Book Report: Author Susan Shapiro and the Barbies Who Helped Bring Her a Bestseller

By Felicity Loughrey
January 12, 2011

Author Susan Shapiro; Overexposed, a memoir by Susan Shapiro In the first few minutes of a phone interview with multitasking author Susan Shapiro, she had already made two bids on 2000 Barbie for President dolls, featuring the leggy blonde in a shiny blue skirt suit and with a long red gown to slip into for the Inaugural ball. “They’re usually really expensive, but these are cheap!” she said. (left: Author Susan Shapiro; Overexposed, a memoir by Susan Shapiro)

For those who have followed Susan Shapiro from her breakout memoir, Five Men Who Broke My Heart, an account of her cross-country journey to reconnect with five old flames, to her latest novel, Overexposed, a modern "trading spaces" story, you would know that author Susan Shapiro is a self-confessed “Barbie freak."

When Susan Shapiro had just sold Five Men Who Broke My Heart to publishing house Random House, she met with the head of publicity, Barb Burg. Susan Shapiro had heard that Burg could make or break a book. When they were introduced, Burg, who had devoured Five Men Who Broke My Heart, offered up her own similar experiences: "My father’s a doctor, too. I also have too many brothers. I love Bob Dylan and the greatest tragedy of my life is that they never got me the Barbie camper."

“She totally identified with my book!” said author Susan Shapiro.

The Barbie Camper Shapiro gave to Barb Burg After the meeting, “The first thing in my head is that I have to get her the Barbie camper," said Shapiro. Mattel had ceased making Barbie camper sets some years before, so the author turned to eBay and found the right yellow-and-pink vehicle. It was shipped from Utah. She then frantically began a search for five Ken dolls to represent the five men in her memoir. And of course, she found a dark-haired Barbie to drive the camper—all dressed in black, just like Shapiro. (left: The Barbie Camper Shapiro gave to Barb Burg)

It was a rainy Friday afternoon and Susan Shapiro covered the Barbie camper set in plastic and arrived at Random House headquarters in midtown Manhattan. “They wouldn’t let me in.” So Susan Shapiro called her editor, who convinced the security staff to let Shapiro pass. While Barb Burg was on vacation, Shapiro arranged the camper and its new occupants in the head publicist’s office. “When she walked in on Monday morning, she saw the Barbie camper and we were bonded for life.”

Barb Burg got Shapiro on The Today Show, twice, helped with the film rights (Susan Shapiro is at work on the Five Men Who Broke My Heart screenplay) and generated plenty of great buzz. Shapiro hired Barb Burg, now freelance, to do the publicity for next two novels, Speed Shrinking and Overexposed. Susan Shapiro, a proud Barbie addict who has another memoir called Lighting Up (Subtitle: "How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex), has just sold another non-fiction title, Unhooked that she is writing with her addiction specialist. “Now I need a shrink to deal with writing a book with my shrink!”

So what happened to the Barbie camper? On her last day at Random House, Barb Burg carried the toy vehicle under her arm, out of the office. “It never ceases to make me smile,” Burg emailed. “It’s one of my most cherished possessions from one of my most cherished friends and very first client.”

Susan Shapiro shops eBay for Barbie and books.

Barbie President 2000

(buy it now price, $14)

“A lot of my feminist girlfriends didn't want their little daughters to have Barbies. So I'd get them President Barbie—until they stopped making her!”
Batgirl Barbie

(buy it now price, $44.95)

“Batgirl Barbie is one of my favorites.”
Poison Ivy Barbie

(starting bid, $5)

“So is Poison Ivy Barbie.”
The Selected Poetry of Yehudi Amichai

(buy it now price, $20.41)

“One of my favorite poetry books, which I often give as a gift.”
"Mad Men" Don Draper Doll

(buy it now price, $79)

“My husband is a TV writer. We love the show "Mad Men" and love the new "Mad Men" Don Draper doll—much cooler than Ken.”
"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens, First Edition

(buy it now price, $1,400)

“My husband's favorite books are Great Gatsby and Great Expectations. I bought him a first edition Great Gatsby for his last birthday. So I'd love to get him a first edition Great Expectations next year."
Black Diamond Bead Necklace with 18k Gold

(buy it now price, $1,999)

“When I helped a former student, a jewelry designer, sell her memoir, she gave me a gorgeous black diamond choker. I feel a new addiction coming on...”