The Power of Bigmouth Marketing: M. Glenn Taylor's "The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart"

This will likely be a rambling, digressive post, but plus ca change, plus c'est la meme Book Maven, after all. I promised earlier today on Twitter that I'd tell the story of how I came to know Glenn Taylor, the incredibly talented debut novelist whose "Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart" (West Virginia University Press) was one of the finalists last night for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Fiction category. I do promise it's a story worth reading. 

My tale begins with the term "bigmouth:" for those of you not in publishing and/or PR/marcomm, a "bigmouth list" is a collection of people to whom you want to send a book not necessarily for review or coverage, but because they have "big mouths." In other words, they are mavens, connectors, talkers, enthusiasts -- the kind of people who will chat up your book/author and tell others why they might love to read Novel X or Screed Y. I am on several "bigmouth lists;" what a surprise... I consider it a great privilege to know that publicists, editors, and authors consider my big mouth an asset from time to time.

However, not every publisher can send out that many books, and not every publicist has the same bigmouth list. That's when serendipity and love takes over. Read on and bear with me...

Every summer I spend some time at a family place on Cape Cod. Our next-door neighbors there are a retired Episcopal priest and his wife who are dear family friends (and he is a former rector of Mr. Bethanne's and mine, the man who baptized our younger Mini Maven; in other words, they're quite special to us). While we're up there our time is limited (coffee, kayak, beach, cocktails, Seafood Sam's; beach with dogs, nightcap outside, bed; lather, rinse, repeat), and so is theirs, but we always make time to spend part of a day together.

Last August, we joined our neighbors for wine and cheese in their lovely garden, and Mrs. Neighbor said: "Bethanne, I know your blog for Publishers Weekly (NB: I still did at that time). Would you possibly perhaps maybe only-if-you-really-want-to take a look at a book for me?"

As every book blogger, critic, and writer knows, those words are normally the kiss of death. How many horrid memoirs, bad thrillers, and bodice-rippers have family/friends foisted off on us in the name of "I'd love to get your professional opinion!" over the years? Mrs. Neighbor knows this, and she is far too refined to ever press anything on anyone if it doesn't have merit. I knew the book must have some.

As Mr. Reverend Neighbor explained, the author of said book had been a member of a youth group he'd run during a stint at a Huntington, WVA parish. He thought that the former lad was quite likely and that I would enjoy the book. They handed the novel over: The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor. I promised to read it.

I let the book languish for a bit while I worked my way through the stack I'd already brought along on our vacation, but when I did pick it up, I was blown away and knew I'd found something special. I blogged about it being On My Nightstand in that former Publishers Weekly blog (which has morphed into this one!), and hoped that Glenn Taylor would be a tiny bit tickled to see the mention. Nothing more.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Comments

[Affiliate Marketing Network]

Good blog... thanks very much!!!

[Online pharmacy]

I do promise it's a story worth reading. thanks

[Online pharmacy]

Good blog.