The Joys of a Media Tour

There are many joys of being on a media tour -- one of which is the opportunity to meet fascinating people.

Such was the case last Wednesday at the annual National Press Club Book Fair.

I was there, along with 80 other invited authors, to sign copies of POP! It was a delightful enveing kibbitzing with familiar faces and fresh faces.

A familiar face was Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings and Sex with Queens, who I met a couple years ago while speaking at Bella Stander's Promotion 101 for Authors Workshop.

Eleanor definitely knows how to POP! She shows up for media interviews and book-signings wearing a lavish ballgown with an ermine cape and royal jewels. There is no way this woman is going to get lost in a crowd. She definitely stands out and her books' visibility and sales have benefitted as a result.

I confess, I played hookie from my table for a few minutes to meet female icon and national treasure - Helen Thomas.

In case you're not already familiar with this pioneering journalist, she became UPI's White House Correspondent in 1960 and was the "lady in red" who Presidents often called upon first when opening up press conferences for Q & A. Reviews on Amazon.com of her newest book Watchdogs of Democracy refer to her as the "venerable grand dame of the White House press corps" and an "uncorruptable member of the fourth estate." She is a walking-talking history book of the last five decades of our nation's major events because she had a front row seat at many of them.

I had an opportunity to ask Helen how she developed the courage to go where no woman had gone before. She said, "I always wanted to be in the forefront and my parents never told me it was impossible."

Are you at the forefront of your industry?

If you want to lead the pack instead of follow it (as Helen did), check out Chapter 9, Create the Next New Thing with the Half and Half Technique, in POP! It shares specific ways to forge a new path instead of following paths already taken by others.