Ships and Speeches

In 1898 Morgan Robertson wrote a novel, Futility, about a ship—the world’s largest—hitting an iceberg on a cold spring night. The ship in this fictional story was named the Titan. No, Robertson did not base this story on the Titanic. The real floating palace did not sink until 1912, a full 14 years after Futility was published.

Just thought I’d share that with you. Seven years ago, my 4th grade teacher read us an article about this eerie coincidence, and while flipping through Lee W. Merideth’s 1912 Facts about the Titanic, it popped into my mind.

Today I contacted Mr. Merideth to conduct an interview with him about his upcoming book, California: A Student’s Historical and Cultural Handbook, which will be published late this fall. I was planning to glance through one of his Titanic books to learn a little about his writing before e-mailing him. (Glancing turned out not to be enough, though.)

On another note, Edward L. Posey’s The US Army’s First, Last, and Only All Black Rangers just came out. Casemate (our distributor) is mailing out review copies (lots of them) to the media. I, the lucky intern, was given the job of making an excel chart to keep track of which media requested a review copy of the book, their shipping address, etc.

Sure, I expected the Sac Bee to be on the list. Maybe a couple of local radio stations. But I did not at all expect to see The Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Oprah Winfrey Show on the list of reviewers. A publisher with an editorial office in a small town gets requests from the big guys. (And the Washington Times just gave the book a glowing double-thumbs up here!)

What’s interesting:

• Savas Beatie will soon be announcing it Savas Beatie Speaker’s Bureau. Many of our authors routinely speak (many for free, some for a fee) about topics related to their books (For example, Nick Popaditch and Gary Moore, who wrote Once a Marine and Playing with the Enemy, respectively, speak around the country for a fee, lodging, etc. ). Since we have so many eloquent authors (according to Sarah) and will be more aggressive than any speakers’ bureau, it would be better if we managed the speaking gigs in-house.

Ted was telling me that one of our authors, Mollie Gross (Confessions of a Military Wife), is a stand-up comedian. I have heard that her book is hysterically funny. I think I’ll see if I can take a peek at her manuscript. Maybe while looking through it I’ll pick up some jokes that I can use to spice up next week’s blogs . . .