Publishers Weekly reports that the writers strike is causing author appearances to be canceled. And I have to ask whether this is really that terrible of a development. Getting an author on Colbert may raise visibility, but it’s really just an excuse for Colbert to employ his schtick. Meaningful conversation about the books almost never happens on television. And certainly Colbert hasn’t read the books in question. I’m also wondering if there’s as significant a sales boost with a Colbert appearance as there is for an outlet devoted to books.
The Writers Strike and Author Interviews
– November 9, 2007Posted in: Uncategorized
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
The fact is that an appearance on Stewart or Colbert usually results in a boost in sales that only Oprah can top. An example from ’04: Tom Frank appeared on Bill Moyers’ PBS show and some NPR shows to promote “What’s The Matter With Kansas.” That got the book to #13 or so on the NYTBR list. Then he did The Daily Show. The next week the book was at #5 or thereabouts and stayed on the NYT list three months. (Of course, extensive word-of-mouth would have helped too.) It’d be worthwhile to draw up a chart showing how many recent books by writers who went on Stewart/Colbert made the top 10, and how many that were promoted everywhere else only went into the 10-15 area. My guess is that if Bookscan shows a significant dip in the sales of bestsellers in the next few months, leading figures in the industry may be pleading with their colleagues or bosses on the other coast to settle pronto.
If people wanted meaningful conversations about books on TV they would watch Book TV. The good thing about these appearances is precisely that they will attract people who otherwise wouldn’t even have known the book existed in the first place. I don’t believe commercial TV is a good forum for in-depth discussion of books. The closer you’ll ever get to that is a pundit pitching his newest title on a political show or a news story on the release of a book on some current event that’s interesting by itself.
I do think it’s important to make a distinction between the type of conversation that happens on The Daily Show and what happens on the Colbert Report. While neither reaches the level of discourse that Michael Silverblatt, Terry Gross, or Bat Segundo does (due to things like time limits and audience), I am generally pretty impressed with Jon Stewart’s ability to speak in an intelligent and insightful way about books. I’ve been to a couple of events with the booker, who swears up and down that Stewart reads every book himself, and having watched his interviews many times, I absolutely believe it.
There’s a place for a Colbert Report appearance, as well. If the author is able to roll with the jokes and assert him or herself in between Colbert’s jokes, then it’s a great platform for promoting poppier books.
As I said above, obviously the level of discourse is different than a longer-form show, but there is something of value that can be gleaned, and that is certainly of higher value to authors than most other television appearances.