Are you in a Book Club?
Does your Book Club sometimes turn into a discussion of your latest purchases from QVC, HSN or ShopHQ? Perhaps you have wondered what it would be like to be a show host or a producer? What it is like to work with those celebrity guests? Why is the show totally live? Who are the best guests to work with? The most challenging? Perhaps you’ve never purchased from a shopping channel, but just find it a totally foreign world. Here’s your chance to learn about a unique, totally American subculture!
I’m happy to visit Book Clubs for discussion on my novel SHOPLANDIA. If you live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and my schedule permits, I could visit your Book Club in person. If you are located somewhere else in the world, I am technically savvy (after all, I’m a former television producer) and could visit your Book Club via video chat; using either Skype, Google Hangout or Facebook Video Chat.
Obviously, SHOPLANDIA is a novel and therefore a work of fiction. My goal was to capture the spirit of a live television studio and the camaraderie the hosts, producers and crew feel in working to to produce a home shopping show. In addition to writing SHOPLANDIA, I am also the founder of the West Chester Story Slam, where over the past five years I’ve told many stories about my adventures as a television producer.
Here’s more about my pre-writing career:
For seventeen years, I worked to keep the peace in the studios of QVC, the world’s largest televised shopping network. As a Line Producer, Managing Producer and the Director of Live Production, I developed creative ideas to grow viewership and increase sales, while collaborating with vendors, celebrity guests, and the incredible broadcast crew. Over the years, I’ve produced many shows of which I was proud and a few that were utter disasters. I was known for creative ideas and QVC viewers often responded; having described me as both a “marketing genius” and a “mental midget” on the company’s bulletin boards (in separate posts, of course). I’ve produced live shows from such varied places as the 2007 Presidential Inaugural Ball, the Atlanta Olympics, NYC’s The Plaza Hotel, and the Precious Moments Park/Chapel in Carthage, Missouri.
Please email me at jimbreslinwc @ gmail.com if you have questions about reading SHOPLANDIA for your book club and possibly arranging for me to visit in person or through your computer screen. Thanks!
Jim Breslin 