Washington Post story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28628-2005Mar11.html

Comments?

Phooey... sorry I didn't read that thread more closely, Lisa. I should have noticed the article was already dissected there. Yep, you both covered most of what I would have.

It's so misleading that the writer said some books get no publicity budget. It may be a LOW publicity budget, but it costs money for publishers to put out catalogs, send review copies and galleys, etc., and no decent publisher would skip that.

P.S. Points about Wendy:

--Misleading statement 1:

"Nearly everyone who publishes a book quickly realizes that if they want to publicize their work, they better take matters into their own hands."
That is why Shanker is at Macy's. Her book is "The Fat Girl's Guide to Life," which was published last year and released in paperback edition last week. Executives at Macy's saw Shanker on "The View," the weekday chat show, and they soon proposed a marriage made in synergy heaven.

(In other words, Shanker isn't at Macy's because she publicized the book herself. She's at Macy's because she went on The View-- most likely arranged by her book's publicity department-- and someone from Macy's happened to see her there and called to invite her to be a spokesperson. All she did was show up to the events... not exactly the guerilla approach to self-promoting the article makes it seem!)

--A representative from Macy's explained at the outset that anyone who bought $50 worth of merchandise would get a free copy of "The Fat Girl's Guide to Life."

This means Macy's bought copies of the book in bulk. That's great! And again, it's not something Shanker had to arrange on her own. Macy's execs talk this through with the special sales division at Bloomsbury and negotiate a price. Wendy doesn't even have to get involved.

The events and the press behind them are great for publicity. It's just completely different than the article's hypothesis, which is that authors have to do all their own publicity. The article's main subject proves otherwise!