Idra Novey‘s Ways to Disappear will be on sale next Tuesday, Feb 9 and the early reception her book has been getting is exactly why I love working with (extremely, extraordinarily talented) debut novelists.

Publishers Weekly gave Ways to Disappear a starred review, and in their interview with her as a “Writer to Watch,” described the book as “Adventurous, international and incredible.” Flavorwire, calling Ways to Disappear “one of the most anticipated debuts of the year,” says “Novey has a knack for engaging, humorous prose and audacious plotting the likes of which are rarely seen in a first novel.” For the BBC, Jane Ciabattari lists Ways to Disappear as one of the Ten Books to Read in February. Interview Magazine talked to Idra and chose her as the only author in their 16 Faces of 2016 culture preview. In their list of February 2016’s Best Books, Bustle says “This debut novel is getting some serious love, and it’s no wonder why…Idra Novey’s writing is grade-A beautiful to read.” Buzzfeed lists it as one of their Most Exciting New Books of 2016. And out of the thousands of novels published this month, BookPage has Ways to Disappear as their Top Fiction Pick for February saying “Though Ways to Disappear unfolds at the rapid pace of a screwball comedy, there is also something patient and artful about the novel, making it a thoughtful treatise on writing and artmaking that is as profound as it is playful.”

I could go on and on and am excited to see more reviews for this excellent novel when they start to come in next week. Until then – here’s the first page. Tell me you don’t want to read further, and I won’t believe you.

Pre-order at your local independent bookstore: here

Meet Idra at one of her upcoming events, details: here

Esteemed critic Donna Seaman, at the prepublication trade journal Booklist, weighs in on Molly Prentiss’ debut novel, Tuesday Nights in 1980 (Coming from Scout Press on April 5) and this review is a thing of beauty! Plus: Starred!

“Prentiss’ debut novel captures the eruption of creativity and commodification precipitated by New York City’s 1970s crash into fiscal and criminal chaos. Painter Raul appears within this maelstrom after fleeing Buenos Aires before the onset of the Dirty War. He vamps his way into free studio space and, with the gruff mentorship of a veteran artist named Arlene, rapidly ascends toward the blazing beacon of fame. Art critic James makes a splash as he draws on the strange revelations of his synesthesia, which jumbles his sense and intensifies the force fields of the art he scrutinizes. Lucy is a lovely innocent from Idaho who stumbles her way into the molten heart of the art scene, at once foolish and brave. An agile, imaginative, knowledgeable, and seductive writer, Prentiss combines exquisite sensitivity with unabashed melodrama to create an operatic tale of ambition and delusion, success and loss, mystery and crassness. Though some characters are predictable, most, especially James an his wife, are fresh, funny, ardent, and magnetizing. Prentiss’ insights into this brash art world are sharply particularized and shrewd, but she also tenderly illuminates universal sorrows, “beautiful horrors,” and lush moments of bliss. In all, a vital, sensuous, edgy, and suspenseful tale of longing, rage, fear, compulsion, and love.” — Donna Seaman, Booklist Starred Review

You can see more about Molly at her website: Here.

Check out her phenomenal instagram: Here.

Contact me for a review copy: Here.

The first trade review is out for debut novelist Molly Prentiss and it is a thunderclap from Kirkus: “This is a portrait of an era, an intoxicating Manhattan fairy tale.” “A thrilling debut.” Tuesday Nights in 1980 is set in SoHo over the course of one year in the downtown art world, and it full-on knocked me out. I was vibrating with excitement as I read this novel — It reminded me of the New York City that I love and of the city as it was when I arrived here – when it was gritty and dirty and pulsing with energy, everything seemed possible, everything was new, anything could happen. Somehow, (how?), Molly Prentiss has captured all of it. The energy, the excitement, the feeling of possibility, the ups, the downs. Mark my words: Molly Prentiss is a writer to watch. Glad to see the Kirkus reviewer agrees! (We still have some advance copies available – let me know if you’d like one for review. Scout Press pub date: April 5, 2016).

“Prentiss’ sweeping debut follows three intertwining lives through the swirling energy, burning excitement, and crushing disappointment of New York City’s rapidly shifting art world at the dawn of the 1980s.
It’s Dec. 31, 1979, and James Bennett, a synesthetic rising star of art criticism, and his also-brilliant pregnant wife are toasting the new decade at the kind of swanky art-scene party they prefer to avoid. Also at the party: painter Raul Engales, a charismatic Argentinian expatriate who’s done his best to erase his past life and is now poised, though he doesn’t know it yet, to become the darling of the art world. And: in a bar downtown later that night, Raul catches the (gorgeous) eye of 21-year-old Lucy Marie Olliason, recently transplanted from Ketchum, Idaho, in love with the city, and ready to fall in love with the artists in it. Their stories crash into each other like dominoes – the critic, the artist, and the muse-their separate futures and personal tragedies inextricably linked. The particulars of their connections, romantic and artistic, are too big and too poetic to be entirely plausible, but then, this is not a slice-of-life novel: this is a portrait of an era, an intoxicating Manhattan fairy tale. Prentiss’ characters-rich, nuanced, satisfyingly complicated-are informed not only by their emotional lives, but also by their intellectual and artistic ones; their relationships to art are as lively and essential as their relationships to each other. But while the novel is elegantly infused with an ambient sense of impending loss-this is New York on the cusp of drastic gentrification- it miraculously manages to dodge the trap of easy nostalgia, thanks in large part to Prentiss’ wry humor.
As affecting as it is absorbing. A thrilling debut.” — Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Little, Brown & Co decided to change the cover for Idra Novey‘s debut novel, Ways to Disappear, and while I loved the old jacket, (see my post below), I LOVE the new one even more.

More good news: Barnes & Noble has chosen Idra Novey for their 2016 Great New Writers program. The inimitable Amy Bloom says about Ways to Disappear, “Exceptionally witty and heartfelt is not the usual combo. Nothing about this novel is usual. Every sentence surprises. Every character intrigues. I read this book with joy and serious admiration.”

Publishers Weekly has weighed in with a starred review, “A playful portrait of the artist as a young translator…it reads like an Ali Smith novel with a fun Brazilian noir vibe.” And Kirkus Reviews says “Delightful and original” and, music to a publicist’s ears, “It’s a tour de force.”

If you review books and haven’t received a galley yet, shoot me an email and I’ll send you a copy. You’ll see.

This is how acclaimed poet and translator Idra Novey‘s debut novel, WAYS TO DISAPPEAR, begins:

“In a crumbling park in the crumbling back end of Copacabana, a woman stopped under an almond tree with a suitcase and a cigar. She was a round woman with a knob of gray hair pinned at the nape of her neck. After staring for a minute up into the tree, she bit into her cigar, lifted her suitcase onto the lowest branch, and climbed up after it.”

People: She had me at “bit into her cigar.” I am over the moon, over the almond tree, to be doing publicity for this book along with Katharine Meyers, dynamo publicist at Little, Brown.

Here’s the story: Celebrated Brazilian writer Beatriz Yagoda, is last seen holding a suitcase and a cigar and climbing into an almond tree. In snowy Pittsburgh, her American translator, Emma, learns her author has disappeared and immediately jumps on a plane bound for Rio. Emma teams with Beatriz’s children (practical/cynical Raquel and sexy/hot Marcus) to find her, and to staunch the colorful demands of her outstanding affairs – namely one rapacious loan shark with a zeal for severing body parts, and the washed up, disillusioned editor who launched Beatriz’s career many years ago.

WAYS TO DISAPPEAR is a madcap mystery/romance/noir novel to love — You can see more at Idra Novey’s website including a spectacular list of early quotes from Karen Russell, Leslie Jamison, Francisco Goldman, Rivka Galchen and other arbiters of good taste.

Next February, when it’s cold and snowy and miserable, hear me now: you’ll be reading about Beatriz Pagoda and wishing you were hiding out on a Brazilian beach with her.

WAYS TO DISAPPEAR

The debut novel from Idra Novey

Little, Brown & Co / February 9, 2016

(Note to Media/Critics/Reviewers/Editors: We are sending galleys out this week and next. Take it with you on your dog days of August vacation and let me know what you think).

For the LA Review of Books, Katherine Taylor (my client) wrote a paean to Vivian Gornick and her new memoir, The Odd Woman and the City. This piece is so good I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it. Most importantly, it does two things: #1. Makes me want to read everything by Vivian Gornick (who I feel lame saying it but I haven’t read before). And #2. Makes me like Katherine Taylor, and her writing, more than I already did, which was a lot.

You can read the essay, How Vivian Gornick Saved My Life, here.

If you are feeling lazy and didn’t click the link, here is part of the essay to entice you, (the first paragraph from Gornick, the next two from Katherine):

On Upper Broadway a beggar approaches a middle-aged woman. “I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I just need —,” he starts. To his amazement, the woman yells directly in his face, “I just had my pocket picked!” The beggar turns his face northward and calls to a colleague up the block, “Hey, Bobby, leave her alone, she just got robbed!”

No good can come from leaving the house. I love to say this, and I tend to pick friends who agree with me. What good could come? Embarrassment, boredom, death? Instead: have your groceries delivered, climb up and down the stairs for exercise, find a hairdresser who does house calls, use the telephone if you must or — much better — text and email and never speak to anyone unless they’re funny. Live your life inside books (or TV, or whatever).

Unfortunately, there are not enough books so good that you want to live your life inside of them. When you find one, one that helps you live, one that reminds you how to engage with the world when it’s impossible to engage with the world, you must read it over and over, because it has instructions for you.

How Vivian Gornick Saved My Life: A True Story by Katherine Taylor

Valley Fever, the new novel by Katherine Taylor and an excerpt here.

The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick

An appreciative shout out to The Millions, one of my favorite sites about books and the book industry, for making this list of Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview. The Fall season is notoriously a busy time in publishing – but good lord, look at what’s coming in September alone. I knew it was going to be packed but I’ve never seen anything like this. Have you? There are 82 books on The Millions list and every single one is note worthy. Every single one! Be kind to your local bleary-eyed literary publicist who will be vying for the already limited book media space and even I feel a little bad for book critics having to choose what to cover and what to pass on. So many books, so little time! (My client Bill Clegg‘s debut novel, Did You Ever Have a Family is in the scrum and comes out September 8th. I cannot wait for this book to get out there!)

The publishing world’s equivalent of a grand slam and as rare as the transit of venus:

4 out of 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ pre-pub reviews for Bill Clegg’s DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY 

“Sorrowful and deeply probing debut novel…Clegg’s deft handling of all the parsed details – missed opportunities, harbored regrets, and unspoken good intentions – that make the journey toward redemption and forgiveness so memorable.” — Publishers Weekly, “Pick of the Week,” ⭐️ STARRED REVIEW

“An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined.” – Kirkus, ⭐️ STARRED REVIEW

“Clegg is both delicately lyrical and emotionally direct in this masterful novel…Both ineffably sad and deeply inspiring, this mesmerizing novel makes for a powerful debut.” — Booklist, ⭐️ STARRED REVIEW

“A propulsive but tightly crafted narrative… reveal[s] the fine-grained sorrows of the human condition, rendered in polished, quietly captivating prose. As the stories emerge, so do their connections—and the idea of connection itself…. Readers may come to this debut novel because of agent/memoirist Clegg’s reputation, but they’ll stay for the stellar language and storytelling. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, ⭐️ STARRED REVIEW

Did You Ever Have a Family goes on sale September 8, 2015. Pre-order from your local independent bookseller or on IndieBound.org 

Media, if you’ve yet to receive your advance copy, let me know: KB (at) BroadsidePR (dot) com.

For more info, visit: BillCleggAuthor.com

Announcing BROADSIDE: Expert Literary PR

A new literary publicity collaboration between

Kimberly Burns, Whitney Peeling, and Michael Taeckens

New York (May 21, 2015) – Literary publicists Kimberly Burns, Whitney Peeling, and Michael Taeckens announce the formation of their new full-service publicity group, BROADSIDE: Expert Literary PR.

With over fifty years of combined experience working with the finest imprints and authors, and decades of mutual professional admiration, Burns, Peeling, and Taeckens have united to elevate and empower today’s top writers and thinkers.

BROADSIDE will specialize in publicity and marketing for publisher-backed literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, as well as literary and mission-driven organizations and nonprofits.

“The three of us are overjoyed to be working together in this official capacity,” says Taeckens. “We each have a distinct style and set of interests, as well as varying areas of expertise, that complement each other in the best of ways.”

“With the media landscape changing so quickly, it makes perfect sense for Michael, Whitney, and me to team up,” says Burns. “All of our current and future clients will benefit from our collective experience, brainstorming, and network of contacts.”

“All three of us have countless successful campaigns under our belts,” notes Peeling, “and we believe collaboration always trumps competition. When we found the name BROADSIDE—which, among other things, means the ‘simultaneous firing of all guns from one side of a ship’—we knew it defined our approach.”

The books that Burns, Peeling, and Taeckens have worked on have regularly landed on bestseller lists; won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and National Book Critics Circle Awards; moved and shaped the literary landscape; and catalyzed social movements. In addition to years executing exceptional campaigns independently, the BROADSIDE team has in-house experience at Alfred A. Knopf, Algonquin Books, Graywolf Press, Houghton Mifflin, W. W. Norton, Pantheon Books, The Penguin Press, PublicAffairs, Random House, and Vintage Books.

Notable in-house campaigns they’ve led include: Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation; Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants; Zadie Smith’s White Teeth; Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams; Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ Creating a World Without Poverty; W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz; Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants; Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon; and Charles Morris’ The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, among many others.

Notable campaigns they’ve led independently include: Elizabeth Kolbert’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Sixth Extinction; novels by Booker Prize–winning author Salman Rushdie; Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s international bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow; New York Times bestselling novels by Sara Gruen and Tim Johnston; Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum’s The Unspeakable; Vikram Chandra’s NBCC-nominated Geek Sublime; New York Times investigative journalist James Risen’s national bestseller Pay Any Price; and publicity campaigns for The American Booksellers Association, The Moth, The Kirkus Prize, and The Whiting Foundation.

Broadside blends independence with collaboration. Clients can choose to hire one, two, or all three members for a campaign—although every project benefits from Broadside’s collective experience, brainstorming, and network of contacts. All three Broadside partners handle publicity campaigns; Michael Taeckens also handles all aspects of marketing, web design, and social media.

Further information on BROADSIDE and Burns, Peeling, and Taeckens can be found at broadsidepr.com.

Contact: ahoy@broadsidepr.com

Follow on Twitter @BroadsidePR & Instagram: @Broadside_PR

BROADSIDE logo designed by Ben Schott

Kimberly Burns has led literary publicity campaigns for Ann Beattie, Meghan Daum, AM Homes, Yiyun Li, Natalie Merchant, Molly Ringwald, Jon Ronson, Salman Rushdie, and Marisa Silver, as well as for The Moth, NYU, The Story Prize, PEN World Voices Festival, The 92^nd St Y/Unterberg Poetry Center, The New Yorker Festival, and Granta. Before starting her own company in 2003, she worked at Knopf, Random House, Pantheon, and The Penguin Press – where she led campaigns for, among others, Amy Bloom/A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, Zadie Smith/White Teeth, WG Sebald/Austerlitz, and Adam Gopnik/Paris to the Moon. She is proud to serve on the board of directors of the Housing Works Bookstore and the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series, and as a consultant for Creative Capital’s Literature Grantees.

Whitney Peeling has seventeen years of experience in nonfiction book publicity. Before starting her own company in 2010, she worked at Houghton Mifflin, W.W. Norton, and PublicAffairs. As an independent publicist she has led campaigns for emerging and established authors including bestsellers Daniel Kahneman/Thinking, Fast and Slow, Adam Grant/Give and Take, and Elizabeth Kolbert/The Sixth Extinction. Clients include publishers such as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Perseus Books Group, PublicAffairs, W.W. Norton, Henry Holt & Company, Wharton Digital Press, and mission-driven organizations like The Whiting Foundation, The New Girls’ Network (to promote What Works for Women at Work by Joan C. Williams), and Partners in Health (to promote To Repair the World by co-founder Paul Farmer).

Michael Taeckens has led publicity and marketing campaigns for the American Booksellers Association, Vikram Chandra, Tim Johnston, Sara Gruen, and Edward Carey, among others. Before starting his own company he was Marketing Director at Graywolf Press, where he worked on Leslie Jamison’s New York Times bestseller The Empathy Exams, and for twelve years he was Publicity Director at Algonquin Books, where he led the campaigns for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie/Purple Hibiscus, Sara Gruen/Water for Elephants, Robert Goolrick/A Reliable Wife, and Amy Stewart/Flower Confidential and Wicked Plants. He also launched and managed Algonquin’s social media presence, growing its Twitter fan base to over 110,000 followers, and created the “Algonquin Book Club,” pairing Stephen King, Edwidge Danticat, Anne Lamott, Judy Blume, and others with Algonquin authors for live events. Michael pens the “Reviewers & Critics” column for Poets & Writers.

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I came across this blog post from literary agent Carly Watters: How much do you know about hiring an external publicist for your novel?  There are a lot of these kinds of columns to be found, including a few written by publicists, and they always seem to get something massively wrong. This post though hits everything right and I urge all authors to read it, (although the ballpark figure for pr on literary fiction is on the extreme high side – I hope it doesn’t put writers off from exploring the option).

There’s one point in Carly Watters’ post that I want to drill down on because it comes up for me every day and it just…there is no other word…sucks. I’ve received around ten calls for freelance publicity this week. I’ve referred every one of them to other freelancers or advised them on how they might work better and more closely with their in-house publicist. Three of the calls I got were for books that have already been published. Two of them were for books publishing next month. Carly Watters mentions this in her excellent post but it’s a point that deserves highlighting: If you are thinking of hiring a freelance publicist, start looking 8 to 12 months before your pub date. Not only because, as she notes, it helps everyone to be on the same plan, but also because A) the better publicists fill up for projects months in advance, B) you should give yourself time to find the publicist who is the right fit for you and your book, and C) a good freelance publicist will want to work with you and your publishing team to help develop and hone the message for the media as well as book buyers. Why this book? Why now? What does this book do better or different than other books? Etc. It’s all important in a fast moving media environment and will especially help the author as he/she talks about his book leading up to publication.

Meanwhile – No Kidding! In the middle of writing this I received a call from an author whose book had been published several months ago and didn’t receive the attention it might have. I explained the difficulties he is facing since the book came out so long ago (including that most media people are looking right now at books that will be published in June/July/next fall), told him I’m full for projects and referred him to the Publishing Trends Freelance Publicists list.

So. Forewarned, forearmed. The time to start thinking about book publicity is at least 6, ideally more, months before your publication date.

While I’m on m’soapbox, this post on author and publicist collaboration from the UK is well worth reading too: Ask Not What Your Publicist Can Do For You….  Note this part: “When a book is taken on, publicists are involved from the very outset, and the author should also be part of the team from the beginning.” And “no author ever became hugely successful without working in partnership…It’s never enough just to write a great book.”

Years ago one of my mentors said, “A good book always finds its way.” I believe this. But in our overcrowded, noisy, extremely competitive publishing landscape, why wouldn’t you give your book, as well as your career, a leg up.