PJ Nunn
Ok. I think I'm with Lynne this week. I just read the week's blogs and I too find myself a bit overwhelmed at the very idea that I might be expected to perform up to the standard of my peers here. I'm not sure anyone can top Barbara's toilet story. Although I seem to recall telling you I'd try to be brilliant this week. Let's just consider that a rumor for now. But I shall persevere.
And frankly, that's got to be in the nature of all of us or we'd not be in this business we're in. My week has been unusually trying (as I've been making more media calls with my husband's absence from the office), but enjoyable in its variety. I usually leave the television and radio personalities to him, and I'd forgotten how fun and eccentric they can be.
In the first place, it turns my typical schedule totally upside down because radio hosts and guest schedulers rarely keep regular office hours. You generally catch them either half an hour before the show goes on, or during the show. When they go off the air, they're outta there. And since a majority of the interview shows are on in the morning, that's when you'll catch them. But I'm not a morning person. Challenge number one.
So I've set Outlook reminders to alert me to the times I need to call particular shows because you've gotta be quick and darn if that phone doesn't ring in between outgoing calls. Distractions are everywhere and multitasking is a necessity, not just a desired skill or bonus. I have a desk phone I use for outgoing calls so I can still receive incoming calls on the Blackberry because IF one of them actually returns the call from the voice mails left the last however many days, I don't want to miss it.
Another thing that had faded some from my memory was the "on air" pitch. Well, not actually on air, but maybe between. Or during the commercial. It's when the host is only there when he's on the air, say from 6 am to Noon. So if I want to schedule an interview for someone I have to talk to him then. He'll answer the phone in his exuberant "on air" voice and I better talk fast. "No time for that now," he might boom, "can you call back in 10?" Of course I can. And do. And get a repeat of the same. While the temptation is great to simply wait ten minutes and call back. After all, I have the perfect pitch on the tip of my tongue and don't want to lose my train of thought. But it's a six hour show and I can lose a lot more than that if all I do is sit and wait between callbacks. I've learned that generally after the third or fourth "call back in 10" it changes to, "I don't have time for this today, can you call back tomorrow?" or Tuesday. Or Friday. Make a note, move on.
Thankfully, they're not all like that, but a lot are. And the bigger the show, the more likely. Maybe it's the producer or guest booker, and they're not on the air, but they're juggling even more phone calls and pitches and nobody has any time to waste. This is why, if you were watching over my shoulder you'd find a variety of sticky notes all over my monitor, keyboard and any other exposed part of my desk at any given time. It's like juggling authors and book titles and trying desperately to keep them all in the air without dropping one between calls. Because I may be pitching clients 5 and 12, then get a callback for client 17 and, in a brief lull, answer an email about client 9. More challenges.
Another thing I've noticed bears an interesting relation to an article I skimmed about marketing this week - How to Make Your Message Stick. In talking with these hosts and producers, I don't recall a single one asking me any detail about the book, but several had questions about the authors. The same thing is true about responses to press releases we send. The more information there is about the author, the more likely we are to get callbacks requesting more info or scheduling interviews. If the press release or promo we give is almost exclusively about the book, it doesn't usually get much attention.
Is there a message in all that? If so, I think it would have to reiterate what I said some weeks back about making your promotion memorable. Making it personal. Another book just isn't news in most cases. So it's up to the authors and their publicists or publishers to find those angles that bridge the gap between fiction and newsworthy. Without those, you'll likely get lost in the shuffle.
In case you're wondering, the pace doesn't stay that frantic all day. Things tend to tone down a bit after noon. Journalists, store personnel, librarians, event planners - they're not running at quite the same breakneck speed as broadcast personnel, but the juggling is still the same and the number of phone calls in an ordinary day is frightening if you bother to count them up. It's also surprising at what hours the callbacks will come. I generally stop answering the phone around 11 pm.
Today's market is tough and there are lots and lots of good books being released every month. If an author wants his or her book to really stand out, it's going to take something above and beyond what is typical in regard to marketing efforts today. I know it can be hard to understand how the impression an author makes on 15 people at a booksigning can have any significant effect on the sales numbers, but it's a snowball thing.
You know how it feels when you get hit with that first snowball? Or maybe just that first blast of really cold air right in the face? No matter how fast you're running or how hurried you are, for just a moment time stops until you can catch your breath again. And call it what you will, there's a sense of exhilaration. That's what I have to try and do when I finally catch that elusive producer on the phone - I have to make time stop for just a few seconds. Just long enough to say something that captures his or her attention and, hopefully, makes him remember me. Or remember my client.
And that's what an author has to do. Whether it's with a personal comment or anecdote, a smile and signature personalized on request. A story about writing the story. The author has to come up with something memorable that captures a reader's attention and makes them want to prolong that time. And if it's done well, the reader will find that essence in the book. That voice that carries the same qualities glimpsed in interview.
No small task, granted, but after all - you write fiction, right?
Till next time,
