Very nice birthday, but tiring! Too weary now to write projected thoughts on midlife....
A link I have been saving to post today.
10 questions I answered in support of tomorrow's midday event at Bryant Park.
An archeology of marginalia.
Good night!
Showing posts with label publicity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publicity. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2014
Monday, April 07, 2014
The end of the world as we know it
A genuinely charming book trailer for the paperback edition of Annalee Newitz's Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction.
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Signal boost
Tanya Selvaratnam has been a dear friend of mine since our first year of college. We acted in a ton of plays together in those days; as well as being a talented and successful actor, she has been an immensely generous friend in intervening years (in particular I recall a wonderful party she hosted for me when my first book came out, not to mention countless delicious meals cooked for me and copious treats provided over several decades!).
Tanya's first book has just been published; it's called The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism, and the Reality of the Biological Clock, and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me here.
This is your first published book, but you have a rich background as a performer, producer and activist. What past experiences in any of those areas did you find most useful as you worked on the book and as you take it out into the world?
It was more the ways in which my past experiences were different that helped me write. As a performer, I have to be extroverted and relatively social, and also submissive to a director’s vision. As a producer, my head is full 24/7 of other people’s stuff. Writing was the opposite experience and hence thoroughly enjoyable for me. The activism was more useful: finding ways to turn adversity into positive action.
You and I have talked about the importance of hiring a publicist, especially if you are an author of nonfiction books. What are the pros and cons for an author to consider? How did you choose your publicist, and what kinds of thing have you been able to do as a result? Can you share some links to online pieces that have come about in part as a consequence of that relationship?
The support of my publicists, Wunderkind PR: Elena Stokes and Tanya Farrell, has been a necessity. Initially, I solicited publicist recommendations from my agent, publisher, and writer friends, but I ended up finding Wunderkind online while researching another publicist. I was impressed by the expertise and passion displayed on Wunderkind’s website as well as its roster of clients. Both Elena and Tanya had many years of experience at major houses before breaking out with their own shingle. Also, as women around my age and mothers themselves, they connected strongly with my subject matter. The expense is cumbersome, but it’s an investment worth making. I handle PR for many of my projects so I have a strong database of media contacts, and my list converged nicely with Wunderkind’s. There were many media gets that would not have happened without my publicist, such as an exclusive excerpt in Vogue, a guest blogger post on HuffPo Women, and an appearance on the Leonard Lopate Show. And there is much more press to come, which will hopefully translate not only into visibility but also into sales.
The New York Times Motherlode blog has been running a series of columns by a woman trying to become pregnant by IVF, and I have been absolutely horrified by the vitriol in some of the comments readers leave there for her. Why do you think feelings run so high around these questions?
One, we live in a judgmental culture and also a very sensitive one. There is a pervasive polarity of “I hate you. Please love me.” Two, people have loaded, subjective, emotional points of view around these questions. We’re talking about our bodies, sexualities, ambitions, futures, and what we leave behind in this world. That said, it’s important for those who have the mic, like the woman on the Motherlode blog, to understand that people will attack them for simply having the mic. Stay true to your voice and your experience, and be open to multiple perspectives. There is no one answer. I learn something even from those who oppose me.
With my book specifically, I hope to encourage people to embrace the multiplicity of ways in which people build families and also to embrace the different ways in which people live their lives, with kids or without. As Sheryl Sandberg wrote in Lean In, “When arguments turn into ‘she said/she said’ we all lose.”
Buy Tanya's book at Amazon, Powell's, Barnes and Noble, McNally Robinson.
Tanya's first book has just been published; it's called The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism, and the Reality of the Biological Clock, and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me here.
It was more the ways in which my past experiences were different that helped me write. As a performer, I have to be extroverted and relatively social, and also submissive to a director’s vision. As a producer, my head is full 24/7 of other people’s stuff. Writing was the opposite experience and hence thoroughly enjoyable for me. The activism was more useful: finding ways to turn adversity into positive action.
You and I have talked about the importance of hiring a publicist, especially if you are an author of nonfiction books. What are the pros and cons for an author to consider? How did you choose your publicist, and what kinds of thing have you been able to do as a result? Can you share some links to online pieces that have come about in part as a consequence of that relationship?
The support of my publicists, Wunderkind PR: Elena Stokes and Tanya Farrell, has been a necessity. Initially, I solicited publicist recommendations from my agent, publisher, and writer friends, but I ended up finding Wunderkind online while researching another publicist. I was impressed by the expertise and passion displayed on Wunderkind’s website as well as its roster of clients. Both Elena and Tanya had many years of experience at major houses before breaking out with their own shingle. Also, as women around my age and mothers themselves, they connected strongly with my subject matter. The expense is cumbersome, but it’s an investment worth making. I handle PR for many of my projects so I have a strong database of media contacts, and my list converged nicely with Wunderkind’s. There were many media gets that would not have happened without my publicist, such as an exclusive excerpt in Vogue, a guest blogger post on HuffPo Women, and an appearance on the Leonard Lopate Show. And there is much more press to come, which will hopefully translate not only into visibility but also into sales.
The New York Times Motherlode blog has been running a series of columns by a woman trying to become pregnant by IVF, and I have been absolutely horrified by the vitriol in some of the comments readers leave there for her. Why do you think feelings run so high around these questions?
One, we live in a judgmental culture and also a very sensitive one. There is a pervasive polarity of “I hate you. Please love me.” Two, people have loaded, subjective, emotional points of view around these questions. We’re talking about our bodies, sexualities, ambitions, futures, and what we leave behind in this world. That said, it’s important for those who have the mic, like the woman on the Motherlode blog, to understand that people will attack them for simply having the mic. Stay true to your voice and your experience, and be open to multiple perspectives. There is no one answer. I learn something even from those who oppose me.
With my book specifically, I hope to encourage people to embrace the multiplicity of ways in which people build families and also to embrace the different ways in which people live their lives, with kids or without. As Sheryl Sandberg wrote in Lean In, “When arguments turn into ‘she said/she said’ we all lose.”
Buy Tanya's book at Amazon, Powell's, Barnes and Noble, McNally Robinson.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Events
I will shortly get around to putting these events in a sidebar on the blog, with links to the relevant sites, but thought I would share them here first. Really everyone is welcome at the book party, only it is not OK to post someone's personal address on the internet like this, so write me at my Columbia email if you would like more details on that! (I will be sending out invitations via Facebook and email later this month.)
4/2 Book event/Q&A
Book Culture
536 W. 112th St. (near corner of Broadway)
New York, NY
7pm
4/9 Party in NYC, 6-9pm, email me for details
4/13 Reading, Writers With Drinks
The Make-Out Room
3225 22nd St., San Francisco, CA
7:30-9:30pm (doors open at 7)
4/17 Book event/Q&A
Rose Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
492 Congress St., Portland, ME
http://www.rosecontemporary.com
8-9:30pm
I'm definitely open to doing more events if opportunity arises, so if you are in a position to facilitate something along those lines, let's consult - but with the proviso that because Amazon's literary imprint is the publisher of The Magic Circle, a lot of the independent booksellers that normally would host readings etc. for this kind of book are not so keen! I think that's a pity, but of course I understand where they're coming from.
I will also be doing some kind of a blog tour, and would love to answer interview questions or write guest posts in late March or April, so please do get in touch if that's something you might be interested in.
(Postscript: I got a very good review from Kirkus, which won't be available for free online for another couple weeks, but the Amazon advance reader reviews are distinctly negative! Those are through the Amazon Vine program, and we will hope that reviews by people who actually purchase it are better. If you do read it and enjoy it, I request with only minor shame, please think about writing a review there or at GoodReads to let other people know? You won't be able to post a review until after March 26, the official publication date.)
OK, that's it for self-promotion, for now at least....
4/2 Book event/Q&A
Book Culture
536 W. 112th St. (near corner of Broadway)
New York, NY
7pm
4/9 Party in NYC, 6-9pm, email me for details
4/13 Reading, Writers With Drinks
The Make-Out Room
3225 22nd St., San Francisco, CA
7:30-9:30pm (doors open at 7)
4/17 Book event/Q&A
Rose Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
492 Congress St., Portland, ME
http://www.rosecontemporary.com
8-9:30pm
I'm definitely open to doing more events if opportunity arises, so if you are in a position to facilitate something along those lines, let's consult - but with the proviso that because Amazon's literary imprint is the publisher of The Magic Circle, a lot of the independent booksellers that normally would host readings etc. for this kind of book are not so keen! I think that's a pity, but of course I understand where they're coming from.
I will also be doing some kind of a blog tour, and would love to answer interview questions or write guest posts in late March or April, so please do get in touch if that's something you might be interested in.
(Postscript: I got a very good review from Kirkus, which won't be available for free online for another couple weeks, but the Amazon advance reader reviews are distinctly negative! Those are through the Amazon Vine program, and we will hope that reviews by people who actually purchase it are better. If you do read it and enjoy it, I request with only minor shame, please think about writing a review there or at GoodReads to let other people know? You won't be able to post a review until after March 26, the official publication date.)
OK, that's it for self-promotion, for now at least....
Monday, September 05, 2011
Two bits
I read Sara Gran's seven pieces of advice to a young writer with considerable interest; I love her books (check out Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead if you haven't already), but I am also very impressed with her professional acumen. This advice is much more directed to those who will have a realistic chance of making a living as fiction writers than to those who will combine writing with some other means of support (I would note that I myself am in flagrant disregard of points #2 and #6, but I also would have to dissent respectfully from point #7 - it would make me absolutely crazy and bored out of my mind to be a full-time fiction-writer, I am truly a professor at heart, I need the stimulation that comes from having a full-time academic appointment!).
Also (a very good recommendation from Cristina Linclau): Elisabeth Weed interviews agent and publicist Lucinda Blumenfeld.
Also (a very good recommendation from Cristina Linclau): Elisabeth Weed interviews agent and publicist Lucinda Blumenfeld.
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