Stephen Fry Visits NYC

British comedian, actor, playwright, and author Stephen Fry graced New York City and the Overlook Press office with his warm and magnetic presence last Tuesday, January 24. We invited Fry to the States to promote his newest autobiography, THE FRY CHRONICLES, a witty and brutally honest stunner that we’ve praised here before. Yet the novelty of having the real life Jeeves from the comic series Jeeves and Wooster was not lost on this P. G. Wodehouse-loving lot. (Did we mention our office is on Wooster Street? Fry was destined to become an Overlooker!).

Despite a morning and afternoon of back-to-back radio and TV interviews, Fry took great delight in spending the evening with a packed house at Barnes and Noble, TriBeCa. The applause of three hundred people filled the normally hushed bookstore as the audience greeted him with cheers and a standing ovation.

Prior to a two-hour meet and greet in which Fry signed books, photos, an iPad, and graciously posed for a portrait, he charmed the audience by recalling numerous childhood anecdotes, gushing over his literary idol, Oscar Wilde, and offering more sage wisdom and uproarious laughs than could be contained to this limited space.

Fry revealed that his love of language and literature began at the tender age of 10. While watching a black and white rendition of The Importance of Being Earnest, he became enamored by the way in which language could be manipulated into something graceful and moving. So passionate was he to discover this playwright that he biked 12 miles each way to the nearest library. It was at that library that Fry encountered his idol whom he later portrayed in the acclaimed Wilde--and so began his destiny as a linguistic master.

To say that Fry writes the way he speaks and speaks the way he writes is a compliment of the highest order. With jaunty prose, striking intellect, and an endearing verbosity, he reveals himself through his speech and written word to be the most genuine of gentleman, holding nothing—not even his insecurities—from the public eye.

During the evening, we were able to capture a few choice moments representative of the contagious laughter, sincerity, and brilliance that permeated the room. In these clips, Stephen Fry speaks about his transition from theater to comedy during his time at Cambridge, his discovery of Oscar Wilde and passion for writing, and the importance of intelligence and moral qualities. We hope you enjoy as much as we did. Cheers!

A Night of Events: THE FRY CHRONICLES, A QUIET VENDETTA & A KILLER’S ESSENCE

Tomorrow night brings two out-of-town Overlook authors, as well as one northeastern native to bookstores across New York for an evening of readings, signings, and lively discussion. Award-winning English novelist R.J. Ellory, author of A Quiet Vendetta will be joined by A Killer’s Essence author Dave Zeltserman to promote their latest crime thrillers at Brooklyn’s BookCourt, while English comedian, actor, and autobiographer Stephen Fry will host a reading of his latest memoir, The Fry Chronicles at Barnes & Noble, Tribeca.

Heralded as one of the top practitioners of dark crime fiction writing today, Dave Zeltserman is the author of nine novels, including his most recent NYC-focused thriller, A Killer’s Essence. Shots ring out just a few feet from a Manhattan mystery bookstore. A woman is shot point blank, and her fingers severed. A prominent financier is found in a dumpster on the Upper West Side, again shot in the face. Underneath the BQE, a pack of dogs are fed poison and then shot execution-style. For NYPD detective Stan Green, these grisly murders can only be the act of one man—someone seriously deranged and seriously committed to a calculated, homicidal plan.

“Zeltserman’s lean but muscular style, so evident in ‘Killer’ and ‘The Caretaker of Lorne Field,’ is just as sharply honed here.” The Boston Globe

“A Killer’s Essence is a five-star psychological crime thriller liberally seasoned with Chef Zeltserman’s zesty secret sauce of subtle horror, jalapeno-hot sauce and intense intrigue, and has more twists that newfangled light bulbs. Stephen King fans will find the Hitchcock-like suspense and soft-core horror to be a spine-tingling thriller. It is one of my Top Ten Picks for 2011.” – The Big Thrill

Imagined by one of today’s premier thriller writers, R.J. Ellory’s A Quiet Vendetta begins with a seemingly straightforward crime: the New Orleans kidnapping of Catherine Ducane, the daughter of Louisiana’s governor. The cops react quickly, expecting the usual demand of a ransom for Catherine’s recovery, but the twisted, menacing nature of the case begins to grow clear when the mutilated remains of Catherine’s bodyguard are discovered.

“An engrossing tale about organized crime from the perspective of a kidnapper whose agenda will keep you guessing until the end.” – Entertainment Weekly

“An absorbing crime novel from Ellory (A Simple Act of Violence) covering more than 50 years of mob violence and American history . . .this is a brilliantly conceived tale of greed, politics, family loyalties, and vengeance.” – Publishers Weekly

Beloved actor, comedian, and writer Stephen Fry continues his life story in The Fry Chronicles, a brave, funny, and revealing coming of age memoir. Fry is best known for his comedic television roles, often played alongside his best friend and Cambridge classmate Hugh Laurie: the pair joined forces in the sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and later played P.G. Wodehouse’s legendary duo in the 1990s series Jeeves and Wooster. In vibrant, starkly honest prose, this memoir tells the story of Fry’s inspiring transformation from troubled teenager to adored entertainer, tireless activist, and genuinely contented individual.

“Funny, poignant, exhausting.” – The Washington Post

"Honesty can be painful to read, but Fry is cheeky and thoughtful in equal measures, making this a must for his legion of fans.” —Publishers Weekly

We’ll be posting photos and videos from both events later in the week, so if you can’t make it to either reading, be sure to return here for a full recap. For thrill-seeking readers located outside of New York, R.J. Ellory will be taking A QUIET VENDETTA on the road this week to the following bookstores:

Wednesday, January 25^th

Park Road Books (Charlotte, NC)

7:00 PM

Thursday, January 26^th

Murder by the Book (Houston, TX)

6:30 PM

Friday, January 27^th

BookPeople (Austin, TX)

7:00 PM

Saturday, January 28^th

The Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale, AZ)

5:00 PM

The Fine Art of Setting Up Book Signings

There’s an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal from Joanne Kaufman—Authors: Where Do I Sign? It talks about the delicate balancing game publishers face when setting up author signings, and it’s definitely something that we deal with on an everyday basis here at Overlook. While we recommend reading it in full, here are a few excerpts, with our thoughts.

"Which authors get to sign at which New York locations is a tricky gavotte involving publishers, chain bookstores and other venues. In fact, independent bookstores or locales like the 92nd Street Y are sometimes more appropriate perches."

As an independent publisher, we particularly like working with independent bookstores. Their specialties and dedicated staffs are always a joy, and the unique personality of each bookstore can work really well with many of our authors.

However, working with Barnes & Noble and Borders is a crucial part of our jobs. Getting to know the big locations of their stores, particularly in Manhattan, is one of the first things every publicist learns to do. Their staff works extremely hard to accommodate our preferences and needs (and will also sell books off-site at events, which means those sales will be reported to best-seller lists—huge bonus!) and it’s an efficient and friendly business model.

“It's not that certain branches confer more bragging rights than others, according to literary agent Laurence Kirschbaum. It's just that certain branches are simply better for certain types of books. "There are definitely uptown authors and subjects and downtown authors and subjects," he said. "A lot of it has to do with where a writer has most of his posse. Thus, you're not going to put the latest Tea Party author at the B&N at 82nd and Broadway," Mr. Kirschbaum continued, alluding to the store in the heart of the famously liberal Upper West Side.

This rings particularly true to us. Even a chain store will have its own personality, whether it’s in terms of size, accessories (the Lincoln Triangle B&N has a piano and excellent video equipment), or the surrounding neighborhood. An author who’s a West Village or Upper East Side resident or native will often get the best response there.

“Whatever the location, "the key thing is the network the author can call on to show up," said Mr. Kirschbaum. Indeed, Ms. Gottlieb's publisher asked about the size of her mailing list and the number of people she thought she could recruit for her event. "And they had to provide that to Borders to justify why they should have me there," said the author, who ended up with a respectable crowd of 100.”

Interesting anecdotes: that sports books often get the lunch slot at the Wall Street borders, and that it’s no coincidence celebrity books are usually at the biggest B&N, in Union Square—there’s capacity for over 1,000 people.

Anyways, whether you’re an aspiring author, a harried publicist, or a reader who enjoys meeting and greeting authors, this article delves into an important part of book marketing and publicity that isn’t often exposed to the public. (Interested in book publicity in general? We enjoy Book Flack at Large and the Book Publicity Blog).

And as an aside, we’ve dealt with this recently—author David Carnoy will be reading, discussing and signing from KNIFE MUSIC on Thursday night at 7:30 at the Lincoln Triangle B&N. Want more info on David? Go here. Hope to see you there!