Many authors, stranded or rerouted in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, have been unable to make their scheduled bookstore appearances around the country. Borders and Barnes & Noble alone canceled 126 events in the week following the catastrophe. As regular TV programming gave way to round-the-clock coverage of the disaster and its aftermath, hundreds of authors lost their media bookings. New York City publishers, still shell-shocked by the events and grieving for their city, returned to their offices in the days following the tragedy to review plans for some of the year's biggest books.
While some authors, such as Adrienne Rich (Fox: Poems 1998-2000, Norton), Terry Tempest Williams (Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, Pantheon) and Deepak Chopra (Grow Younger, Live Longer, Crown), drove long hours to honor their commitments or made impromptu appearances--and attracted huge crowds--many others canceled their scheduled events. Publicists report that they are reevaluating their plans on a case-by-case basis, in light of travel logistics, author comfort level, timing of events, media openings and the appropriateness of promoting each book.
Within days of the attacks, several high-profile authors, including Salman Rushdie (Fury, Random House), Anne Rice (Blood and Gold, Knopf), and children's authors Denise Fleming (Pumpkin Eye, Holt), Sharon Creech (A Fine, Fine School, HarperCollins/ Joanna Cotler Books) and Walter Dean Myers (Bad Boy: A Memoir; HarperCollins), among others, canceled their entire tours. Rushdie was regretful, according to Random House Trade Group v-p and publicity director Tom Perry, since he "was looking forward to moving around as freely as he has in a while." Random House had rented him a private plane, since he has long been banned from all commercial flights in the U.S. by the FAA, noted Liz Fogarty, the publisher's assistant director of publicity.
Many others, such as Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegon, Summer 1956, Viking), Martha Grimes (The Blue Last, Viking), Bobbie Ann Mason (Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, Random), Adam Gopnik (Paris to the Moon, Random) and Rick Bragg (Ava's Man, Knopf; Bragg was called in by the New York Times to report on the tragic events and their aftermath), lopped off portions of their tours, hoping to resume their travels this week or next. Kenneth C. Davis, on tour for his Don't Know Much books for adults and children (HarperCollins), got stuck in Dallas and drove himself home to New York, but is now continuing his tour.
Others postponed the launch of their tours, including William Bennett (The Broken Hearth, Doubleday), Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef Takes Off, Hyperion), General Claudia Kennedy (Generally Speaking, Warner), Mem Fox (Reading Magic, Harcourt), Graham Salisbury (Lord of the Deep, Delacorte), and Jack Welch, whose much-anticipated memoir, Jack: Straight from the Gut (Warner), went on sale the day New York was attacked. Featured in an interview on the Today Show that aired just before the first plane struck the World Trade Center, Welch's book immediately vaulted to the top of Amazon. com's bestseller list. He now plans to hit the road October 15, Warner publicity director Emi Battaglia told PW. Warner hopes to salvage the media line-up, including an appearance with Jay Leno. But, according to the New York Post, Warner's $1-million promotional commitment is on hold indefinitely.
In at least one notable case, publication has been delayed: Simon & Schuster announced that Jim Jeffords, the senator from Vermont who changed the balance of power when he left the Republican Party earlier this year, will delay the release of My Declaration of Independence.
One author whose tour won't be affected is Jonathan Franzen. The author of The Corrections began his 15-city tour last weekend as scheduled. "We were lucky that a lot of the reviews and interviews were already done when the attacks happened," said FSG publicity director Jeff Seroy, adding that Franzen will drive for large portions of the tour, "which is okay because he likes driving anyway." Rumors continue to circulate that the book is slated to be the next Oprah pick.
Most tours set to begin in October are in a holding pattern. Publicists say they will wait to see what happens before rescheduling. As for the regional trade shows, many scheduled authors will appear, publicists report, and quite a few have agreed to drive long hours to uphold their commitments.
For authors who weren't planning to tour this fall, the loss of national media will likely have a critical impact on sales. Twenty-seven bookings on the Today Show were canceled outright between September 11 and September 21, including those for Stephen King and Peter Straub (Black House, Villard), Derek Jeter (Game Day, Three Rivers) and Mark Burnett (Dare to Succeed, Hyperion), while others remain on hold. Laura Numeroff, author of the bestselling picture book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, is tentatively scheduled to discuss The Hope Tree: Kids Talk About Breast Cancer (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) on October 5. Ian Falconer, author of Olivia Saves the Circus (Atheneum/Anne Schwartz), is still hoping to appear on that show October 25. "We are trying to keep bookings for authors who still pertain [to the situation at hand]," Today Show producer Andrea Smith told PW.
Still, some authors, like John Lithgow, bumped from his Today Show appearance on September 24 to promote his new picture book Marsupial Sue (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers), have found other bookings vacated by authors who were unable to travel. Lithgow is now slated to appear in new openings on The View on September 20, due to a cancellation.
A remarkably strong performer despite the media eclipse is Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House, which not only made its Saturday, September 15 laydown despite shipping the week of the tragedy, but rose to the top five on Amazon.com's list despite cancellations on the TodayShow and radio drive-time shows. Plans were scrapped for a 20-station radio giveaway in the week leading up to publication, and print and TV advertising was postponed.
"As soon as authors can get around by plane, we are hoping to get everyone back on tour, and to reschedule missed events," said Carol Schneider, Random House associate publisher and executive director of publicity, echoing the comments of many others in the industry. But she also sounded a note of caution: "We also know there comes a point where there's a critical amount of backlog and it's just not possible to pick up all the pieces."
Many publicists acknowledge the uncertainty of scheduling author appearances when "we know retaliation is going to come and [we] don't know what kind of effect it's going to have," as Paul Olsewski, senior director of publicity for ReganBooks, put it. But Olsewski's colleague, HarperCollins publicity director Justin Loeber, remains optimistic: "We have to rethink strategy. There are some tremendous openings in print, and some radio is still possible, which can be done by phone."
Looking ahead, however, publicists recognize that there will be lingering effects that could have a major impact on the promotion of books. "The days of being able to do cities back-to-back are over," said Tina Constable, Crown Group v-p and executive director of publicity. "It's going to be tough to get authors from a lunchtime event in one city to another one early enough in the afternoon to make the most of their time there. Two days in each city will definitely add to the cost of sending an author on tour." Added Marilyn Ducksworth, Penguin Putnam senior v-p and executive director of publicity, "We plan a lot of 20- and 30-city tours, and we'll definitely be reexamining the number of cities that we do."
