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Harris, the author of several traditionally-published, non-fiction books including Breakup Girl to the Rescue, used iUniverse to bring Miss Media to the market.

“Even though I had published several non-fiction books before, I wasn’t getting the results I wanted from (traditional) publishers for my novel,” Harris said. “I had been talking to my creative partner about serializing the book on the web. In the middle of all that, he sent me an email with a link to iUniverse.

“At first, I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ and then I looked at the website and thought that it was really professional.”

Miss Media follows advice columnist Lola Somerville’s move from independent web mistress into the cozy arms of feminist media conglomerate Ovum, Inc. Lola soon discovers that things may not be as rosy as they appear.

Miss Media has earned iUniverse’s Editor’s Choice (based on editorial quality) designation and has also earned the Reader’s Choice (based on sales) designation. Having already learned about marketing and promoting books with her traditionally-published books, Harris was prepared to begin hitting the publicity path for Miss Media.

“Even with mainstream publishers, you end up doing a lot of the PR yourself,” she said. “I’m a reporter and a journalist, so I basically begged everyone I know to help me out and many of them did. I got all the postcards and business cards and things. I thought those were helpful.

“I do a lot of readings in New York City. I tried to do as many of those as possible. It often helps people to put a face to the name on the book.”

Among the spots Harris hit were Fez, KGB Bar, Barbas and the Last Lounge.

Harris is the voice of Breakupgirl.net and is also a contributing writer for Glamour and Salon.com. While most of her writing takes a humorous slant, one of her recent articles for Salon dealt with the psychological issues soldiers returning from Iraq are faced with.

“I normally write about social issues, but I hadn’t done much about the army before,” she said. “It’s like going through mental basic training to learn all the acronymns the army has.”

Harris also teaches humor writing through mediabistro.com.

“I teach humor writing to journalists,” she said. “I teach people to make serious pieces funnier as appropriate and pure humor, satire and parody.”

Harris is also hard at work on a sequal to Miss Media that will keep the same humorous tone and mystery/caper elements of the original.

“I definitely wanted to make it a mystery and a caper,” she said. “The next one is a mystery as well only now Lola faces a serial killer!”

The PubGuy recommends the following iUniverse titles:

Warm, For Christmas by George Ayoub

“Great! Just what I need. Another Christmas. Another rotten Christmas.”

So starts Warm, for Christmas, Sean “Pachy” Kavanagh's journey through Christmas 1986 when, at 11, he tries to keep his family from falling apart three years after his mother died.

Along the way he confronts rich bullies, a preoccupied father, and an overbearing aunt.

He schemes against the distemper of his brother’s drug addiction and searches for reasons something called ovarian cancer would take his beloved mother.

His successes are mixed. Pachy’s answers to life’s biggest questions are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant.

Miss Media by Lynn Harris

Just in time for the new millennium, things are falling into place. Online advice columnist Lola Somerville lands the plummest of jobs at Ovum Inc., the hip new TV and web network promising smart programming for women.

But Lola soon starts to suspect that something is rotten in Ovum’s 24-hour juice bar. Are her sidekicks Kat and Ted the only people who know about her forbidden romance? Whose idea was it to change the women’s sports show from “Sweat” to “Glow?” Could she—and her entire demographic—be up against forces more powerful than incompetence? The sinister, surprising truths Lola uncovers will change her, her slice of the world, and the market share of Ben and Jerry’s, forever.

Finding True Center by Michael Gordon

A novel for those who love golf lore, America's famous courses, true friends, and the occasional wager.

Lifelong friends Nick and Easy love both golf and a serious wager. Their shared passion moves beyond the extreme when a drunken bar bet results in a far-fetched scheme: playing head-to-head in every state across America as the ultimate measure to determine the better golfer. Only their self-styled, cross-country championship quickly takes a series of unexpected turns.

Rated F by Todd Noker

In this satire about censorship gone too far, Rated F examines the insanity of attempting to make everything non-offensive for everyone.

When the resourceful owner of a struggling video rental business gives his customers what they want—R-rated movies that are edited for the family—the profits start to roll in. His life quickly spirals out of control when media attention about his successful business leads to a parade of fanatics that either want to kill him, or have him alter their personal video collections.

Devil in the House by Paul Theis

This gripping insider story of duplicity on Capitol Hill illuminates the workings of a congressional office without a congressman and a campaign without a candidate.

“This novel about the inner workings of the U.S. Congress is as timely as today’s news and as unsettling as tomorrow’s headlines—and just as intriguing.”
—Robert H. Michel, former Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives