Wednesday, September 01, 2010

New and Noteworthy


Here at Shrink Rap, we get a pretty steady flow of email from book publicists, publishers, and other media sources looking to get some attention for their books, blogs, TV programs, conferences, and causes. Suddenly, we're faced with questions from our own publisher about where our book should be promoted, do we have any personal media contacts, where should review copies go? Clink and Roy did their forms, and I've obsessed. If you've hit us up for publicity and your name had CBS, or Simon & Schuster, or some major publication anywhere near your name, you made it to my list. Clink, bless her, listed the name of a forensic psychiatry journal and moved on. I'm thinking Slate, Psychology Today (Roy put that on his list, too), Huffington Post.... so now that I've spent the morning looking up contact information for the alumni magazines at Clink's college and med school (and mine, and Roy's), I thought I'd do what I always do when I want to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious: ask you.

Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work--
Our one-sentence description reads:

Three psychiatrists give a candid and understandable insiders' view of the modern practice of psychiatry.


So where do you think we should suggest the publisher should market our book? And if you happen to be the book editor for the LA Times, would you please send us your contact info?


This has gotta be the weirdest book writing process ever.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oprah

NYTimes Health section

Sunny CA said...

I love Salon.com. Consider contacting one of their book reviewers who has reviewed other books in science/medicine such as Ryan Brown, Thomas Rogers, or Alex Jung. I don't know the etiquette. Do you write to all of them or just one so you don't end up with 2 different people writing it? Also Cary Tennis in the LIFE section of Salon.com writes an offbeat psychologically based advice column. He is a recovered alcoholic and drug abuser who gives long-winded quirky answers. He might ignore you, but if he were intrigued and likes your book, there's the chance you'd get a mention or more. He has a hughe following.

http://www.salon.com/books/

On television: Dr. Phil
Frankly, though, when he promos a book it looks like a paid-for spot and everyone in the studio audience gets a free copy. I would not be surprised if the spots aren't purchased.

Remote chance of J. Douglas Bremner reviewing it on his blog if he likes it. He has posted on your blog in the past, though He may have been trying to build traffic for HIS blog and HIS book because he kept posting his blog address and that is how I found him:

http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/

Being a fellow psychiatrist and fellow author he might have sympathy. Maybe you could write about HIS book in exchange. The two books do not overlap content. He is a research psychiatrist at a university and his website rarely mentions psychiatry.

Perhaps all those blogs you link to?

Marcela said...

NAMI has a special bookstore where they promote books. Goodreads has book giveaways. And of course I'd be glad to review it if you send me a copy :)

Dinah said...

Thank you, everyone for your help. I totally forgot about Salon, and to the features editor who contacted us, I sent your info along.
SunnyCA: No wonder you got the job!
Marcela: Thank you, I never heard of Goodreads, will check it out! And NAMI is a great idea.

Anonymous said...

I dunno, I prefer "easy to understand" to understandable - depending on what you are going for, I guess.

Rach said...

I would send it to Tara Parker Pope at the Well Blog @ NYT.

Also, what about research chairs at other universities?