Book publicity & author branding
Book publicity & author branding
From publicizing “this season’s publishing blockbuster” (WSJ) The Complete Works of Primo Levi (Norton), to launching a headline making, publishing company backed by investor Peter Thiel, BMM Worldwide has brought about some of the most acclaimed literary events of the century. Partners Suzanne and Elliot Balaban have worked with authors like Stephen King (Lisey’s Story), Jeannette Walls (The Glass Castle). Yoram Hazony (The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture), and Diamond & Silk (Uprising). The New York firm’s unique approach to literary promotion where publicity and branding work together under one roof makes it a valuable resource for premier authors, literary agents, and publishers.
As VP, publicity at Scribner, Suzanne Balaban set the record for most concurrent New York Times Best Sellers in Simon & Schuster history. This included breaking out Jeannette Walls and The Glass Castle, launching Lisey’s Story and rebranding Stephen King, looking after Pulitzer Prize winner Frank McCourt, and putting together An Evening With Harry, Carrie & Garp at Radio City Music Hall - J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and John Irving reading from their works.
As Director, Advanced Development at NBC, Elliot Balaban championed the network’s digital strategy, evaluated digital investments, did diligence on NBC’s partnership with Microsoft to launch MSNBC, and executive produced the premier of NBC.com.
Backed by Thiel, in 2013 BMM Worldwide launched emBooks as a brand development vehicle for then Daily Mail star columnist, Melanie Phillips. Curated and edited by Phillips, emBooks published long form, magazine article-length ebooks including political humor bestseller, Islamophilia by Douglas Murray. Among its marquee authors were Academy Award and BAFTA winning screenplay writer, Frederic Raphael, Telegraph science journalist, James Le Fanu, and Phillips herself.
In 2016, BMM Worldwide worked with Norton executive editor Robert Weil to provide publicity for The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein. The Wall Street Journal pronounced it: “this season's publishing blockbuster".
In 2018, BMM Worldwide worked with Weil again to launch POGROM by Steven J. Zipperstein, which included producing “Fake News, Fake History, Fake Jews,” a live event at Cooper Union, moderated by New York Times writer and editorial page editor Bari Weiss, featuring Zipperstein and NY Times deputy Washington editor, Jonathan Weismann in conversation about antisemitism then and now. Billed as “an impromptu gathering of the concerned”, it proved prescient. Six months later, Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood and killed 11 Jewish worshippers.
In 2020, BMM Worldwide worked with live-stream, political entertainers, Diamond and Silk, to agent and publicize their National Bestselling memoir, UPRISING, the against-all-odds story of two, high school-educated, virtually invisible, black sisters from North Carolina who rose to become the spark and emblem of one of the most consequential political revolutions in American history.
In 2023, BMM Worldwide publicized In Sickness, the Boston Globe banner headline making, scandalous memoir of Harvard Medical School professor and cancer research leader, Barrett Rollins who conspired with his wife and fellow Harvard cancer professor, Jane Weeks, to cover-up her metastatic breast cancer until it was too late to save her.