Horror Story #1: A Publicist Screams

Halloween's coming, so once again it's time for Tales from the Book Publicity Crypt. I'll be posting publicity horror stories all week, so if you have one send it along. Confidentiality guaranteed.

These terror loglines are from a publicist at a major NY house, who notes:

I do ADORE most of my authors and because of the type of quality books we publish, we don't get too many with unbridled egos, thank goodness.

1. The author who insisted his local bookstores were jealous of his success and hated him, and were booking him in at the time they expected the least traffic.
   
   
2. The sports celebrity who was still in bed when I came by to pick him up for his noontime booksigning.
   
   
3. The nervous and insecure Hollywood-type author who made us hire a pricey PR firm even though we had already booked all the national media and done all the work in-house.