Penguin Imprint Focus: An Interview with Tina Anderson

(View entire post here)

It took me three weeks to get the requisite security clearance to enter the Penguin Publicity Panopticon and be granted an audience with Publicity Manager Tina Anderson. Her ability to multi-task was incredible; even while answering my questions she kept a weather eye on over fifteen screens which were, as far as I could tell, relaying information from all seven continents simultaneously.

Tell us about yourself, how you came to your current position, to publishing in general, and what your relationship is to Roc and Ace.

As an assistant I was assigned to work on the Ace imprint, which is actually the sister imprint to Roc. After graduating through the ranks I ended up as the publicity manager of Roc and Ace, and I now oversee somebody who does all the day to day work. I’m in charge of the high level thinking and scheduling any tours, and making sure that we stay within our budget and the publicity plans that we set for the titles.

I didn't think I would work on SF/fantasy when I originally came into publishing, but I soon came to appreciate the books that I worked on and grew relationships with my authors. That made it worthwhile to continue working on the genre. But it wasn't my first love, actually.

What was your first love?

My first love was historical fiction, mysteries, and good novels in general. But if I had to pick between SF and fantasy, I would probably choose to read fantasy novels.

How would you say that publicity for Roc and Ace is different from publicity for the other imprints?

Well, one of the nice things is that the Roc and Ace lists are very similar, so the authors and the editors that you work with are a very tightly knit family. Whereas in the other lines that my department oversees, you might work on a random book in an area that you're not an expert on, and you'll have to go do the research. Say you have a parenting title—you might not know all the parenting magazines or reviewers, so you have to go back and do that research. Whereas in SF/fantasy, you get to become part of that family and you get to know everybody very well. It is especially nice to be part of a small family like that when you work in a big company like Penguin.

What do you think the future holds for publicity, especially for Roc and Ace?

We're going to have to rethink the way we do publicity. Traditionally in the past we sent books to the major print reviewers—the SF/fantasy trade magazines, the major daily newspapers around the country—and while they still have very influential reviewers the online realm has become much more powerful. I don't think any publicity department has tapped into this area fully yet, but it's especially important in SF/fantasy because those writers/readers are online more than ever before.

I think that one of our big challenges will be to keep track of all of the new websites and blogs that emerge daily, to be able to rank their popularity and to know which ones deserve more attention than others. Our authors are blogging and participating in other people's blogs. It has become harder to track all that activity. Right when we think we know which are the top blogs, others creep up. There are some really big ones—Boingboing is probably number one—and if you have a hit there than that's better than a hit anywhere else.

Anywhere?

Anywhere. It's probably the number one blog at the moment. Even better than print. Cory Doctorow has major influence. A hit at Boingboing is a major coup for the book. We would love any ideas or tips our readers could send us about other really great new blogs! If you have any good ideas, let us know!

Do you think the online communities will hit the Roc and Ace demographic even harder than others?

Yes, we already feel it. Have you heard of 2nd life? It’s a new website on which our authors already have avatars and are online talking to fans and reviewers, and we're having to follow behind them because they have been approached directly by the people who run the game. What happens is that they log on and do virtual signings—their avatar goes to a virtual book store and then sits down and does a reading. I'm not sure how they coordinate the actual book signings though. We have to make sure that everything is coordinated, but a lot of the times the authors just take that initiative themselves.

What advice would you give a beginning author who wishes to increase the sales of their first book?

If you don't have a website, get one, start there. Put the picture of your book, some quotes, maybe a description of the novel. Make sure there's a blog component even if you post only once a month. We've found that MySpace has worked wonders for authors, but what you get out of it is really proportional to what you put in. You have to make your friends, and once you've collected them all you can send out little notices as to when your book is coming out, etc.

It's very difficult for new authors to get real press outside of trade magazines and the general SF/fantasy places. We have a lot of authors who we would like to see get better coverage/exposure but it's hard because they're new. But I definitely recommend getting out there and getting web presence. Blogging on Amazon seems to be effective (though I admit I'm not sure how much for our SF/fantasy authors) and then start a blog. It's very time consuming; I'm not sure every author wants to devote that kind of time to something like that because it's never-ending. But it is worthwhile, in the long run!

(At this point a series of red lights indicated that a virtual ninja raid was being launched against one of her online signings. As she turned away and began to multiply her online avatars to address the issue, I thought it politic to excuse myself.

Tune in this Friday to learn what the Editorial Assistants discuss during the graveyard shift as they guard the slushpile...)

--Philip Tucker, Online Producer

Roc, Ace, Tina Anderson, Penguin books, book publisher, books, fantasy, sci-fi, science fiction, imprint, publisher, publicity manager, interview, history