Publicity

With the final signature photographed above, novelist John Green ended his quixotic quest to sign 150,000 copies of his upcoming book, The Fault in Our Stars.

He left a short message on his blog: “I want to thank nerdfighteria for being so supportive, Stan Muller for doing everything other than signing, my brother for hanklerfishing, and everyone at Penguin for indulging my strange dream … if you want one of these signatures, I’d encourage you to preorder today from your local independent bookstore.”

Green will be the keynote speaker at Mediabistro’s Publishing App Expo, a conference on December 7-8 showing writers and publishers how to share their stories on tablets and other mobile devices.

Matt Staggs has launched a free book pitch service for book reviewers and authors called BookShot Critics.

Book critics can sign up for the anonymous mailing list.  Staggs (pictured, via) will collect pitches from book publicists in a password protected archive so critics can learn more about the books.

Here’s more about the service: “Authors [can] submit your pitch to scads of anonymous book reviewers working in web and in print. Any of them interested in a review copy of your book will contact you directly. Note: I cannot personally guarantee your success with this system, and encourage you to use the BookShot! Authors program as supplementary to your own publicity efforts.”

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HarperCollins may publish a special edition of Dollhouse by Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, decorating the novel’s cover with Swarovski crystal.

HarperCollins’ senior vice president Lisa Sharkey shared some behind-the-scenes details about the book in Diane Clehane‘s “Lunch at Michael’s” feature this week. 

Here’s an excerpt: “There was quite a fracas coming up with a title. Lisa wanted to call it Keeping Up but, she told me, the powers that be at E! put the kibosh on the idea saying that was their brand. Lisa then came up with the idea of launching a contest on Twitter asking followers to come up with their own titles. The winning entry, Dollhouse, was submitted by a gal named Courtney who will herself be written into the book as a wedding planner. Savvy Lisa, who is always coming up with clever ways to market her books, decided the cover will be in leopard print and is hoping to do a special edition adorned with Swarovski crystal (‘Kim loves bling!’). The sisters’ fans can also turn the cover over for a special keepsake poster that is sure to find its way into plenty of teen bedrooms.”

Yesterday on the Morning Media Menu, independent publicist Lauren Cerand helped new authors answer a tough question: Should I hire a book publicist?

Cerand has worked with a variety of clients, including authors, booksellers, rock bands and publishing companies.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “I think there is less of a need to have a publicist on retainer who can broker high level major relationships for you … There are all these great places you can go online with a budget and you can say, ‘I want to learn one skill … Then you can decide, ‘Do I want to do a tour? Is there something I want to do that would make sense to have a publicist?”

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Last week The Economist speculated that the new 15-inch edition of the IKEA Billy bookcase illustrated how bookshelves are used for everything “except books that are actually read” in an eBook world.

The report sparked alarmed stories in a number of outlets, including The Consumerist, The Wall Street Journal and Time. In an interview with Edward Champion, an IKEA spokesperson dispelled these rumors of the demise of bookshelves.

Here’s an excerpt: “The Billy bookcase with the 11 inch depth will still be stocked. Production will not be curtailed. An additional Billy bookcase, with a 15 inch depth, will be introduced in all countries — an effort to respond to how customers are presently living their lives … As it turns out, not only had the 15 inch bookcase been in development for a period of eighteen months to two years. Ebooks didn’t factor at all into the decision.”

Entrepreneur and author Eric Ries has a new book coming out called The Lean Startup, a title about innovation in business.

To promote the book, Ries is giving away bonuses to people who buy the book. The more copies you buy, the more bonuses you get. The bonuses include very generous and includes almost $100,000 in credit for Amazon Web Services.

In fact, it almost seems too good to be true. But Ries’ blog assures us that it’s not: “But only almost! Because at every level I have tried to give way more value than you’re paying. When you read the descriptions below, you’re going to think the ‘value’ column is crazy. How could it possibly be that high? But I urge you to read the whole thing, check my math, and see if it’s real. Each and every package is worth what it says. Add them all up, and we’re talking about $2,933,061.00 worth of prizes. No kidding around here.”

In a recent sketch on his show, television host Conan O’Brien confessed: “TBS, my new bosses, they’re worried that authors won’t be entertaining enough to our young audience, most of whom have never seen a book.”

In response, O’Brien created a new feature that will bring literature to a generation bored with books: Famous Authors on Ziplines. We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think?

The funny literary stunt featured readings by Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Thomas Wolfe.

If you’ve been working on your novel all summer long, you might be tempted to pitch agents and other publishing professionals today.  However, after studying vacation data, this GalleyCat editor suggests you wait a week or two before sending out your manuscript.

Using Crowdtap to survey vacation plans, the social media and publicity agency InkHouse figured out the best (August 22) and worst (July 11) weeks to pitch somebody during the summer. As you can see, the first weeks of September are still popular vacation dates. We’ve included their findings below–maybe you can save your email pitch from inbox oblivion.

Check it out: “We asked 1,013 men and woman between the ages of 13 and 75 (the average age of our respondents was 31) when they plan to take vacation this summer … some weeks were more popular than others. Weeks to Avoid: July 11, 18% on vacation, July 25, 11% on vacation, August 1, 11% on vacation, September 5 (week of Labor Day), 10% on vacation, September 12, 13% on vacation. The Best Weeks: August 15, 6% on vacation; August 22, 4% on vacation.” (Via PRNewser)

Last week the New Yorker ran a long profile of author Timothy Ferriss, giving readers a peek into the life of the self-help expert.

To accompany the feature, we brought back a post from last year when The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman rocketed up (pictured, click to enlarge) on Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list.

We caught up with author Ferriss to find out how he built his massive online audience. He first urged writers to avoid a four common mistakes–read the complete interview below…

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We’ve seen a lot of authors and publishers taking advantage of YouTube to promote their books. Now publishers and authors can use online audio sites like SoundCloud to promote books.

SoundCloud is a platform where you can upload and share audio clips, from music to audiobook clips to recorded readings. The site has more than six million users sharing recordings every day. Once you post an audio track on the site, you can share your audio on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Actor Russell Brand is using the platform to promote his new book by uploading audio tracks of him reading the manuscripts. Penguin Books UK is putting audiobook excerpts on the platform. Faber and Faber is posting podcasts on the site and Harper Collins Children is posting readings on the site.