A large part of the book tour process is publicity: getting the word out so people know about your book. The only way to get the message you’re trying to convey “out there” is for folks to read your work. Leah Riviere, my publicist at Beacon Press has not only been doing a great job of setting up my book tour, she’s been making contact with book reviewers and interviewers to stir up interest in Inheriting the Trade. I’m quite blessed that my book is connected to Katrina Browne’s film, Traces of the Trade. Each project helps raise the visibility of the other.

On Wednesday I met with the book editor at the Christian Science Monitor in Boston. A review of Inheriting the Trade is scheduled to run on February 19 (though I was told that day could change). Additionally, they will add to their online version of the story an interview with me that we did when I visited their offices. I also met a reporter who will be interviewing Katrina soon about the film.

As I made my way to the subway after my interview I received an e-mail from Leah.  The Library Journal had reviewed our book and she wanted to share it with me. I appreciated the fact that, like the Kirkus Review several weeks ago (which I can’t link to because it is only available to subscribers; but the last line is: “DeWolf’s intimate confrontation with white America’s ‘unearned privilege’ sears the conscience’),  it was a favorable review and I also took note that the reviewer is a librarian from Oregon.

That same Wednesday evening I made my way to the New England Cable News studio in Newton (outside of Boston) for a live interview on The Chet Curtis Report. Chet had read the book and was surprised by how much he didn’t know about Northern complicity in slavery and the slave trade. I’ve had trouble watching the entire interview–it stops part way through–but hopefully that glitch is on my end.