The Barrett Company Hollywood Book Publicity Tour + Win FREE Kindle Fire!

 

Today I am thrilled to host Charlie Barrett and participate in his tour. As part of the tour, you all have a chance to enter to win a Kindle Fire! Sorry to all my international friends - this one is only open to Canada and US addresses. So, first a little about the company and players and then the interview and then the all important rafflecopter entry. Here we go:

Well known, experienced, professional Hollywood book, TV and movie publicist Charlie Barrett formed The Barrett Company in 1991 as a full service publicity and media relations agency to serve books/authors/publishers, television and motion picture industry clients. The Los Angeles headquartered publicity firm offers 21st century publicity and media relations services to celebrities, authors, actors, directors, screen writers, filmmakers as well as film and television producers.

Charlie’s author clients have include LA author-screenwriter Carla Malden, author of Afterimage, Kindle’s John Locke/Lethal People, Julie Sinatra/Under my Skin, Warren Adler/War of the Roses, David R. Fett MD and Steve Langford/White Sleeper, Deby Eisenberg/Pictures of the Past, Marty Jurow/See’in Stars: A Show Biz Odyssey, actor George Kennedy/Trust Me, Peter Ford/Glenn Ford: A Life and Dr. Ken Nedd/Power Over Stress as well as many, many others.

Since it’s inception, TBC has served as publicists to such companies and celebrities as CBS, Simon & Schuster, ABC, Globe Pequot Press, Harper Collins publishers, Norton publishers, Paramount studios, Oxford University Press, PBS, Warner Brothers, American Movie Classics cable channel (Mad Men), Bravo, Life Time Television, NYU Press, Ben Bella Books, Fox Television Network, Little Brown publishers, Fox News, CNN, self-published author service firms such as Xlibris, Author House and i-Universe as well as numerous celebrities from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon to Kevin Costner, Tatum O’Neal, Tim Curry, Martin Landau, Robert Stack, Rod Stewart, Gary Conway, Oprah Winfrey (Oprah’s Big Give television series on ABC) and numerous other stars.
 

Barbara Wall, a specialist in media marketing and media research, serves as Vice President of TBC. She has accomplished extensive assignments, ranging from technology to entertainment to printing/publishing and has working relationships with a wide circle of book media contacts including reviewers at major US newspapers to Internet book reviewers including NY Times, USA TODAY, Midwest Book Review, BookPleasures.com, BookReview.com, writers at select men and women’s’ magazines and online social media bloggers covering authors and publishers. Ms. Wall formerly served as an executive in two Fortune 500 companies (Xerox, Experian) and has worked with a range of clients including BMG Music Service, The Fox Network, Eddie Bauer, Levi’s, Starbucks, and Jamba Juice. She holds both BA and MBA degrees and formerly taught high school English in Colorado.
 
You can visit his website at www.thebarrettco.com.  Visit them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thebarrettco.

Pretty impressive resumes, I think. I had a few questions for Mr Barrett and he very kindly consented to answer them for me:

 

Q - Can you tell us a little about what your company, The Barrett Company Communications does and how long it has been doing it? 

We provide book publicity/book promotion/book marketing for authors and publishers in both non-fiction anf fiction areas. We also serve television producers and motion picture makers, cast members with publicity services for their creations too. Recent author clients include Carla Malden (daughter of Oscar winner actor Karl Malden)  author of "AfterImage" and  author John Locke, the first self-publihsed author to sell 1 million books on Kindle. We opened our doors in 1991, marking our 20th anniversary last September.  We are also helping Peter Ford, son of actor Glenn Ford with his  current book Glenn Ford: A life."

Q - Congratulations on recently winning the Book Publicist of the Year Award from the Southern California Book Publicists Society. Can you give us an idea of what this award means to you and your company? 

Well, needless to say I was thrilled and honored to receive this prestigious award from the group...I had a few very good competitors too. I must say among the sea of awards given out ...it is nice to see one that recognizes the hard work of book publcists to get their authors known and to help them sell their books.

Q - You have an impressive list of clients in a variety of creative areas. What has been the most challenging - can I use the word 'product'? - you have ever promoted? 

Oh, there are so many...I would hate to omit any. Well, one that stands out recently is the success of the e-book version of  "Under My Skin" written by Julie Sinatra on her "father"  Frank Sinatra.  The print version started out pretty soft, but once it went to e-book it took off.  In TV, I worked for the creators of CBS' "The Amazing Race" for several years and that TV series is now a staple on Sunday nights after a very slow, upward move in ratings for many years.  The show has won a great number of awards...it is very gratifying to see  this series become so very popular and successful in an industry with such high mortality rates for TV series.

Q - Over the years, I'm sure you have met a number of well known people. Is there someone that you haven't met that you would really love to do work for?

I guess it would be Stephen King. I have a good friend in Maine who knows Mr. King quite well and it almost happened for me about three years ago...maybe it will happen in the near future...who knows. I am a huge fan of Mr King.  Representing Scott Turow wouldn't be bad either !

Q - As has been mentioned, you have worked with some big names. What about the little guy? Have you done any work for the independent authors out there?

Most defintely, yes.  I have worked with many, many self-published authors going back to when self-publishing was first starting up with firms like Author House and I-Universe. Lately I have seen a lot of SP authors going to Create Space though.  Best seller author John Locke is a good success story as an independent writer...he self-published his Donovan Creed series and it has taken off the last few years, recently getting him national book distribution and much popularity.  We helped him with two of his books  - - "Lethal People" and "Saving Rachel." - - now both hugely popular. He is the first author to sell 1 million books on Kindle.

So there you go, folks. If you are looking to promote your work, The Barrett Company is definitely a resource to check out! 

 

Pump Up Your Book and The Barrett Company are teaming up to give you a chance to win a Kindle Fire!

This giveaway is part of the Barrett Company Hollywood Publicity Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book. There are a lot of great blogs participating in this Kindle Fire giveaway.  After you enter, check out the other stops on the Barrett Company Hollywood Publicity Tour and enter there too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The Kindle Fire promotion will run March 5 – 23, 2012. Winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, contacted by email and announced on March 24, 2012.
To find out who else is participating and more chances to win, visit http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/02/09/the-barrett-company-hollywood-virtual-book-publicity-tour-march-2012-kindle-fire-giveaway/.
Contest is only open to U.S. and Canada residents.
Good luck everyone!