Thankful for Teamwork this Thanksgiving

It's been a tough week for publishing, along with the rest of the nation. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, publishers of literary giants such as Philip Roth and J.R. Tolkien, announced that it has put a freeze on acquiring new titles, an extreme move that has sent shock waves through an industry already battling weak sales report at the bookstore chains across the country.

But here in my little corner of the world, I've decided to focus the things that are going right. With every business title I read, whether to consider it for a pr campaign or just to educate myself on running a company, I learn more and more about the importance of the team. One of our books, STRENGTHS BASED LEADERSHIP (coming from Gallup Press in January) uses Gallup research to prove that the best leaders build teams with a wide array of complementing strengths.

This week, I saw this work first hand. Caught downtown and on a conference call from a coffee shop, I saw my cell phone ring with a call from Dennis. While staying on the client call, I sent a him a text to check in. Turns out CNBC was looking for Harry Dent, author of THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD (Free Press; January) for a live TV spot that night. I had him call Lew, our office manager, who would locate Sara, who is working with me on Harry's book, handling the digital campaign. Before I could conclude my own call, Harry Dent had been reached and CNBC was coordinating his appearance from a studio in Florida. Technology and teamwork together scored air time for an author, and I am infinitely grateful for a group of people who know that response time is key as we battle for airtime and space.

Sure, it's just one interview; but watching everyone jump on board without a nudge from me was the an incredible feeling. No dysfunctions for our team this Thanksgiving. What great news.

Update: Harry's interview on CNBC can be found here, here, and here.

Connecting with our community

I've been attending BEA, the annual book convention, for more years than I care to admit -- I remember when it was the ABA, recall the year it rained through all the outdoor parties in Miami, and even recollect the year that Oprah announced her own book, a deal she famously pulled out of before turning around to be the biggest advocate for reading and books the country has ever seen.

It never gets old to me, spending time with tens of thousands of people who passionately love books -- it's like getting a snapshot of the many talented hands it takes to turn a great author's idea into an equally terrific book.

Dennis, Sara, Lew and I holed up miles from the convention center at the boutique Ambrose Hotel in Santa Monica, a place we highly recommend if you're heading west and have any concerns about your environmental impact -- a very green hotel.

Our convention highlights and a few photos:
**World Cafe in Santa Monica where we celebrated with our friends from 800-CEO-READ (their book is coming out from Portfolio in early 2009).

**We all are forced to live vicariously through Sara, who wrangled an invite to the exclusive book party at Prince's house. We were jealous, but I helped out on wardrobe and at least my dress got to go to the Purple One's backyard and party until the wee hours of the morning.

**Lew scored Rick Riordan's autograph for her son Cody and tells us it was a huge thrill to meet the man "who inspired my son not only to read, but to become an avid reader."

**Barbara waited 30 minutes to say hello to Ethan Canin who was signing his new book America, America. She worked on Blue River with him in 1991 and reports he's still the "nicest and most talented novelist I've ever had the chance to work with."


Our goodie bags -- Sara made her famous toffee and marshmallows and my son posed for our promotional photo along with stacks of our great books.


Dinner at the Wilshire Restaurant with our friends from Gallup.


Dennis and Gallup editor Piotr Juszkiewicz with their selected reading material picked up on the convention floor.



We share a moment of levity before boarding our planes back home -- to the east coast and the heart of Texas.

Good show, good memories, always a great time.

Go Digital or Die

We in the publishing world have come a long way in recent weeks in putting real clout and actual staff behind our opinion that the importance of digital media in marketing a book is growing fast and, in fact, has probably hit what Malcolm Gladwell so elegantly dubbed "the tipping point." If digital media isn't the most important driver of getting public attention for a book, it is running a close second as information is now instant, paperless, visual and ever-present.

Two public relations firms, including this one, and a major publisher have recently announced plans to assign staff to newly created positions that specifically address the opportunities of Web 2.0, the blogging world and all things related to the Internet. While proud of us all, it's not hard for me to conjure an image of the geniuses at the Apple store, the Generation Y staffers at Google headquarters and probably most of our children saying, "What took you so long?"

Sara Schneider in our New York office has moved up to Associate Director and we officially redefined her duties to include creating a web-based strategy for every book the agency represents. We don't consider this a value-add for our clients, but rather a must-have for every project hoping to get widespread public attention.

In fact, we'd already dipped a toe in the digital water by starting this blog in the fall. Its purpose, in part, was to give all of us a chance to experience first-hand how to write, position and create traffic for a blog. I'm certain our first readers were only those whose paycheck I signed. But then marketing guru John Moore mentioned our blog in his blog, Brand Autopsy, and traffic jumped. We attended an event hosted by 800 CEO Read in December and a dozen bloggers there gave us shout outs, and we were on our way. The rules are being written and we, like our colleagues, want to be on the front line in learning them all and embracing the opportunities they create.

This week Simon & Schuster appointed Elinor Hirschorn to the newly created role of Chief Digital Officer, in a move it said "reflected the growing importance of digital publishing to traditional publishers." And in January David Hahn at Planned Television Arts was promoted to Managing Director will as part of his new duties will head a digital division, PTAInteractive.

Just as academics learned to "publish or perish" to ensure their success, we in the publishing world must now embrace digital or risk losing our relevance not only to new readers, but those among us determined to ride the wave of the information age.