Less than a decade ago I was handling publicity for a small New York based record label that would bring its recent signings to town for club performances. One day the label owner called and said, “I have some news that you can’t tell anyone.”
Me: “Uh, OK.”
Him: “You know ‘(insert unknown band here)’ is playing in New York tonight? Well, Patti Smith‘s son just joined the band.”
Me: “O-o-k-a-a-y. And, why can’t I tell anyone?”
Him: “Well, he didn’t play on the album and the band doesn’t want him to be the center of attention.”
At least one prominent music journalist had agreed in advance to attend the show and I thought that this was valuable information that the journalist might want to know. However, I abided by my clients wishes and didn’t say anything. The next day the first e-mail in my inbox was from said journalist: “Why didn’t you tell me that Patti Smith’s son was in the band?!”
Me: “How did you know?”
Him: “I saw Patti at the show and went up and asked (producer) Lenny Kaye what she was doing there. He told me that Patti’s son was in the band. That would have been good information to have.”
Though the Press doesn’t publish salacious biographies, we occasionally publish biographies that contain the odd, newfound, salacious detail. Similar to the anecdote above, the authors typically don’t want the publicist to highlight these details. And that’s the conundrum. If an author reveals in the biography of a famous male author from the early 1900s that his estate included a cache of explicit photographs of the author with a variety of women, that might be something that I’d want to include in the publicity material. If I don’t highlight these details, the editors that I am pitching may never get to that part of the story. And if they do get to that part of the story, and assign the book for review, these details will be a major part of the story. I might as well tell them upfront. In fact, isn’t it my job to tell them upfront? It might be good information for them to have.
I met with a new author recently who suggested that the end of his/her forthcoming book contains potentially controversial details. I asked him/her if it would be OK to note this in the publicity materials. He/she suggested that I could not.
How to balance the wishes of an author against the demands of the marketplace? I’ll let you know in two years.
