WHY AIR “THE AUTHOR’S CORNER” SHOW? STAY TUNED.*
“When I think about how I understand my role as citizen… the most important stuff I’ve learned… [is] from novels.” —President Barack Obama**
Welcome…. How is literature celebrated on “The Author’s Corner”?
By authors reading brief dramatic passages from new books. Sample engaging readings on our FAVES page. This free daily mini-show is 100 seconds (1:40) long, designed (for example) to air at the top of the hour in your two-minute window, with time left for an ID. Join stations from New York to Texas to Alaska carrying TAC by zip-downloading readings via our orange DOWNLOAD link above.
How may we use “The Author’s Corner”?
It’s a free weekday module series that stations: 1) may air multiple times a day, and/or 2) post as an audio feature on a station’s web site (then merely grab our online author-photo and use our book blurb).
* Why-in-the-world AIR this 100-second show?
Few shows can be called without hyperbole: authentic, contemporary, literary, and eclectic. In fact, The Author’s Corner is likely the only such nationally-distributed daily program. Reading is the #1 leisure activity of public radio listeners, so keeping them abreast of books feeds their habit. TAC is insightful and contributes to a more informed citizenry for our democracy; authors are authors because they go beyond the ordinary and have something to tell us.
When you delight listeners with their anticipation of fresh-daily compelling readings, you also might give them their next “great read”—surely helping to seal station loyalty. Most airing stations air more than once daily.
Cited are listeners’ lifestyle and station loyalty as good reasons for airing TAC, any others?
- Audience-building. How to keep your air-sound fresh?, is one question stations pursue. TAC helps with such a variety of voices and topics! Over a year’s airing, TAC introduces listeners to 100+ books they might not otherwise encounter. Listening to TAC is habit forming.
- TAC is web-ready, an easy addition to a station’s web site: just grab our site’s author-photo and blurb, and post them with our audio, high-quality mp3’s.
- Your regional authors are welcome as part of TAC nationally (by merely emailing us the author’s contact info, we’ll take it from there).
- Another benefit: TAC likely fits well with your programming mission’s dedication to the cultural arts.
What is TAC’s content?
TAC’s covers fiction and non-fiction, and we’re happy to present 50% women authors by design. It’s effectively “family radio” — with no overt violence, no body parts, and no bad words (none or bleeped). Past voices on the show include Jimmy Carter, Amy Poehler, Nigel Hamilton, Amy Talkington, Jill Bialosky, and Peter Cherches, with many debut writers as well, of nearly 400 authors to date. In 2014, TAC featured 10 Pulitzer-winners and was the second most-licensed new public radio show. You may zip-download — free — scores of readings to delight and inform your listeners using the above orange DOWNLOAD link.
Our new website with bolder images has two readings per book now — for two tastes of new books, adding dimension to an author’s creation. The two passages per book are distinct — *not* linked (that is, not meant as part A and B) but, rather, stand alone as separate slices of a book’s life. However, it’s recommended the two readings air on consecutive days…. We invite you to give your listeners “many voices, many views, changing daily.” Start airing our free show anytime, please let us know.
A note to authors and publicists
We welcome comments from listeners, and inquiries from radio stations and from publicists and authors. Have new favorite books, fiction or non-fiction, to recommend to us? We distribute for broadcast only the most compelling passages authentically read from new books (past year). Sorry, we do not cover self-published books, by policy. We also generally skip the children’s and self-help categories. We hope you’ll contact us soon.
1-484-250-6550
producers@authorscorner.org OR ecoessays@aol.com
The Author’s Corner Team… lives for books….
East Coast-based Peter Johnson, a past producer at WGBH, Boston, formerly in radio program director and music director roles, is also the creator/producer of two previous nationwide radio series. He has a liberal arts background (Williams College) with masters degrees in business and communications.
West Coast-based Steven Carlson is a veteran on-air personality, program manager, and executive at media outlets nationwide, including top posts with Minnesota Public Radio, the Classical Public Radio Network in Los Angeles, and InstantEncore.com (founding member). He is active in broadcast and other media consulting.
Susan Weinstein has been publicizing books for more than a decade for major houses and university presses. Susan also has published two novels, her plays have been produced off-Broadway, and she’s written drama reviews for national outlets. Her book review blog is: www.notanotherbookreview.blogspot.com
** The New York Review of Books, 11/19/15, page 6.