some very smart, savvy authors in my course, including Annie Downs, Sharon Norris Elliott, Holley Gerth and others that I will get dirty looks from for not mentioning here.

My poor roommate. Every time I roll over in bed it sounds like I'm doing a cannon-ball on a creaky set of box-springs. It's brutal.

I haven't had to dodge any careening branches yet today--stay tuned.

All weekend I have been asked for examples of an author with a good Web presence and I always point people to my good friend Vicki Courtney. Her website is excellent and her blog is even better.

The food is amazing here--I feel like I'm on a cruise. I thought people were just being nice but it's as good as advertised.

Mt. Hermon Conference: Day 1

2009-04-03T11:23:00.009-05:00

As some of you have read on Twitter, I'm participating in the Mt. Hermon Writers Conference this weekend. It is one of the most well-regarded writers conferences in the country and takes place just outside of San Jose, CA, in the middle of an amazing redwood forest and I'm honored to be on the faculty this year.

After arriving yesterday, I had a conference call with the Thomas Nelson team about Andy Andrews' new book, The Noticer, and the grassroots movement born from it, The Noticer Project. More about The Noticer Project when it launches on Tuesday, April 7th but I will say that this is a book that is going to turn a lot of heads. Andy is a tremendous author and world-renowned speaker and I think The Noticer is his most important (and best) work yet.

Once I arrived at Mt. Hermon, I had some free time and thought it would be cool to sit underneath a few redwoods and work on my presentation. I was feeling very Californian until out of nowhere a massive branch dove out of one of the trees and crashed onto the sidewalk next to me. Hmm--maybe the coffee house instead?

I have gotten a bit of work done but have spent most of my time connecting with friends and discussing the publishing industry. CBE has been a big topic and most have an opinion on what should have been done differently. I think the consensus is that at its core it was a good idea and there's probably a way to make it work in the future.

Last night at the faculty introductions someone stood up and tongue-in-cheeked on how static the industry has been for the past few year--"nothing's changing, y'all." Right, nor in print media or investment banking...

It really summed up the mood of many I've talked to--from the Kindle 2 to consolidation to layoffs to other financial woes--our industry is changing at such a rapid pace that it can be hard to keep up. With so much noise, this conference is a refreshing opportunity to get back to what we all love about what we do--helping good books find readers.

Mt. Hermon Quick Hits

Rachel Williams and Dave Talbot have done a tremendous job so far with this event--both hold up to their great reputations.

I just had a chance to see Anita Higman's new book, Love Finds You in Humble, TX, and it looks very impressive. Kudos to Summerside Press for a great cover.

Mary E. DeMuth has a new novel out called Daisy Chain that is getting some very good buzz.

I had a great conversation with the always charming Brandilyn Collins last night and enjoyed hearing more about her soon-to-be released novel, Exposure.
I enjoyed meeting Bruce W. Martin yesterday and hearing more about his speaking and forthcoming book, Your Perfect Storm.

Although I'm thrilled to be at Mt. Hermon, I am bummed to be missing what should be a very fun wedding tomorrow. Our manager of media relations, Stephanie Mayabb, is getting married tomorrow to Jeremy Ridge in Austin. Congrats to them both--a great couple starting what should be an awesome journey.

Facebook Survival Guide

2009-03-30T14:51:00.003-05:00

MSNBC.com had a great article on what you need to know to avoid embarrassing your kids and yourself on Facebook.

Check it out here: Facebook survival guide for awkward adults

What a difference a year makes

2009-03-25T18:59:00.010-05:00

I'm in Boston getting ready for the start of "Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative Non-Fiction" conference, which is put on by the Harvard Medical School's Department of Continuing Education.

It's a sweet gig--the conference is at the Fairmont Copley Square and Boston is always fun. This is my fourth year and it is one of my favorite trips each year. I'm due to give a media training workshop at 2:30 PM each of the next two days and then a speech on the broader publicity process Saturday at 11:30 AM.

As I prepped today on the flight up to Boston it was pretty eye-opening to think about how much I've had to revise last year's presentation. Each year I go through the normal updates but this year was almost a total rewrite. It is amazing how much the publicity process has changed in just one year...

Social networking?

Last year: "If you have time, I suggest a MySpace page for your book."

This year: "A commitment to social networking is no longer an option, it's a requirement. By the end of the weekend you should start building your presence on Facebook and Twitter and thinking about viral strategies for your book."

Newspaper coverage?

Last year: "Although slowing down, daily newspaper coverage - in print form - remains one of the most realistic and sought after targets for authors and publicists."

This year: "Thanks to mobile extensions, Twitter applications and clicks per day, online extensions of traditional print outlets like the New York Times are more visible bookings for authors and publicists."

Mommy bloggers?

Last year: "It's a cute trend we're starting to see--moms reviewing books, commenting on pop culture and generating conversations with each other in their spare time. It must keep them busy."

This year: "Mommy bloggers have become one of the most influential target markets for books online. Any book targeting women 25-55 has to resonate with this segment of the market. Oh, and they're making a fortune off of ad revenue. The more popular mommy bloggers have opened the door for the dudes they married to leave their jobs and stay home and count money."

Blog tours?

Last year: "Apparently, New York Times thinks we should send our authors on "appearances" around the internet."

This year: "Blog tours, online book giveaways, author guest posts, etc. are crucial to every book publicity campaign. Try giving your bloggers a time range - a 3-4 day window, for example - to post their reviews, giveaway, etc. in order to spike Amazon rankings and increase the book's search engine optimization."

How much will change between 2009 and 2010? Any thoughts?

NYT on SXSW and the WWW

2009-03-19T10:58:00.004-05:00

The New York Times reported yesterday on the pulse of South by Southwest in a down economy (consensus: people apparently do still have funds for a festival blowout such as SXSW). Joining the field of literary PR long before the age of the blogosphere and Twitter, I can't help but reflect at times on how the daily functions of a publicist truly are evolving on a daily basis.

Case in point: "The declining audience for mainstream media has all sorts of antecedents. But it was obvious after a few days here that the people formerly known as the audience were too busy making content to consume much of it, unless it came from their friends. The medium is not the message; the messages are the media." [David Carr for NYT, "Messages are the media"]

Ground Zero at SXSW

2009-03-18T08:12:00.010-05:00

Here in Austin, it's SXSW madness this week. Everywhere you turn, there are badges being flashed, iPhones snapping pictures, and hipsters feigning ennui with Kanye's show confirmation (while secretly PUMPED). We love it terribly.

A few updates from SXSW Ground Zero, from the worlds of publishing, PR, and media:

PUBLISHING

"Publishing has never been in my lifetime in such a powerless state as it is now."

It was the quote that launched a thousand tweets at the SXSW panel "New Think for Old Publishers" on Monday. By now everyone's read GalleyCat's report, and here in Austin, we thought it presented a fine opportunity to open the discussion for the future of publishing. Social media, eBooks, the Kindle, etc. are changing the way those of us in the lit world conceptualize production, distribution, and consumption of books. Take a look at the links, and then tell us: What are your thoughts on the matter? How do you envision the future of publishing?

PR

We caught up with HARO's Peter Shankman at Aces Lounge on Monday, for the Sassy Interactive Party put on by Do512, Action Figure, and VM Foundry. Next time we saw Peter, it was on the interwebs, backed by some rockin' Bon Jovi:

MEDIA

Tomorrow night, we'll be at USA Today's Pop Candy Party at The Belmont. We love Whitney Matheson and we know you do too, so give us a shout if you're headed out there!

Memoirs We Wish Existed

2009-03-06T07:52:00.006-06:00

Currently I am working with Rick D. Niece, Ph.D., the President of the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark., whose memoir, The Side-Yard Superhero, just hit the bookshelves on Sunday.

His poignant memoir captures his childhood adventures as a paper boy in small-town America. Not that I was a paper boy, but being from a small town myself, the story was right up my alley. Which got me thinking, what other memoirs should I be reading. Or better yet, what other memoirs need to be written?

Here are just few I wish would hit the bookshelf:

Former President, George W. Bush – We’ve seen Oliver Stone’s take, now I want to hear from the man himself. Tell me about growing up as a Bush, what your 8 years as President of the United States was like and what you think your greatest achievements were?

Thriller hitmaker, Michael Jackson – We’ve read The Enquirer and watched your Barbara Walter interviews. Now I want to know what your daddy was really like, your fascination with monkeys and how many plastic surgeries you’ve actually had?

CBS Late night host, David Letterman – You’ve been a late night talk show host for years and worked with some of the most talented. Who is truly your favorite guest, do you and Oprah really hate each other and why won’t you marry your son’s mother?

Speaking of Oprah – She has her own talk show, magazine and radio show, why not her own book? I need more Oprah, we love you!

Our material girl, Madonna – Now that you’re single and dating again. I want to know what went wrong with Guy Richie, what life was like without a mother and how your 3 kids changed you from that pointy bra wearing woman.

Those are just a few of my wishes, which memoirs have been your favorites? And whose memoir would you most want to read?

Life after being debunked

2009-02-25T17:14:00.005-06:00

Remember when James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces was discovered to be a collection of "a million little lies"? The story was everywhere in the summer of 2006. Since then, several other memoirs have been discovered as being not quite factual. Other authors have been accused of plagiarism. Is there literary life after you’ve been caught?

Possibly. But it’s difficult.

A couple years after the Million Little Pieces debacle, James Frey released his first novel, Bright Shiny Morning, last May to reviews that didn’t really pan the novel, but didn’t really call it the next great American masterpiece either. Former Publisher’s Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson wrote in her review: “Yet the guy has something: an energy, a drive, a relentlessness, maybe, that can pull readers along, past the voice, past the stock characters, past the clichés. Bright Shiny Morning is a train wreck of a novel, but it’s un-put-downable, a real page-turner—in what may come to be known as the Frey tradition.” The novel went on to appear on the Times’ best seller list. By all accounts, Frey is currently at work on his next novel.

In March 2008, Margaret B. Jones was caught fabricating a memoir of life as a foster kid in south central Los Angeles. Her sister tattled on her to her publisher, Riverhead, after seeing a feature story in The New York Times. Jones’ book, Love and Consequences, ceased production. Her book tour was canceled.

These cases weren’t enough to deter another author from trying his hand at inventing his autobiography. A couple of months ago, Herman Rosenblat’s tale Angel at the Fence was discovered to be a hoax. The jig was up when reporters at The New Republic asked Holocaust historians to verify Rosenblat’s claims. It didn’t take long for his story to crumble. No telling where he’ll go from here.

Finally, this week’s edition of Newsweek has an update on the new life of Kaavya Viswanathan. In 2007, Viswanathan was accused of plagiarizing pieces of her novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, from various sources including Chick Lit authors Megan McCafferty and Sophie Kinsella. The similarities were tough to blame on happenstance. Viswanathan lost her publishing contract, the book was pulled from shelves and DreamWorks dropped their plans to make a movie based on the book. Two years later, she’s now a law student at Georgetown and seems to have put her literary aspirations to rest for good. Maybe she’s studying copyright law?

Generally, Americans love a come back story. However, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re writing a memoir, it’d be best not to put yourself in a situation where your credibility may be compromised. Members of the media are growing increasingly weary of memoirs, so much so that an author of ours built a website called "A Million Little Proofs" to prove all the claims he made in his memoir of being an orphan were real. The website was a great place for us to direct media members when we were pitching his book.

As publicists, we spend a good deal of time trying to build credibility for our authors with members of the media. Once that credibility is put in jeopardy, it can be difficult to get it back. Even Frey was slammed by various media outlets when Bright Shiny Morning came out. If you’re working on a memoir, tell the truth, check your facts and be honest with your publisher. And remember: you can still write a compelling story, even if it’s not your personal biography. Just make sure you’re writing your own thoughts.

Lois Lane, meet new media

2009-02-20T07:50:00.008-06:00

A new study released today by PWR News Media reveals some interesting tidbits (what we've been thinking all along) when it comes to the revolution of the traditional newsroom.

MSBNC reports findings of the study from the Chicago-based e-marketing firm, highlighting that:

60% of journalists now contribute to a blog or other online site.
39% of those just moved to online methods of reporting in the last year, 71% in the past two years
Job cuts play a major role in the added online responsibilities of journalists these days, as most papers no longer differentiate between web and print reporters.
Traditional press kits are also adapting to the changing landscape as 89% of journalists prefer email as the primary means for receiving pitches and press releases, and almost just as many want images with those releases.

The media relations industry industry blog maintained by Cision commented on the study as well, reminding PR pros to think like journalists, especially in light of the fact that even the old school now works within the parameters of the desktop.

2009-02-18T16:23:00.010-06:00

Io9.com posted a fun list today on the Nine SciFi Books Th at Deserve to be Films, and one of our favorite science fiction scribes we’ve worked with—space expert and Mars Life author Ben Bova—made the #1 spot! (Though he might have a word with the site's editors over the term "sci-fi" vs. "science fiction." But that's another blog post for another day...)

Part of Gawker’s family of sites, io9.com is definitely one of my go-to outlets for all–things sci-fi and pop culture (okay—in other words, geek).

Along with other fan favorites like USA Today’s Pop Candy (missed your posts last week, Whitney!) and Ain’t It Cool News, being featured on one of these sites is the ultimate in publicity for a science fiction or fantasy author looking for some cred.

Not only do they feature geek-friendly news roundups and reviews, but they also foster a sense of community through the comment sections below every post. For example, the article I linked to above was posted just this morning and currently has 67 pages of comments below it. That’s a lot of discussion over nine sci-fi books, folks. And they’re just getting started.

Some might think publicizing genre fiction is more difficult than other types of books, but this isn’t necessarily the case. The trick is knowing where your audience is. I’d be willing to bet sci-fi and fantasy readers are searching for cool new books on their most trusted websites, not the printed pages of a book review section.

San Francisco Writers Conference

2009-02-16T10:21:00.007-06:00

I spent the weekend out west at the San Francisco Writers Conference. The conference, in its 5th year, is put on by Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen, two of the best agents in the business. When I received the invitation to give a presentation on the changing face of book publicity at the event, it didn't take me long to confirm.

I flew in Friday afternoon, expecting to arrive at the event in time to attend a couple of the afternoon sessions. After an hour delay in Vegas, my flight arrived in SF. Upon learning that my hotel was a $50 cab ride from the airport, I made a very poor decision to save $30 and jump into a "door-to-door" airport van along with eight other unlucky passengers.

The experience started off normal enough, with the driver passing around a clipboard and asking us to write our destination and address on the sheet.

The list of destinations within the van were not off the beaten path--Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental--places you would think most airport drivers have been to hundreds of times. Not our guy, who thankfully spoke very little english. He was downright puzzled by the task before him.

What is this Hilton of yours?

So puzzled was he with our list of unknown hotels that he pulled out the trusty GPS. The GPS accepted the address for the first hotel and we were off. Whispers and concerns among the passengers as we pulled away from the airport were quickly halted by the Russian national anthem rattling through the speakers of the driver's cell phone. We hit the freeway knowing that we had a long ride ahead of us.

To get an accurate picture of the situation, imagine if you were asked to fly to Moscow this afternoon--sight of the city unseen--and navigate a shuttle service for Russian tourists. We were those tourists.

He proceeded to pull out his GPS after dropping off each passenger. No one knew who would be next and we couldn't question his plan because we didn't have one Russian major on board. We sat back and waited as the passenger van powerball continued. Fittingly, my hotel hit the GPS tracker 9th and I found my way to the Intercontential on Nob Hill two long hours later.

Speaking of pictures, here is the view from the front of the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel where the conference was held. Just gorgeous.

I attended several presentations on Saturday, the first of which was a very good talk from Eric Liebetrau, Managing Editor of always honest Kirkus Reviews. About Kirkus Reviews:

- Kirkus Reviews is a pre-publication book review journal that is widely respected
- Eric reported that Kirkus receives 3-400 books a day (of those at least 50% are books they don't review--cookbooks, self-pubbed, self-help, etc.--read their submission guidelines)
- Kirkus is known to be tough on books, so a starred or even positive review carries significant weight
- Kirkus does not accept electronic copies of books for review
- Kirkus does not review self-pubbed books but does offer reviews for such books at a fee through their Kirkus Discoveries program.

Responding to a question about tips for book reviewers, Eric said that reviewers "should never sugarcoat" and reminded the audience member that authors benefit most from honesty in reviews.

The highlight of the presentation served as a reminder about the realities of being a book reviewer. It occurred when a woman wearing a bright print sweater seated near the front raised her hand about halfway into Liebetrau's presentation and offered this treat:

Pink Sweater: "Is it ethical to take a word out of a Kirkus Review and print it on your website? One of your reviewers used the word "splintered" when talking about my book and I just won't stand for it."

Liebetrau: "Did you use an ellipses?"

Pink Sweater: "A what?"

Liebetrau: "An ellipses--to evidence the fact that a word is missing"

Pink Sweater: "I don't like it (perhaps again referencing the word "splintered") and I'm not putting it up there."

(audience shifting uncomfortably)

Liebetrau: "Ok."

That was the first of 3-5 fairly charged questions from the snarky author in the second row, including one in which she asked if she could buy two Kirkus Discoveries reviews and pick the one that was the best (the answer's no). Liebetrau handled her very well but it was a reminder that good, honest reviewing can lead to uncomfortable moments with authors at conferences and other gatherings.

Those quality, honest reviews are the reason Kirkus is so widely respected. With stand alone book review sections disappearing from newspapers around the country, reviews in trade publications are becoming more and more valuable to authors and publishers and it was great to get additional insight into what Kirkus is up to.

I was paired with Jill Lublin, author of Guerilla Publicity, Networking Magic and Get Noticed...Get Referrals, for my presentation on book publicity. Jill and I each talked for 10-15 minutes before taking questions. The aforementioned Michael Larsen did a great job serving as our moderator once the questions began. I focused much of my presentation on the changing face of book publicity and how authors have to be prepared to work closely with their publicist to get the most promotional mileage for their book.

After the presentation Saturday I headed to the Golden Gate Bridge and caught a view of Alcatraz. Alcatraz is actually closer to the shore than I imagined it might be. I can see those prisoners making that swim.

Did I mentioned it's hilly in San Francisco?

This limo driver high-centered his limo on on the way to pick up some couple celebrating Valentine's Day. It looked like a see-saw. Poor guy.

The final event of the weekend was the presenters-only party on Saturday night. I met Jerry Cimino, who runs "The Beat Museum" on Broadway in San Francisco (www.kerouac.com) and hosts book signings for beat writers from time to time. Publicists--if you have a beat writer heading through San Francisco, give Jerry a call.

Social Media Mania

2009-02-11T12:20:00.013-06:00

If you haven’t gotten the message by now, then let me type it a little bit slower: WE…LOVE…SOCIAL…MEDIA!

Recently, Compete.com re-released the Top 25 Social Networks and by no surprise to P&P, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all fell to the top of the list.

It is interesting to see in just a year since Compete.com released the original ranking of Top 25 Social Networks, how quickly Facebook and Twitter have gained momentum while MySpace growth has been dramatically slowing.

Our guess, as the social networks duke it out for more visitors, is if the sites don’t continue to evolve, they are going to lose their fans just as quickly as Vanilla Ice lost his.

So with that being said, everyone take a little time to update that profile pic, share some intriguing information and start connecting!

BTW, we are on all three and would love for you to be our fan, friend and/or follower.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-TX/Phenix-Phenix-Literary-Publicists/7413065909
http://www.myspace.com/phenixpublicity
www.twitter.com/phenixandphenix

Quick hits: Kindle 2.0, "How to Publish in a Recession" and farewell to Domino magazine

2009-02-09T14:06:00.010-06:00

It’s already shaping up to be a busy week here at Phenix & Phenix and it seems that this is the case with our colleagues elsewhere in the industry! I thought I’d write some brief blurbs on a few headlines that caught my eye this morning:

Kindle 2.0 is here

A couple of years ago the first Kindle "Wireless Reading Device" was released to quite a bit of buzz and mixed opinion. Personally, I’m not sold on it just yet. I love having a real book in my hands and I don’t know that I’d be able to get used to reading a book on a little screen! To date, Amazon has sold over 200,000 Kindles and the features on this new model can only make it more enticing to the gadget lovers among us. The Washington Post has a really nice write up on the new Kindle. Some of the improvements include longer battery life, more memory and “it’s much less ugly.” What do you think? Are you a fan of the Kindle?

"How to Publish in a Recession" series

I’ve been reading this very interesting series on the blog Conversational Reading thanks to a link on GalleyCat. Aptly titled, “How to Publish in a Recession,” Conversational Reading is featuring a series of interviews with publishers at small presses and getting their perspective on what it takes to be successful during an economic downturn. Today’s piece features an interview with Margo Baldwin, publisher and president of Chelsea Green Publishing. Chelsea Green is a small press that focuses on sustainable living and environmental titles. The publisher had a banner year for sales in 2008 (along with several best selling titles in the last few years,) while many of the major publishers have had to restructure. Baldwin has some really interesting thoughts on the future of publishing and the business model of the small press.

Bye-bye Domino

Several of us here at the office were saddened to learn recently that Domino magazine is folding. Another victim of the economic downturn, this Condé Nast publication was a great source of design inspiration and articles on achieving a chic look with pieces from the likes of Target. The New York Times has a lovely story on the magazine and its former editor, Deborah Needleman. The article also provides great insight into the life cycle of a modern magazine.

"We interrupt this programming..." Wait, what? I was scheduled to go on next!

2009-02-06T11:49:00.004-06:00

Who doesn’t love the chance for a good interview? You're jazzed for the opportunity, you've told your friends and family to tune in, but right when the show is supposed to call, they don’t! Hello, what happened here? More than likely: breaking news. So what should you do when the station misses the call?

What about the flip side of that coin? What if you realize you just missed an interview! Yikes! How do you recover? Will this be the end before you even get started? In both situations, keep these things in mind:

• Be flexible:
a. They missed: Keep in mind breaking news always takes priority. If a community is digging out of an ice storm or reporting on local road closures they may not have time to call. In most cases they will be happy to reschedule and appreciate your understanding of the situation.
b. You missed: Hey, things come up and events get missed. While it is important to make every interview, the best way to recover from a missed interview is to be flexible. If the outlet is willing to reschedule, be flexible in your availability to make up for the faux pas.

• Call your publicist:
a. They missed: Your publicist may have additional contact information for the show and can get in touch with them to determine the situation. Notifying your campaign manager will allow for better communication between you and the host or producer.
b. You missed: The publicist will be the first person the show calls in the event an interview is missed. By notifying your publicist of your flub, we can work behind the scenes to protect the relationship we’ve worked to build. Sometimes it may be possible for the show to work you into another segment, and the audience won’t know the wiser.

• Be calm and understanding:
a. They missed: Channel your inner Zen when it comes to a last minute re-schedule from a show. Being patient and understanding will allow you to rock the re-scheduled interview like a rock star – which is what we all want – and leave a good impression with the show.
b. You missed: Be apologetic, but be calm. If they are not interested in a re-schedule, it’s important to know that sometimes they have to move on. In most cases, they too will be understanding and allow another chance. Just make sure you’re ready for that second chance, there probably won’t be a third chance.

Shameless plug

2009-02-04T18:01:00.005-06:00

We're mid-way through our guest post series for "Book Publicity Week" at Lisa Tener's Writing Blog. Don't forget to hop on over to learn all the ins and outs!

The new school for Wiki

2009-02-04T15:36:00.007-06:00

The Fast Company blog reported last week on the new changes happening at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia "that anyone can edit."

Wiki-lovers may see stricter editorial control including an edit process that may slow updates and freezes to questionable pages, like say a Star Wars character superimposed over The Pope's headshot on his Wiki entry:

"This move stems from founder Jimmy Wales' desire to prevent vandalism of the information on the site. He cites a recent example of a vandal replacing Pope Benedict's photo with the evil emperor from Star Wars on the Wikipedia site. The issue here is who defines undisputed? A "commission" set up to determine "undisputed content" is being discussed as a viable option."
- Fast Company staff blog

Apparently, they've seen it all, including prematurely posted obituaries. The new rules would mean a bit of gate-keeping for click-happy and ill-willed Wikis, and means a real over-haul in the way Wiki operates.

What do you think: are the proposed changes good or bad for Wiki as we know it?

Book Publicity Week Starts Today

2009-02-02T08:09:00.003-06:00

We have been invited to guest post all week long over on Lisa Tener's blog in what is being called "Book Publicity Week."

This is going to be an informative course on the ins and outs of literary publicity and will be a good fit for authors looking to learn more about the role they can play in the publicity process.

Lisa is a former P&P client and a fellow faculty member at the Harvard Publishing Course and she has a great blog on the writing and publishing process.

Our publicity team will be answering questions in the comments section of each post this week, so bring any questions that you may have.

Here is what the week will look like:

Monday: Why Publicity Is Your New Best Friend

- 5 reasons publicity is critical to your career as an author
- Pros and Cons of each media format
- Extra credit: A three part series prepping you for talk shows

Tuesday: The Publicity 411: What to know before getting started

- How to develop a cohesive publicity strategy
- Why it is important to build your platform beyond the book
- Extra credit: Your media relationships: publicity from the media’s perspective

Wednesday: Pitches and press releases: How to get the word out about your book

- The anatomy of a press kit
- How to craft a pitch for various types of media
- Extra credit: Honing your media instincts

Thursday: Avoiding foot-in-mouth moments: How to rock your interviews

- Do’s and Don’ts for each media format
- Examples of media breeding more media thanks to great author interviews
- Extra credit: The art of the pre-interview

Friday: Social Media and Beyond: Why you must join the movement and where to start

- What is social media and where do I start?
- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and beyond
- Extra credit: Video killed the radio star (and created the book star) and What authors can learn from band promotion (hint: social media!)

We hope to see you over there!