Mr. Media, Bill Scheft and a publicist’s pain

I’m generally reticent to comment on my client interviews with online media after they’ve occured, but I felt this one is a great example of how humor, insight and a publicist’s pain work together for the greater good.

One of my favorite clients is Bill Scheft and I think one of the reasons I like Bill is because he constantly makes me laugh. It’s nice to have a client that really understands that life is life and books are just one aspect of life. It’s also pretty darn hilarious when you’re a publicist and you book an interview for your client and the interviewer makes you the butt of a joke during the show.

Oy vey. A publicist’s life. You can’t win. You’ll have to listen to the full interview with Bill and Mr. Media which features some new stories about Larry David and Bill’s career as a writer. If you’ve not read “Everything Hurts” yet, you should.

I also love that Bill, no matter who is interviewing him, ever so patiently finds something funny about folks trying to make him laugh.  And I was doubly impressed by Mr. Media because one could tell that he really worked hard to research Bill’s work and he read Bill’s book. That is not always the case!

Bill is also incredibly patient with me, who is more than often tempted to send  his PR updates in Top Ten list style. (Just to see if he thinks it’s funny.)

If I did send them it would be something like this:

Top Five Bloggers Who Said No To Book Pitch and Why:

1. IloveSarahPalin.com – only reviewing books with “Rogue” in the title

2. Mamma’s Knitting Again.com – “if it doesn’t have knitting needles as a main plot line, we won’t review it.”

3. Republicanswhoright.com – “No thanks. We don’t think humorous novels are funny.”

4. Sportsguyswhoread.com – “Too busy reading “The Cheetah Who Played Golf”

5. ComedyHurts.com – “No, the book doesn’t sound painful enough.”

See, I just did it then, and I couldn’t even think of ten. So it’s good I’m not a comedy writer.

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