Cruise Confidential breaks Top 10 of Amazon Humor list
A week before Cruise Confidential's debut, it has already broken into the top ten of Amazon's Humor list! Amazon.com, of course, sells zillions of books day and night. Not only do they rank each and every book sold, they even update it hourly. When I discovered this I was secretly hoping to break into the top 20,000 someday, maybe peak at a high number that I could brag of. Well, Cruise Confidential already hit #7,100, and has remained in the top 20 Humor for almost two weeks already. Can you believe it hasn't even had any of it's professional reviews yet!
Genre Rankings
More important than the overall sales numbers, however, is the ranking in genres. While Cruise has remained steady as the #1 cruise-related book on Amazon for the last two weeks, I was thrilled to see it burst into the top ten of Humor. Thanks to a tiny little reference in USA Today's Travel Blog, Cruise jumped above George Carlin's book to hit a solid #7 in overall humor sales. Not surprisingly it was eclipsed by "The Truth About Chuck Norris." After all, he is the toughest, sexiest, and beardiest man in existence, as they say, and I am scared to go head to head with him!
Las Vegas Waters
As exciting as all this is for me, more exciting still is that my lovely Romanian wife and I are hitting the road to move to Las Vegas. A strange place indeed for a cruise writer. We have enjoyed the last year living in fabulous Lake Tahoe. I wrote Cruise while hunkered under 15 feet of snow at a local coffee shop called Alpen Sierra. I would daily slog through the ice and snow, past hundreds of skiers and snowboarders, to sit in my corner and attempt to recall the warmth of the Caribbean. In Las Vegas, of course, I will have no problem remembering the warmth, but where oh where is the water?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Cruise Confidential in USA Today
What could possibly be better than waking up and seeing that a flurry of emails has passed, all regarding your new book's article on USA Today? My publicist Meg pitched them just that morning and by the afternoon (New York time) they had placed an entire big blog page on Cruise Confidential, celebrating its good-natured tell-all tone. Is there ship dirt in the pages, yes, but is it a negative book? Not by a long shot. I was thrilled with the instant write-up.
http://tinyurl.com/5pn6gb
A reference is also made to another book of a similar nature that hit the shelves this year, by one Misha Berman. Like all the others, it is by a privileged crew member. While it is true that the assistant cruise directors, such as he, work their tails off, they never integrate with the vast majority of the crew. His experiences are similar to mine, to be sure, and I am proud of him for making his dream of being an author come true. That being said, I think you'll find Cruise Confidential a much deeper look behind the scenes, taking you places no one has ever written about. There are a number of books and blogs out there from cruise directors, as it is their natural territory. Entertaining as they are, I have yet to meet one who was also a writer, however.
But who am I to judge? Of COURSE I am subjective! You should read them both and get back to me!
http://tinyurl.com/5pn6gb
A reference is also made to another book of a similar nature that hit the shelves this year, by one Misha Berman. Like all the others, it is by a privileged crew member. While it is true that the assistant cruise directors, such as he, work their tails off, they never integrate with the vast majority of the crew. His experiences are similar to mine, to be sure, and I am proud of him for making his dream of being an author come true. That being said, I think you'll find Cruise Confidential a much deeper look behind the scenes, taking you places no one has ever written about. There are a number of books and blogs out there from cruise directors, as it is their natural territory. Entertaining as they are, I have yet to meet one who was also a writer, however.
But who am I to judge? Of COURSE I am subjective! You should read them both and get back to me!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Press Release for Cruise Confidential
And what a release it is! Our publicist, Meg Parsont, does fine work indeed. Can you believe her elegant press release has actually humbled me? Who would have thought that even possible? For those who are curious, the press release is below in its entirety. This is what is sent to hook reviewers and editors of newspaper and magazines and, well, whomever. It certainly hooked me!
"Everyone knows that cruise ships encourage such hedonistic behavior as eating three entrées at a single sitting, overindulging in drinks with umbrellas, and making extravagant purchases in the gift shop. What we didn’t know is that the exploits that take place on the Lido Deck are tame compared with what goes on below deck, the home of the hundreds of workers who keep the big cruise ships running (more or less) smoothly. In his rollicking tell-all, Carnival Cruise Lines insider Brian David Bruns leads us into the bowels of the mighty cruise ships where the close quarters are the catalyst not only for instant friendships between staffers but also intense animosity. And sex. Lots of it.
Having the distinction of being the only American to complete a full eight-month contract working for the restaurants of Carnival Cruise Lines—as well as possessing a sharp wit and delightfully candid narrative voice—Brian is uniquely qualified to serve as our guide to a world where civilized behavior is thrown out the porthole even before the ship leaves the pier. In Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline ($14.95 trade paperback original), he reveals what goes on behind the scenes where the staff works, lives, eats, drinks (and drinks), dances, argues, and occasionally, sleeps.
His outrageous but true stories introduce us to an eclectic cast of international characters—a rainbow of women workers who could pass for super models, head honchos who take their management inspiration from such exemplary role models as the Mafia, and waiters who are reduced to stealing food from each other’s stations in order to fulfill their guests’ orders. He chronicles the uninhibited dance parties, slapstick schemes, and ubiquitous couplings that occur on every cruise, as well as his ongoing quest to be near his girlfriend, another Carnival Cruise employee. We are transported from New Orleans to Jamaica to Puerto Rico to Transylvania as our likeable guide vividly describes his many misadventures, triumphs, flirtations, and, above all, his amusing and astute insights into human nature.
Throughout his journey, Brian is asked repeatedly by his bosses, co-workers, friend, and enemies, “Are you crazy or are you just stupid?” in their attempts to understand why a well-educated American would put up with such insane working and living conditions. With his constant good humor (not to mention his admirable determination to be near the love of his life and to spurn the advances of all others), he convinces us that he’s neither crazy nor stupid, and, in doing so, takes us on a wild ride we won’t quickly forget."
"Everyone knows that cruise ships encourage such hedonistic behavior as eating three entrées at a single sitting, overindulging in drinks with umbrellas, and making extravagant purchases in the gift shop. What we didn’t know is that the exploits that take place on the Lido Deck are tame compared with what goes on below deck, the home of the hundreds of workers who keep the big cruise ships running (more or less) smoothly. In his rollicking tell-all, Carnival Cruise Lines insider Brian David Bruns leads us into the bowels of the mighty cruise ships where the close quarters are the catalyst not only for instant friendships between staffers but also intense animosity. And sex. Lots of it.
Having the distinction of being the only American to complete a full eight-month contract working for the restaurants of Carnival Cruise Lines—as well as possessing a sharp wit and delightfully candid narrative voice—Brian is uniquely qualified to serve as our guide to a world where civilized behavior is thrown out the porthole even before the ship leaves the pier. In Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline ($14.95 trade paperback original), he reveals what goes on behind the scenes where the staff works, lives, eats, drinks (and drinks), dances, argues, and occasionally, sleeps.
His outrageous but true stories introduce us to an eclectic cast of international characters—a rainbow of women workers who could pass for super models, head honchos who take their management inspiration from such exemplary role models as the Mafia, and waiters who are reduced to stealing food from each other’s stations in order to fulfill their guests’ orders. He chronicles the uninhibited dance parties, slapstick schemes, and ubiquitous couplings that occur on every cruise, as well as his ongoing quest to be near his girlfriend, another Carnival Cruise employee. We are transported from New Orleans to Jamaica to Puerto Rico to Transylvania as our likeable guide vividly describes his many misadventures, triumphs, flirtations, and, above all, his amusing and astute insights into human nature.
Throughout his journey, Brian is asked repeatedly by his bosses, co-workers, friend, and enemies, “Are you crazy or are you just stupid?” in their attempts to understand why a well-educated American would put up with such insane working and living conditions. With his constant good humor (not to mention his admirable determination to be near the love of his life and to spurn the advances of all others), he convinces us that he’s neither crazy nor stupid, and, in doing so, takes us on a wild ride we won’t quickly forget."
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