Second Anniversary

Two years ago today, HarperCollins and I parted ways. One year ago today, I took stock of my situation on the first anniversary of my layoff. This second anniversary seems an appropriate occasion to do so again.

This is my fourth day into my new job at Free Press and it feels good. Coming here felt a little like coming home. There are so many familiar faces, from the distant past and the more recent past--there are more than a few alums of Harper now roaming the halls of S&S. I’m glad to have colleagues again, and I’m glad to have these colleagues in particular. It’s all very new--I’m still in the process of figuring out how to access digital assets, get an outside line, or find a serviceable pencil—but it’s familiar too. I think it’s going to turn out to be OK, and even better.

I was sustained in the last year by a freelance association with the renowned publishing PR firm Planned Television Arts. It was an arrangement that suited me very well and saw me through some thin times. I’m grateful to my friends at PTA and hope they feel they got their money’s worth.

My blogging and some of the other writing I do has continued to draw occasional attention from trade press such as Shelf Awareness and GalleyCat, as well as other outlets. This blog you’re reading right now, and the role it played in landing my new position, became fodder for Joyce Lain Kennedy’s “Careers Now” column, syndicated by Tribune Media, which hit earlier this week--just in time for my first day on the new job.

I continued to contribute to the health, feeding, and education of my children. I still managed to have some fun along the way.

This will be the last time I will use my layoff as a reference point for taking stock. That incident fades with each passing day, and I can’t be bothered with it now. From here on, I’ll be fully occupied with looking ahead to see what comes next.

Enter the Free Press: One Door Closes and Two Years Later, Another One Opens

Here's the lede: I got a job! Starting February 7th I will be bookflacking full time for the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Here's the background: I started this blog about 21 months ago to chronicle my efforts to publicize myself into a new position. The month that HarperCollins folded the Collins division and my colleagues and I were laid off--February 2009--about 650,000 other people also lost their jobs. The economy was such a basket case, the unemployment rate so high, and competition for jobs so fierce that I knew I had to do something beyond sending out resumes, searching job sites, pressing for "informational" interviews, and all the traditional things you do when looking for a job. So being a publicist, I decided to publicize myself.

I met with some significant success too. I was featured by CNN, Fox News Channel, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Post. I started this blog and another, Classics Rock! Books Shelved in Songs, hoping they would help keep me in front of the publishing industry. Those efforts also met with some success, getting me into such industry media as Shelf Awareness, GalleyCat, Publishers Weekly, the New York Times's "Paper Cuts" blog, CNBC's "Bullish on Books" blog, BookSlut, and Publishing Perspectives. I started writing for The Huffington Post, McSweeneys, and other outlets hoping this would be another way to stay visible, and that too has paid off. (A full list of these media hits appears on this page.)

So: Did all this self-promotion ultimately lead to the new job? Hard to say. In the end, it came about the way it often does--through a friend, who alerted me to an opening and connected me to the appropriate party. Still, I have to believe that the publicity I generated played a part, even if it was a subliminal one. No one ever said, "I saw you on CNN and I'd like to hire you." But I like to think that if someone in the industry was looking to fill a position, and my name came up, they would at least say: "Oh, yeah--I've heard of him."

It all goes to a point that I try to make with authors: Publicity isn't always about making the sale. Sometimes it's just about being visible and spreading awareness.

Thanks to those of you who've been following along. This blog long ago strayed from its original mission, and it will continue on an irregular basis, whenever inspiration strikes (or I get a major media hit!).

Here's the announcement from the Free Press, sent out by my new colleague Carisa  Hays, V.P., Director of Publicity:

I am very happy to announce that on February 7th, Laurence Hughes will be joining the Free Press Publicity Department as Associate Director of Publicity, reporting to me.  

Larry has proven himself, over many years in the business, to be one of the leading book publicists in our industry.  He has held senior publicity positions at several major houses, including: HarperBusiness/Collins, NAL, and Dell/Delacorte.  Most recently, Larry has worked as an independent publicity consultant  working with publishers, literary publicity agencies, and authors who have hired him directly.

In addition to his work as a book publicist, Larry blogs for the Huffington Post, and also writes two personal blogs:  Classics Rock! and Book Flack at Large.  He has written articles that have been published in The New York Times, New York Post, Publishers Weekly, The Author, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and the anthologies Mountain Man Dance Moves (Vintage, 2006), The McSweeney’s  Joke Book of Book Jokes (Vintage, 2008), and Book: The Sequel (Public Affairs, 2009).

In addition to working on many of our upcoming titles, Larry will be responsible for  Free Press’s online publicity campaigns, which have become a  significant part of our overall publicity efforts.

Please join me in welcoming Larry to Free Press.