Rendez-vous with . . . Philippe Boucher, about the book 'People and Issues in Tobacco Control: 124 cyber-interviews'
Author: Philippe BoucherRendez-vous 146 December 10, 2002
Philippe Boucher
Cyber-journalist and consultant
about the book People and Issues in Tobacco Control: 124 cyber-interviews
Bainbridge Island, Washington State
www.tobacco.org/News/rendezvous/rendezvous.html
May I ask you to introduce yourself?
Philippe Boucher: I have been active in tobacco control for almost 14 years. I was the Executive Director of the French National Committee for Tobacco Control for 7 years (91-97). I have lived in the US since the end of 1998 and I had the idea for the cyber-rendezvous shortly after my arrival since I wanted to work at home and I had a large pool of friends and colleagues I knew I could contact. With the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation I have also studied tobacco control related websites and created the professional directory, www.tcdirectory.org
I am now working on a second book, a tobacco control yearbook (for 2002/03) that will also include a presentation of the 342+ websites listed in our directory. I think we'll propose a paper version as well as a cd one.
Q1. Why this book?
Philippe Boucher: I started Rendez-vous in January 1999 with the support of UICC's Globalink because I thought cyber-interviews of tobacco control advocates would be interesting for the tobacco control community.
I liked the concept of short interviews (6 questions and a self-introduction) that would -eventually- allow guests to expand about their personal stories, their personal interests. I hoped they would tell us more than what we could get from the mainstream media. I certainly did not plan at that time to ever pass the 100th mark but when I approached it I felt that collecting the rendez-vous and publishing them in a paper based book format would be a good idea.
As much as I am ever grateful that Gene Borio welcomed rendez-vous on www.tobacco.org/News/rendezvous/rendezvous.html in 2000, disseminated them via his E-news list serve and organized the electronic archives I still think that it is easier and more pleasant to read long amounts of text in a book than on a screen.
Gene being an avid book reader himself certainly agrees as well (as does Bill Gates). I thought a book would bind the interviews together, put them in perspective and allow the readers to take a more global look. I also thought it would be a nice tribute to those who participated and an original way to get a look at the past 3 year: the books covers the years 1999, 2000 and 2001.
All my guests being very active in this field I Imagined that what they had to say would constitute a stimulating introduction for newcomers, a Tobacco Control 101 class taught by a list of teachers picked from the Who's who (in tobacco control).
There are 124 interviews, half of the guests are from the US, half from the rest of the world: 26 countries are represented. They come from various wlaks of life: there are physicians, lawyers, researchers, administrators, high school students, elected officials, journalists and people who lost their voice box because of smoking and have the courage to testify.
Some are famous (Everett Koop, Christine Gregoire, David Kessler, Patrick Reynolds, Jeffrey Wigand), some are unsung heroes (Jim Martin, Cliff Douglas, Elif Dagli, Alan Blum), all are experts, leaders.
Q2. How do you choose the people you interview?
Philippe Boucher: I scan the daily news (on Tobacco.org, Globalink, JoinTogerherOnline), I read the messages posted on the listserves I subscribe to and my curiosity leads me to contact the researcher who wrote this new study, the author of this book, the manager of this program, etc.
Unfortunately not everybody I contact is readily available and I found it difficult to keep a regular weekly rhythm. I try to maintain a high level of diversity but I do have biases and preferences and there are big imbalances: a quick look at the geographical index of the guests shows how the tobacco control advocates from Africa or Asia are under represented.
Since the rendez-vous are conducted in English it also discriminates against non-English speaking people. Purists will certainly find a few grammatical errors: I did not correct them on purpose so that future guests who are not that proficient in English but do have very interesting things to share still feel they can participate.
Q3. Do people decline to rendez-vous?
Philippe Boucher: Of course. Not so many do but everybody has a busy schedule. According to the estimates provided by my guests, answering the questions takes on average about one hour. Obviously some guests spend less time and some more. That's fine with me because I find it interesting to look at how people react in different ways, provide candid details or completely duck a question. Ducking a question can be quite revealing.
As for declining to rendez-vous, the most frustrating part is when people who had at first accepted never finalize their answers. There are in my files probably 20 such rendez-vous that were never completed. Sometimes it is for sad personal reasons, because the guest or someone in the family got very sick or encountered other dramatic events, sometimes it seems to be for no reason: the prospective guest sort of disappears. But that goes with the territory and one has to be philosophical about it.
Another frustration is to receive very brief answers that strictly stick to the point without any discussion. That kills the conversation and in fact I did never publish a few of those very dry accounts.
There are also many people I would have liked to contact but was unable to reach. Maybe in the future.
Q4. Is there a future for rendez-vous or is the publication of this book the beginning of the end?
Philippe Boucher: There are various elements to consider. There are still many people that could/should be contacted.
The book does not cover the year 2002 so it does not contain the 26+ interviews that I edited this year. I still feel this format is useful. I still have (most of the time) the energy and impetus to go and do it.
The funding has now been discontinued for a little while but it happened before and I hope to find again one or several institutions willing to sponsor the interviews.
The budget involved is small and I did not look very hard during the last few months because I was focusing on the creation of the tobacco control directory and reviewing too many drafts of the book!
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any hint for a potential sponsor!
I also wish I were not the only one in charge because it would be good to introduce other voices, other preferences. For example I wish I could join forces with a University so that students (in communication, public health, political science) could try their hands at the art of cyber-interviewing: scanning the news, identifying prospective guests, approaching them, figuring out the questions, etc. We'll see.
Q5. How can one get the book? How much does it cost? Can you tell how the digital publishing and printing on demand work?
Philippe Boucher: When I decided to collect the interviews in a book format I did not have the courage to look out for a publisher. I thought it would take me as much energy (if not more with all the probable refusals involved) to find one than to do it myself.
I was also quite excited and intrigued by the new possibililites offered by the digital on demand printing so I chose this route. It is a beautiful system indeed that allows anybody with a dream of a book to make it happen at a relatively low cost.
Since I do not master pagemaker and other design softwares I had to rely on a local friend who was very patient and kind although we went through too many drafts and revisions. This hiked the price a bit. My estimate is a very thrifty and capable computer literate person can probably publish a book for a few hundred dollars.
My total bill is now $2,356 and I still have to send a few free/paid out of my pocket copies to journalists if I want to get any review!
The asking price is $26 which I think is not too high considering the book is fairly thick (402 pages). This is the price for the US (including the shipping).
Unfortunately the shipping cost is much higher for other parts of the world: add $17 for air mail and $8 for surface (allow then about 6 weeks for delivery).
Thanks to the internet and a system called PayPal it is possible to order the book by sending me an email and paying me via this system that accepts credit cards while charging me a reasonable fee (3,4% for order within the US and 4,4% for orders outside the US).
The book should also be soon registered on Amazon.com with two different prices: the Amazon one will be the highest while the digital publisher will offer the book at a lesser discounted price.
It has been an interesting adventure and I do hope this will allow the book to be distributed without having piles of unread copies rotting in a warehouse!
Q6. Is there anything you would like to add?
Philippe Boucher: I want to thank again all my guests who agreed to the publishing of their interview in the book. The book includes 5 cartoons courtesy of my dear friend Jean-Claude Marol who died in January 2002 in Paris. The one on the cover with a fat guy collecting tobacco taxes while the very thin prevention fellow looks by without a cent in front of him remains -unfortunately- very much to the point!
I hope you'll enjoy the book! Accept all my best wishes for you and your beloved ones for a happy new year!