One Hot Summer Night

PJ Nunn

It's not a dark and stormy night, but still I’m reminded of many fictional interludes that represent the hot, summer night I’m sitting in just now. My a/c unfortunately decided to freeze up late yesterday. I thought it was a broken thermostat, which we attempted to replace throughout the day to no avail. Finally, around 8 pm, an angel of a friend who was held up on the job in another town (and whose dad happens to own an a/c repair company in town) prevailed upon a friend and sent him flying to my house to bring relief. He promptly changed out the thermostat, fixed whatever else was wrong and left me with instructions to sweat it out for a couple more hours until the unit thawed, then turn it back on and hopefully enjoy cool air again. So sitting here, sticking to the chair I use in my room to avoid whatever ballgame or obnoxious movie my husband and sons have playing in the den, beside the door that opens to my patio, I’m wondering what it is about a hot, summer night that some authors find so sexy to write about. It totally escapes me at the moment. But I digress.

My original thought for today’s blog started while watching a rerun of Frasier the other night. His agent, Bebe, was going through her usual extreme antics and decided to climb out on the window ledge in the midst of contract negotiations on Frasier’s behalf. Frasier, conflicted as always, determined that her desperate action must have something to do with his recent rejection of her amorous attentions and decided to do the courageous thing and climb out after her. Once there, however many flights up, he finds that she’s just pulling another stunt in an attempt to get him a good contract and refuses to come back off the ledge until the Channel 5 news team arrives. After all, they give the best coverage. They’ll see him save her life and of course he’ll get the best contract possible. I think it worked, but that’s not my point.

I was later asked, "Do you always tell your clients what they want to hear?” The question seemed simple enough on the surface, but it pulled me up short. Do I? Should I?

I find it interesting sometimes to be divided between two careers. My first career, chronologically at least, is that of a psychologist, with a specialization in law enforcement. And, although I’ve been a publicist full time for the past ten years, I’m still called upon as a psychologist fairly often and that inquisitive nature is always at work. It’s served me well as a publicist many times, because I find if I can get to the root of a problem or situation, it’s usually much easier to make right choices to bring resolution. The down side is that sometimes I can’t stop thinking. I think too much. Most strengths are like that. Left unchecked, they can become weaknesses.

Back to the question at hand. I do try to be encouraging to my clients whenever possible. There’s plenty of discouragement to go around. I want to be a positive voice in the midst. But at the same time, does that mean I’m promising things that I can’t deliver?

I was reminded this week by a frank email from a discouraged client. In discussing the matter with him, it became clear that I hadn’t told him I could do something I didn’t do. He’d made an assumption that when I said THIS, I meant THAT. Essentially, he believed I could do something that, ultimately, I wasn’t able to do. At least not for him. I always feel that I bear the larger responsibility in communication issues because I am the professional and in most cases I know the business better than the authors I represent, even though they don’t always think that’s true.

I’ve heard myself, after a similar incident, trying to tell a potential client that I can’t promise a particular thing. Even at the time, the little warning voice goes off in me, pointing out that even I wouldn’t hire me if I heard that. So where is the line drawn? How can I be encouraging in a distinctly discouraging business, without indicating that I can do more than I can really do? Hard question.

What does all that have to do with Bebe and Frasier? Not a lot. Just one thing that leads to another. I was thinking of how many people expect their publicists to go to extreme measures to get what the client wants. I don’t think any of my clients expect me to go out on a ledge for them. Honestly, most of the time, I hold myself to a higher standard than they do. But I guess right now, in the heat of the night, I’m feeling a little of the melancholy of my job, and my nature. Regardless of whether I promised or whether they just believed I could do something great for them, when I learn that they’re disappointed, it makes me sad. I may understand that what they hoped was completely outside of my ability to accomplish, but I still secretly wish I could whip that purple cape with a giant P on it out of my closet and become, just for the moment, that super-Publicist that can do anything.

I might meditate on that for a few minutes, but sooner or later it will strike me. There is no such thing, or if there is, then I already am that super-P. The very nature of the job of a publicist means that we take tons of rejection so our clients don’t have to. I’m ok with that. It’s the nature of the biz and I’m glad to do it. And we know, going in, that if the book does well and hits the NY Times bestseller list, it’s because the author has a great talent and wrote a great book. If it doesn’t do well, it would’ve done better if he or she had a better publicist. It’s the same with setting up signing events. If it goes great and they sell 50 books, it’s because they’re great and it’s a great book. If the signing is a bust, the publicist should have scheduled an event at a different store. Or done more promotion. Or sent press releases sooner. You get the drill.

Don’t think I’m whining; I’m not. If I come across an author that I can’t support, I don’t work for them. Like I told the group I spoke to in Austin last weekend – I have the best clients in the world. And I mean that. There’s not one on my list that I don’t completely believe in and highly recommend. There are some who are more “high maintenance” than others, but well worth the effort. Sometimes I wish they were a little more like me, though, at least when it comes to optimism. For instance, I had one who challenged me when I sent a review that we’d gotten for him. Apparently he’d been sent the review by one of those internet marketing companies before I sent it to him, which gave indication (at least it looked like to me) that they’d been responsible for it. I felt really surprised, then not a little unhappy that it seemed he was quick to believe the other company and not me. We talked it out and I think we’re ok now. But I still wished he’d have been quicker to believe me over them. I really have worked hard for him, but I haven’t accomplished as much as either he or I hoped. Yet.

What if you could measure a one hundred mile stretch of desert and mark it off beginning to end. Then suppose you could capture two birds and set them both free at the starting point and follow their progress across that one hundred mile stretch to the finish line. The first bird is a hummingbird. Not surprisingly, that little hummingbird will find any flowers along the route and will give attention to little else. But what if the second bird isn’t a hummingbird? It’s flying along the exact same stretch of desert. Will it find the same things? Not if it’s a buzzard. A buzzard could fly the same path, ignore every flower and find every carcass. The moral of that story is that most of the time, we find what we’re looking for.

That works whether you’re a publicist or an author or whatever. I’m a realist, I’m no dreamer. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that. But that doesn’t mean I go through life looking for negatives. Frankly, there’s enough reality that’s going to fly in my face no matter what. I sure don’t have to go looking for it. So I’ve trained myself to look for the positives in everyone and in every situation. And I’m rarely disappointed, although sometimes I do have to search harder than others.

And guess what? There’s cool air blowing out of my a/c vents again!

So what have you learned this week?