Dec. 15/16 with Dr. David Jacobs

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-16-2006 11:43 PM

I'm relistening now- who heard the guest for the full 2 hours he was on? Fun guy - humorously self-deprecating, scary subject matter.

I may have to transcribe the exchanges when George is offering to help him out in the "book publishing business". Highlight may be when they were discussing how grueling book tours are.

Teresius & Silent Blue would've been doing some major spit takes during that bit.

Plainsman · Post by **Plainsman** » 12-17-2006 12:11 AM

I noticed on the C2C website George was having a booksiging in a coffee shop. Not exactly the major leagues, is it? Pretty soon they'll be selling these things as doorstops.

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 12:53 AM

Plainsman wrote: I noticed on the C2C website George was having a booksiging in a coffee shop. Not exactly the major leagues, is it?

Depends on who you ask, I guess.

Noory & Jacobs talking about books/publishing - I may post more hilarity tomorrow, but Noory is chatting confidently with Jacobs as one big-time fellow author to another - actually trying to "help Jacobs out" in his own sweet way. (Jacobs had already stated he's looking for a major publisher - two of his four books were on Simon & Schuster.)

GN: ... an lemme tell ya, book tours are grinding, aren't they?

DJ: Well, if they go well they are.

GN: Yeah! Ha ha ha! (confidently) So true!

DJ: If you go on a tour and you're going back home in two days, then you didn't quite get that 'grind feel' !!

GN: Yeah! Ha ha.... (begins to deflate) ... Exactly..... look, back to "The Threat", David -

Plainsman · Post by **Plainsman** » 12-17-2006 01:39 AM

Yeah, George's book tours are his hometown (Detroit), his 2nd hometown (St. Louis) and a few spots on the west coast. All spaced out with about a month between spots. Not exactly 20 cities in 10 days, or something. I'm still shocked he's got two more books in the works. Some publishers must have money to burn.

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 11:41 AM

Plainsman wrote: Yeah, George's book tours are his hometown (Detroit), his 2nd hometown (St. Louis) and a few spots on the west coast. All spaced out with about a month between spots. Not exactly 20 cities in 10 days, or something.

(chuckle). Yeah, bless his heart... I consider a "tour" to be at least 3 or 4 days in a row. Like Dr. Jacobs said, if you don't make it past 2 days, it's hardly a grind.

George reminds me for all the world of niave young musical acts just starting out, who are so excited about getting exposure outside their hometowns that they consider driving from Skokie, Illinois to Chicago a "tour". Even though they're playing in a Mexican restaurant to 5 people. You kind of get embarrassed for them.

George didn't seem to pick up on his guest's understated, wry allusion to having promoted his books on t.v. enough that he can't really remember which shows he did when and where, and that none of them were any big whoop. But I have to admit it's kind of "cute" that he's so excited about his level of participation of promotion in the book sales. We used to call guys like him "full of puppy goodness". People brimming with niave enthusiasm.

To me, the goofy thing about these book signings of his is that they seem kind of pointless in the "increasing book sales" arena. Joanie or some of the other authors/book industry types here, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason writers do these annoying little junkets is to get exposure that they can't get anywhere else. Noory has a nightly venue of 10 Million (allegedly) captive listeners to which he advertises on a nightly basis. If he can't sell his books there - to people who are already fans - what makes him think going to Paducah, Kentucky is going to put him on the NYT bestseller list?

Reports say he's been averaging about 200-300 people at any given signing -- which would be a fantastic number for an relatively unknown author -- but seriously, when you consider the money he's spent on plane tickets & hotels to fly to Seattle for one night, I don't think he could break even selling just a couple hundred books.

And furthermore, the vast majority of people who show up are already fans, were going to buy his book anyway, and just wanted to meet the "celebrity author" in person. It's not like he's generating a ton of interest to people who'd never heard of him before.

What he should do is call these sporadic appearances what they are, "book signings" and "meet & greets". They're not tours. George doesn't seem to have done any kind of serious travel in his life - I think he'd have a nervous breakdown if he had to do what a lot of authors have to - driving around the country with a trunkload of books, staying in a different town every night for two weeks running, and reading out loud to 15 people in a Border's bookstore once a day.

And shoot - he even has the luxury of promoting the book signings to a vast audience every night- and even then only gets a couple hundred people to show up. Most authors are lucky to get a paragraph in the local newspaper announcing their book signings.

One more thing on this, then I might move on to harp on something else

-- a couple weeks ago he mentioned how he has a lot of vacation time due to him, but he didn't want to take it. Why doesn't he use that time to do a proper "book tour" where he can spend a week on the road?

I mean, I understand that he can't do a real book tour with his normal work schedule, but since this book is, in his own words, "his business", why the hell doesn't he take that vacation time he wasn't going to use anyway, get his ass on the road, and promote "his business"?

Oh well, he seems to be genuinely enjoying playing at being an author. Can't wait to read that new "Alien Cookbook" of his - and the sci fi novel about time travel he is "co-writing".

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-17-2006 12:02 PM

Dixie has usual you crack me up, now off to work.

Plainsman · Post by **Plainsman** » 12-17-2006 02:38 PM

George almost never takes a vacation. He is usally off right after the ratings period, when it's almost required for the main hosts to be off the air. It's hard to believe his employer allows him to save up all of his vacation time year after year after year after year. Moet companies don't allow this.

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 03:04 PM

Plainsman wrote: It's hard to believe his employer allows him to save up all of his vacation time year after year after year after year. Moet companies don't allow this.

Well heck, what do you expect from a fine Champagne? (grinning & ducking) :p

Potentially libelous disclaimer: Anywhere that I'm stating something about George please insert "it seems like" before hand. All "statements" below are actually nothing more than ponderings based on what GN has said in the past.

But yeah - I don't get him & his whole vacation thing- I .... man... that guy just makes me wonder. It seems like he has a few comfort zones that he just flat doesn't like to get out of, which is messed up for someone hosting a show that's about investigating the topics it does. When he goes home to St. Louis it seems like he just wants to hang out at the family fold - doesn't want to go *do* anything with them. Ian cracked me up when he busted his chops the other night - George said he wanted to see the "007 movie", and Ian said, "Oh Casino Royale is great! Ya gotta go!" George said he would when he got back to LA.

Ian told him he could go in St. Louis & take his kids, then asked, "How old are your kids?" When George said his daughter was 35, Ian cracked up and said he was pretty sure "Casino Royale" was PG-35.

To me it seemed like Ian was kinda gently poking fun at George's sort of homespun stodginess. But that's the thing about George - the split personality of the guy- (and I don't mean this as a good attribute, either, although George would probably think it is.) He loves the "being a celebrity" thing, and talkin' like a big wheel, acting like he's opening doors & pulling some strings for people. But then he goes out of his way to convince the audience he's just a "regular family guy who leads a quiet life".

He doesn't really go anywhere or do anything unless he absolutely has to, though. I don't know if he's agoraphobic or just scared or what, but the guy has no sense of adventure at all.

Whenever Ian has guests on (and he ALWAYS did this in the old days, too, back when he was on a lot more) - he'd often be so captivated with the adventures of his guests that he'd invite himself along to their next adventure. And he was serious, too. I mean, Ian's going to take a road trip with Red Elk if Red Elk ever gets his act together!! I don't know if it happened or not, but awhile back I heard Ian was planning a lecture tour overseas just as an excuse for him & his family to visit all the Da Vinci Code sites. Ian likes to experience life.

George doesn't even like to read about it, for cripes sake. The vast majority of his knowledge of anything is based on a tiny list of movies he's seen (and didn't fully understand) and Twilight Zone episodes. And whatever he can recall from Catechism.

He did that past life regression thing once, after much prodding, and said he'd never do it again. His ghost hunting experience has been walking in graveyards and having been in a haunted house once. He was supposed to go to that ranch up north where they see the UFOs all the time, but has conveniently blown that off so that everyone's forgotten he said he would do it. Any travel he's done in his life (that I can recall him speaking about) was merely to get from point A to point B either for a job, or to visit family somewhere. He's always saying "I'd love to do this" or "I'd love to go therre one day", yet he blows off all his vacation time to be at work....

WTF?? I just don't "get" him. He's like frickin' Rainman.

Shirleypal · Post by **Shirleypal** » 12-17-2006 03:31 PM

If he took a week or two vacation and had fill in hosts that would make him look really bad now wouldn't it.

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 03:38 PM

Shirleypal wrote: If he took a week or two vacation and had fill in hosts that would make him look really bad now wouldn't it.

Naaaaaaaahhhhh! It would be smart for him to take a couple weeks off, then everyone would know how good they had it when he was on the air! Heck, they might even extend his contract until whatever year it is Dexter Monterey is supposed to take over.

!!!

Divinorumus · Post by **Divinorumus** » 12-17-2006 03:46 PM

George almost never takes a vacation.

When you are doing what you love to do, it IS like you are ALWAYS on vacation. In fact, a regular vacation away from what you love to do can sometimes feel like torture - ha, really.

cherry · Post by **cherry** » 12-17-2006 04:05 PM

Plainsman wrote: I noticed on the C2C website George was having a booksiging in a coffee shop.

Do I recall Claire de Lune Coffee Shop?

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 04:10 PM

Man, am I on a roll today or what? Thank God for Thorazine.

I'm too lazy to transcribe all the stuff I'd like to from the David Jacobs show, but here's some more stuff that sticks in my craw:

Ever the mover & shaker, George tells Jacobs that he has a psychiatrist friend who wants to get into the alien abduction field, and asked (actually, it was cool & polite of him to ask permission) if he could hook the two of them up. The annoying thing is that once again George is trying to do business on the air. The last couple of months he's gotten really bad about that - getting off topic with the guest and thinking out loud about whatever bright business idea pops into his head at the moment, and how he can involve the guest (or caller) in it. His producer, who books the dang guests, is right there, if they want to cut business deals, let Tom handle it off the air. It comes off as George just wanting to show off his connections and be able to take credit for anything that might happen down the road.

Which brings us to the segment where George is trying to hook Jacobs up with "his" publishers of "Worker in the Light". This really grossed me out. Jacobs had previously been talking at length about having two books out on Simon & Schuster, and how he & his agent wanted to shop this to a major press. George again quizzes him on it, Jacobs reiterates that he needs to get a good proposal together first and that won't be ready any time soon. Enter George, the Knight in Shining Armor:

"Well I tell ya what, I've got a publisher who's very aggresive, uh, uh, and a part of Tor-Forge & I'd be happy to get you in touch with them."
Jacobs laughingly says, "Sounds good, sounds good!", whereupon Noory says brightly,
"Let's do it!" - as if it were all in his hands and as simple as making a lunch reservation.

Earlier when Jacobs was bemoaning the lack of a good book on abductions being published by a major press (he makes it quite clear he doesn't want some rinky dink publisher), George says,
"I know Whitley has one coming out -... uh has one out called "The Grays" - ahhh- a little different twist than what you're talking about...ah.."
"Is that a fiction book?"
George says, "Fiction based on some fact. I think."

Jacobs gives this dry pause & just says "Yeah..."

Do you see what I'm getting at here, folks? Is Noory just not thinking as words spill from his lips? Was he just not listening to his guest repeatedly stress "non fiction" and "major publisher"? Or is he stupid?

Plus, he interviewed Whitley at length about The Grays - yet he stumbled on whether or not the book was out yet or not, then wasn't entirely sure that the content was fiction or fact. He spent 3 hours sucking up to Whitley & it appears he hasn't even read the book, let alone listened to what Whitley said to him on his own show.

Plainsman, you mentioned that Noory must have some great dirt on his publishers to be able to have them agree to doing more books with him. I submit again that perhaps they're publishing his books in hopes that he'll feel obliged to have the "good" authors in their stable come on his show and promote their books whenever they want.

Possible?

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 04:19 PM

Divinorumus wrote: When you are doing what you love to do, it IS like you are ALWAYS on vacation. In fact, a regular vacation away from what you love to do can sometimes feel like torture - ha, really.

Very good point, Div. You're absolutely right. Now, who's going to pay for me to bitch all day?

The flaw in George's doing what he loves is, he claims to love all sorts of things, but I rarely hear about him actually doing them. Except for the actual "talking on the radio/broadcasting" angle.

He claims to love animals. So he gets a dog & has someone else take care of it. Claims to love UFOlogy, but won't go to the ranch to look at some. Claims to love paranormal research. What has he physically done himself? Claims to love investigative journalism. Sends Linda Moulten Howe out to do it. WTF?

Dixie Butcher · Post by **Dixie Butcher** » 12-17-2006 04:53 PM

Dixie Butcher wrote: Jacobs reiterates that he needs to get a good proposal together first and that won't be ready any time soon. Enter George, the Knight in Shining Armor:

"Well I tell ya what, I've got a publisher who's very aggresive, uh, uh, and a part of Tor-Forge & I'd be happy to get you in touch with them."

Oh yeah, I meant to comment more on this, too.

So Jacobs has said several times this new book is barely a rough draft and just ain't ready to go yet. George volunteers Tor-Forge because.... ?? What's George saying?
"Here's the name of my publisher! They'll give you a book deal even if you can't write your own name!"