Meet Kathryn Tumen, one of five publicity assistants for Berkley and New American Library.

Tell us something about yourself and your publishing house

While I assist one of three associate directors of publicity at Berkley/NAL, I am the publicist for most mass market romances and a slew of the trade paperback romances that Berkley and NAL produce each month. Both of these imprints produce mass markets as well as trade paperbacks for The Penguin Group, which operates out of our New York offices and is owned by the international media company Pearson. The imprints I am responsible for include Signet Eclipse, Berkley Sensation, and Berkley and NAL Heat.

What exactly does an in-house publicist do?

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My mystery novel, EYE OF NEWT stars a “reluctant witch.” The book goes back and forth between the present and 1692 Salem: “Practical Magic meets The Crucible.”

I then decided to write a crime fiction story starring a vampire. Having never met one face-to-face, I knew I had some intense research to do, and somehow I didn’t think Google would fly. So I looked up Vampires in the Yellow Pages. It took 3 phone calls, after midnight, but I finally found one who was willing to talk to me.

Deni: Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me, Mr…what do I call you?

Vampire: Rice. My name is Rice.

Deni: Like, Anne Rice?

Vampire: Never heard of her. My name is Rex Rice, but most people just call me Rice.

Deni: Okay, um, Rice. Thanks again. I really do appreciate it.

Vampire: You’re velcome. I’m glad you’re a redhead. I love the color red. Read more…

The Olympics ended last night, and my ring withdrawal is already painful.

Two-plus weeks of great stories, live (sometimes) and in color right there in your living room. Michael Phelps? Absolutely. Screaming and yelling at Jason Lezak’s comeback in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay? You bet. And gymnastics and diving and volleyball (beach and traditional.) Also water polo and kayaking and BMX and everything else I could find.

Sure, I cheered for U.S. athletes, and sang the anthem whenever it played (despite that being one of the hardest versions to sing to ever.) I also cheered the open water swimmer from the Netherlands who won gold after recovering from leukemia, the Canadian equestrian who won gold after battling back from substance abuse (then pointed to his horse as the true winner), the Australian pole-vaulter who’d almost quit the sport. I applauded the South African swimmer who after having much of her leg amputated after a car hit her not only made her Olympic team, but carried her nation’s flag. And for unknown reasons I became attached to the Croatian men’s handball team. (Though once they lost in the semifinals I pulled hard for Iceland, which took the silver.) Admit it, you’re going to miss them, too. Read more…

The Ninc Legal Fund was conceived and implemented by my predecessor as Ninc president, Pat McLaughlin.

Say, for example, you’re a professional novelist who wakes up one day to discover four emails in your inbox from readers all saying, “I just bought a new novel, called A Breathtaking Work of Artistry, by Vituperative Author… and as soon as I started reading it, I happened to notice that it’s virtually identical to your 2004 novel, The Only Tale. In fact, the book is so similar that whole scenes seem to be identical, almost line for line… Do you know about this?”

So you go to your local bookstore, buy a copy of Vituperative Author’s novel, and you start reading it. After a couple of chapters, you feel sick to your stomach… because you wrote much of this novel which has Vituperative’s name all over it, and for which Vituperative is taking credit and getting paid. You strongly suspect that Vituperative “wrote” this novel by keeping a copy of your work propped open on his keyboard and typing whole sections of your book into a manuscript that he then put his name on.

This is plagiarism. And it’s not a little thing. It’s a HUGE thing. This is theft—of your livelihood, of the means by which you earn your living, of your intellectual property, of your unique creation, of your work. This is morally wrong and legally actionable.

So what the hell do you do now? Read more…