Book Publicity Central

Interaction is the new currency. I love what Web 2.0 and social media are doing to communication--requiring an exchange between people rather than being "talked at" by one to another. This is so clearly addressed in Amy Hertz' column on books in the Huffinton Post. http://bit.ly/46XQle



Amy's suggestions are for book publicists, of which I am one, and they are very helpful if not rather obvious. What I mean to say here is that my first career was in terrestrial radio broadcasting and for several years I had a talk show. I was pitched by publicists from all around the country--the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. The complaints in Amy's piece are the exact same things I was (and my fellow broadcasters were) complaining about ten years ago--pitch letters that weren't personalized, publicists making follow up calls pitching their authors when they had clearly never, ever listened to my show, and long voice mail messages that were boring and abusive. (I will never forget the publicist from the Bay area who called me every day for almost three weeks leaving voicemail messages no shorter than three minutes in length. Yuck! I finally had to tell her to never, ever call me again.)



So, my point here is that things are not all that different, except that media people--whether it's a blogger, a writer, a producer, or an editor--have all kinds of options for getting their voices heard when they want to vent. I'm just afraid that those who most need to hear the coaching simply never will internalize the message. It's kind of like those horrible, tear-producing public service announcements that talk about animal neglect. Those who would neglect animals are not saddended by seeing those commercials. The rest of us are! With Amy's great piece in the Huffington Post, publicists who commit those sins won't read it--or be influenced by it. The rest of us who are trying to be effective and trying to do our jobs in the best way possible, we read it. We get it. We thank you for it! And we hope you don't group us with "them." I've been on your side of the fence, and I get it.



With all the changes in social media, Web 2.0, and communication tools in general, nothing is really all that different. People are either good communicators already, they're willing to learn, or they don't really care. The latter the the ones that make it hard for the rest of us!



I am sorry for all the "publicists" who won't take the time to read your blog. I am sorry they won't listen to your show, or pay attention to the way in which you want to be approached. I'm sorry some are lazy and just don't care. But I hope you will understand that there are others of us--who really do care! We are interested in you as people have to say, and if there is a match between what you like to cover and what we have to offer, then there is a win/win all the way around, and we are all the better for it.