Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I didn’t get blasted by this SoulKool agent. But for any publicists who want to tickle my fancy, it’s actually quite easy to do: (a) read my blog and figure out what I’m interested in, (b) direct your emails to me personally, (c) have a sense of humor or a spirit of playfulness, (d) understand that I receive somewhere in the area of 3-20 books a week and that I obviously can’t read them all, (e) don’t expect me to necessarily love your book (I’m not a shill) and (f) realize that there’s pretty much only one guy running this site (and that includes research, production and engineering for each Segundo podcast, which is probably around 15-20 hours per show).

(And here’s a hint: three Segundo interviews came to be because publicists and/or authors factored in each and every one of those six points.)

M.J. Rose conveys several stories about how some authors can be dismissive of both publicists and journalists. While 95% of the authors and publicists I have dealt with have been nothing less than amicable and accommodating, even when an author cannot be produced for an interview, I have, nevertheless, experienced a few variations on these tales myself.

I also wanted to followup on Ron’s item from this morning. While I did not receive a return phone call back from the publicist, I think it’s likely that the September 28 interview in the Washington Post may have been set up already, and that the “all interviews are cancelled” line may have applied to any interviews that had not already been set in stone. Again, I don’t blame anyone here, nor do I take it personally. I’ll be the first to confess that I’m not the Washington Post. As an online outlet, I am pretty low on the totem pole. And as long as I’ve written for online outlets, even as a professional, this has always been the case. Some publishers understand websites and blogs and podcasts, and some don’t. Or simply won’t.

Gerard Jones writes in with the news that he’s recorded the greatest single chapter in all literature.

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Hot on the heels of Grumpy Old Bookman reviewing Noah Cicero’s novel Burning Babies (and giving it a pass), Tao Lin has posted a lengthy interview with Cicero. Cicero was one of the members of the Underoos Literary Alliance and explains why he left, among other things.