The PPA kicked off its new season by hosting Jackie Levin, Producer The Today Show, ho shared insights into future show segment directions, and how to effectively work with the production staff for bookings.

Jackie compiled a few stats for our information:

• She currently receives around 200 books a week and 175 pitches per day.
• 36 book spots were scheduled for the month of October 2006

November Luncheon Notes

The PPA set records for luncheon attendance by hosting a panel of key editors & reporters from The New York Times who shared insights into getting coverage on and off the book page.

RACHEL DONADIO - Writer and Editor @ New York Times Book Review Background:

• Before joining the Times in 2004 where she writes features on literary culture both high and low, and edits book reviews, she was a reporter at the New York Observer, the New York Sun, the Forward and the International Herald Tribune's Italy Daily

• -7 people look over all books that are sent to the Book Review
• Sam Tanenhaus and other top editors assign books to be reviewed to the various editors, then those editors assign the reviews to reviewers
• The Book Review does their best to match the critics to books they think they'll do a good job reviewing
• Rachel doesn't do too much assigning

• As a writer, Rachel has more free-reign to review what she wants, her interests do not need to be newsy since she has more of a magazine lead time and prefers ideas that put things into perspective
• She also writes about literary culture and ideas
• She likes seeing all books, even ones she won't cover so she knows what's out there.
• Rachel would like to do more profiles and features, but wants an angle that gets the book beyond a news story, but not quite as in depth as a magazine story
• She's always looking for back page material and is open to authors who would review books, or do a back page essay

• E-mail is the best way to contact her
• She gets ideas from catalogs and talking to people
• Rachel reads: book blogs (i.e. galleycat, edrants, etc), PW, monthly magazines, TLS, LRB, Harper's, Atlantic, WSJ, The Guardian
• She doesn't read press materials
• If the author has an interesting website, it probably wouldn't make a difference in whether or not she would cover the book, she uses author websites mostly for fact-checking

• Lee graduated from Harvard College in 1999 and Hunter College High School. She interned at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Newsday and The New York Times while working on her applied mathematics and economics degree. She joined the Times in 2001, one and a half years after graduating from Harvard. She has covered technology, the environment, popular culture, crime, poverty, and politics. Lee is presently writing a book about Chinese food fro Warner Twelve.
• -Jenny has also covered the following for the Times: Washington, business, back of the book page, Thursday Styles, Sunday Styles

• She will only cover a story if it is relevant to the NY, NJ, CT area
• Jenny would like it if publicists married pitches w/trends in society
• She asks to please sound intelligent when pitching
• Jenny wants publicist to be familiar with her style and interests and know what she's written about
• She likes to get tips of what's going on and to be "in the know" about topics other than books

• It's best to email and follow-up with a phone call
• She would do a piece around an author's website if it was very creative and interactive

• Lyman was first hired at the New York Times in 1997 as a general assignment reporter in Culture then became its theater reporter and columnist. After a stint as Houston Bureau Chief for the National Desk he returned to Culture as the Hollywood correspondent. In 2004 he was part of the team that covered the Presidential election and became a roving national correspondent for the paper. He has been the Books Editor for 3 months.

• There are 3 books critics (Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin, and William Grimes) and 3 reporters (Dinitia Smith, Julie Bosman, and Chip McGrath.) They are responsible for the main Arts sections of the newspaper. The critic's tastes are different and they each have their own interests in terms of what they are looking for to review.
• The Book Review is a completely separate entity from the daily book department, and there is no connection or coordination (though they do keep an eye out for what the other is doing.)
• To take something from a straight review and turn it into a feature story there must be a news element that raises it above the ordinary.

• He regularly reads Gawker, Media Bistro, Galleycat, Pub Lunch, Publishers Weekly, London Review of Books, and the New York Review of Books.
• He does not read other newspaper's book sections and is not influenced by them.
• His personal interests are history and thrillers.

• He would like publicists to remember that there are many places in the daily paper that can feature books aside from the Arts section, and urges publicists to pitch away to those sections and editors.
• Rick doesn't mind if you pitch him and/or the critics directly, as each critic's tastes and interests are different.
• He asks that pub dates be very clear on all press releases.
• He stressed that it is important to have a good, trusting relationship, even if the piece they are contacting us about isn't what we want, as this affects our relationship with them down the line.

• Smith has been a cultural correspondent for the New York Times since 1995. She specializes in covering books and intellectual ideas and trends for the paper.

• Normally covers literary topics, intellectual trends and ideas, and writes less about the publishing business as a whole.
• She is looking for news and/or change-a new imprint, a new fact in a literary biography etc.
• The best chance for coverage is to pitch her a trend piece about more than one book.
• She doesn't like doing an interview over lunch type of story, the piece needs to have more elements to be a good candidate for coverage by her.
• She is looking for a strong back-story, and a compellingly interesting author.

• She prefers email, and doesn't mind polite persistence.
• She emphasized the importance of having a trusting relationship and to make sure that publicists do their research before calling her (has the NYT's recently covered this author already, is it really the first book to publish this letter, etc.)
• Children's books: she has written about a few but doesn't cover them often, and the book would have to be of strong interest to adults, not just children, for her to consider it.
• She gets most of her ideas from catalogs and is not influenced by whether or not the book has a two-spread etc in the catalog. She doesn't read press materials.

• Tuesday, November 28th - Luncheon
• Wednesday, December 6th - Workshop
• Wednesday, January 24th - Luncheon
• Tuesday, February 20th - Luncheon
• Wednesday, March 28th - Luncheon
• Tuesday, April 24th - Luncheon
• Wednesday, May 23rd - Luncheon
• Tuesday, June 19th - Luncheon

FORMER PANTHEON PUBLICITY DIRECTOR SUZANNE WILLIAMS JOINS FORCES WITH ELIZABETH SHREVE TO FORM SHREVE & WILLIAMS PUBLIC RELATIONS

Elizabeth Shreve, who announced the formation of the Washington, D.C.-based Elizabeth Shreve Public Relations in February of this year, announced today that former Pantheon Books publicity director Suzanne Williams will join Shreve's existing company as a partner to form Shreve & Williams Public Relations, effective January 2007.
In keeping with Shreve's original mission, Shreve & Williams Public Relations [S&WPR] will remain a public relations firm specializing in strategic media campaigns for books and authors. The company will continue to provide services for publishers and authors that range from the design and implementation of national media campaigns, expert publicity counsel, local market outreach and tour booking, targeted publicity campaigning, to pre-publication media platform building and client branding.

The Job Exchange is a confidential service provided for all PPA members. Here’s how it works. If you are looking for a new job, all submitted resumes must include a cover letter. Resumes will be kept on file for one month only. To view up-to-date listings, please go to the PPA website: www.publisherspublicity.org

If you would like to list a job opening in your department or firm, job listings may be placed by PPA members only. All listings must be submitted by e-mail. Each listing will appear in the next newsletter. Listings will run only once, unless re-submitted via e-mail to the newsletter editor.

Please direct resumes & job listings to Meg McAllister, meg@mcallcom.com

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