Released on = July 9, 2006, 10:20 am

Press Release Author = ENC Press

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = Top Rock Jock Promoted For Trying To Tank His Job In
Insider’s Fictional Exposé Of Corporate-Owned Media World: Award-Winning Chicago
Radio Producer Bites The Hand That Fed Him — His Novel’s Publisher Could Only Be ENC
Press


Press Release Body = NEW YORK—Chicago rock jock Richard Kaempfer moved into radio
production, producing the award-winning John Records Landecker and Steve Dahl &
Garry Meier shows before having to suffer the trials and tribulations of his
fictional counterpart Tom Zagorski. The hand Kaempfer dealt Zagorski in his novel
$everance was obsolescence in the new corporate-owned media world after nearly
twenty years as one of the most popular morning-radio personalities in Chicago —
that, and a boss who uses public and private humiliation to make Zagorski quit so he
doesn’t have to deliver a healthy severance package. Kaempfer has Zagorski push back
by passive-aggressively needling his boss into firing him, without ever crossing the
line into a firing for cause.

When neither side budges after six months of battle, an exasperated Zagorski sends a
sarcastic e-mail to the CEO of the corporation, suggesting a massive firing of
anyone who doesn’t actually bring in money. Instead of firing Zagorski in a rage,
the CEO takes the e-mail seriously. He eliminates thousands of jobs, the stock price
soars, and the “genius” Zagorski gets rewarded with a promotion. His new position as
COO — and darling of Wall Street — makes getting fired a monumental task.

Can Zagorski, in cahoots with his on-air partner Richard Lawrence, mismanage the
conglomerate so the stock price tanks, or irritate his mercurial boss to the firing
point? Zagorski and Lawrence gleefully tackle both assignments, plunging headlong
into the world of media finance, politics, and personalities. The result is a
scathing satire of the current state of the consolidated mainstream broadcast media,
insight into the way the political parties have managed to convert broadcasting into
a partisan screech-fest, and a spotlight on who and what really runs the media.

Richard Kaempfer was a Chicago media fixture for twenty years, first as a host at
Chicago’s top rock station, WLUP AM/FM, in the late 80s and early 90s. Industry
insiders know him better as one of the top radio producers in the country and the
coauthor, with John Swanson, of “The Radio Producer’s Handbook.” In addition to his
radio honors (including Best Morning Show in Chicago and Best Oldies Show in
America), Kaempfer has won numerous awards for his magazine and advertising writing,
including a National Writing Award in 1999 for his essay “Living Life to Its
Fullest,” and other awards for his work for radio advertising specialists A.M.I.S.H.
Chicago Advertising, which he cofounded in 2000. He is also a contributing editor
for Shore Magazine.

Naturally, Kaempfer’s first foray into fiction got snapped up by boutique New York
fiction house ENC PRESS, whose very existence is a wickedly grinning critique of
mainstream publishing, and is scheduled for publication in 2007.

ENC Press’s self-chosen “boutique” designation involves more than house size and the
high level of attention given to the editing, design, and production of each
release. It is a deliberately chosen business model as well. With the exception of a
few independent bookstores, ENC Press bypasses the usual retail book-industry
channels, whether brick-and-mortar or online, in favor of selling books exclusively
through its Web site. Publisher Olga Gardner Galvin says only her small run/direct
sales model makes it possible for her to focus on the content of her books rather
than fret about the bottom line. It also allows her to keep all her titles available
indefinitely on the Web — a practice recently adopted by industry giants Penguin and
Random House.

“I started out thinking we were ‘alternative’ because our authors saw and discussed
more than one side of any question and issue and did so with wit and humor, which is
‘alternative’ in today’s book industry,” says Galvin. “But then we realized that in
pursuit of such novels we came up with some intelligent alternatives to limited
editorial decisions, the hideous practice of printing books only to remainder and
pulp them, and serfdom for writers in the form of miserly royalties. We certainly
provide an intelligent alternative to the touchy-feely groupthink of the mainstream
book scene, simply by publishing guilt-free, topical entertainment for independently
thinking people. $everance is one more ENC Press offering for the steadily growing
audience of readers who hunger for more sophisticated, nuanced, and original fiction
than they can find in most bookstores.”

A capsule summary of $everance is available at www.encpress.com/SEV.html — and so
are a few of the other wickedest, funniest, and most thought-provoking novels the
big publishing business doesn’t know how to handle.


Web Site = http://www.encpress.com

Contact Details = Beth Elliott
ENC PRESS
P.O. Box 833
Hoboken, NJ 07030
pr@encpress.com
510-610-2384