I wrote last month about how I’ve now shifted gears into promotion mode. All the questions and anxieties about reporting and writing have mostly left my brain. Now it’s just about getting the book in your hands.
This means looking for every little opportunity to advertise the relevance of my book, mostly through pitching op-eds/excerpts and planning events. My beefiest excerpt so far went live late last month.
It’s in The Assembly, a great, new long-form digital publication based in the Triangle, and it’s about the rise and fall of Holden Thorp, the UNC chancellor who inherited the academic-fraud scandal.
This excerpt is essentially my Chapter 6 — just stripped down to the essentials. Having this cut down to magazine length was an interesting challenge, as the piece lost some of my cutaway sections that I think helped the pacing. But I think this excerpt stands up.
Getting Holden’s on-the-record participation in my book was a big step in my reporting process. One of my biggest anxieties early on was that not enough people would agree to be interviewed, and I would be left with a pure shortage of material. Having Holden walk me through his chancellorship, beat by beat, was a huge help — and you can see the results in the excerpt.
3 New Events
I’ve scheduled three new book talks since I last wrote to you, including a virtual event geared toward newsletter subscribers. I hope you’ll tune in. Here’s the full slate of four events in chronological order:
Monday, August 30 at 7 pm: Quail Ridge Books, in Raleigh. This event will be moderated by John Drescher, former editor at the Washington Post and the News and Observer. He’s a contributing editor at The Assembly, which will be sponsoring this event. Very excited to kick off my promotional tour with this one.
Tuesday, August 31 at 7 pm: A virtual event catered to you, the subscribers to this newsletter! More details to come, but I wanted to give all of you the opportunity to sit in on one of these remotely, and I wanted the chance to do an event that was a little less about the subject matter, and included more about the process.
Wednesday, September 1 at 7 pm: Park Road Books, in Charlotte. Since telling you about this one in my last edition, I’ve found a moderator who I’m thrilled about: Pam Kelley, subscriber to this newsletter (!) and author of the fantastic Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South. I’m in the middle of reading this book and can’t recommend it enough. I am beyond thrilled that Pam will be moderating this discussion.
Tuesday, October 19 at 6 pm: Flyleaf Books, in Chapel Hill. This was a must-have event for me, as Flyleaf is probably the most prominent bookstore in Chapel Hill. This one will be moderated by Praveena Somasundaram, editor-in-chief of the Daily Tar Heel.
Of course, it’s always possible that Covid could change the situation, but this is the plan. As you can see, if you’re in North Carolina you’ll have plenty of chances to see me in-person! (I’m trying to schedule a book talk here in D.C. but have had no luck so far.)
That’s all for now. Let me know what you think of the excerpts if you’ve been reading, and thanks to everyone who emailed me last month with promotional suggestions. I really appreciate it, and keep ‘em coming if you have ideas.
Coming next week: A new interview and some details about preorders.
— Andy
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