Pitching books and their authors to business and news programs has been a daunting task lately, given the ongoing coverage of "America at War" and the Enron/Arthur Andersen
debacle. And pitching a book on innovation and how to bring a great new product to market at a time when most people are focused on keeping existing products afloat is even more
difficult.
But Elizabeth Bacher, a publicist with Dearborn Trade press, managed to get great coverage in the wake of Sept. 11 with just such a book. Steven Strauss, the author of The Big
Idea: How Business Innovators Get Great Ideas to Market, is an expert on product success stories like Viagra, Velcro, cell phones, Post-It Notes, Liquid Paper and Barbie.
After Sept. 11, however, pitching Strauss's interest in business innovation wasn't enough to get coverage. Bacher switched gears, pitching stories on how innovation comes out
of times of war. Strauss had already covered the topic in his book through WWII innovations like Silly Putty, microwave ovens and Teflon. Now he began appearing on a variety of
programs to discuss how wartime spurs innovation and helps bring much-needed products to market. He covered everything from home anthrax kits to parachutes for executives in tall
buildings in appearances including one on Bloomberg TV and one on CNNfn.
(Bacher: [email protected])