A Dilemma for Authors: Solidarity or Book Sales?
By Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 1/10/2008 9:08:00 AM
For authors, this week’s return of the Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a case of good news/bad news. The good news is that authors once again have a shot at appearing on two of the most effective book publicity outlets on TV. The bad news—especially for the kind of left-leaning nonfiction authors likely to find a receptive audience on these shows—is that they’d have to cross a picket line of fellow writers.
Authors are split on whether to go on the shows, which started airing new shows on Monday without their writers after a two-month hiatus because of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The striking writers have been picketing outside the Comedy Central studios in Manhattan since Nov. 5.
Michael Pollan cancelled a long-planned appearance on Colbert Tuesday to discuss In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, "because he didn’t want to cross the picket line," said Penguin publicist, Sarah Hutson.
The Conscience of a Liberal author Paul Krugman called off his appearance on the show Monday, though it’s unclear whether it was in solidarity with the striking writers. Krugman, who has been out of the country on vacation since Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. A publicist for the staunchly pro-union New York Times columnist and Princeton professor confirmed the cancellation but said she did not know the reason.
Meanwhile, economist Muhammad Yunus, author of Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (PublicAffairs, Dec. 2007) does plan to show up for a spot on Colbert this evening. PublicAffairs publicity director Whitney Peeling said that while the publisher had considered the implications of booking Yunus on Colbert during the strike, it was decided that, "Yunus’s message on behalf of the world’s poor should be heard, and so he should go on."
A Comedy Central spokesperson declined to discuss whether authors were refusing to come on the show. But over at CBS, a spokesperson for Late Show with David Letterman, whose production company, Worldwide Pants, reached a settlement with its writers Dec. 31, said "pitches in general, including authors, have increased since we came back with our writers."
For book publicists, it’s an awkward situation in which they risk being caught between their author’s ethics and the need to stay on good terms with bookers at the two influential shows. Several publicists contacted by PW for this story refused to talk about how they would respond to requests from the shows while the writer’s strike continues. When PW first contacted Hutson she denied that Pollan had been scheduled to appear on Colbert, admitting it only after conferring with the author.
University presses, which often have a better shot at getting their serious current affairs books on these fake news shows than on other media outlets, may have the most at stake. Melissanne Scheld, director of trade sales at Cambridge Univ. Press, said Karen Greenberg, author of The Torture Papers, had her appearance on Colbert cancelled in November when the strike was just starting. Now that the show is back, she said decisions about sending an author across the picket line would be made on a "case-by-case basis." Another university press publicist, who asked not to be named, said he has booked authors on The Daily Show and Colbert this spring. "We’ll have to play it by ear," he said, "People are concerned. They don’t want to be seen as strikebreakers, crossing the picket line. After all, they’re professional writers, too. But, then, it’s every writer’s dream to appear on Colbert or The Daily Show. People aren’t sure what to do."
Al Franken, the satirist and bestselling author who’s running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota expressed no such ambiguity when asked at a campaign fundraiser Tuesday evening in Duluth, Minn. whether he’d appear on The Colbert Report if invited. "I don’t cross picket lines," he told PW. "I would never cross that picket line. Not even for Colbert."
