This past summer, Family Social Science professor Dr. Paul Rosenblatt published his 10th book, titled, Two in a Bed: The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing. The book garnered attention from hundreds of media outlets around the world, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, The New York Times, and Good Morning America. Dr. Rosenblatt agreed to share his experience with us.
Q. This book has received national and international attention in a variety of media outlets. What about sharing a bed is so interesting to people?
I think partly it’s amusing to learn about other people’s bed sharing. And then lots of people find the book or write ups about the book affirming, because they see that their problems aren’t unusual. Some people have found help in the book, practical solutions to specific problems or a better understanding than they had before about what their partner has been telling them for years. Some people learn a lot more than they knew before about themselves, because they get a better sense than they had before about why they do what they do. Some people say they learn more from the book than they knew before about what it means to be human or partnered. I also think that lots of the response the book received came only because it was getting so much coverage. For example, any story about a book/author that is number 1 on The New Year Times most emailed list is going to be interesting to lots of people. The book could have been about what dust is made of or the history of earlobes and received the same attention once it became as visible as it has been.
Q. Where you surprised at all by the coverage?
Yes and no. I knew the idea of the book grabbed a lot of people when I started recruiting people to interview about couple bed sharing. Usually, when I put out a brief request for research participants through the University public relations office, it gets picked up by two or three media outlets and receives minimal coverage. But with this study, my request for participants was picked up by both major dailies in the Twin Cities, all the commercial stations that had news programs, and lots of media outlets in other parts of the country, and many of them made it into a story. Similarly, when the book was in production, I received praise and positive comments from several people who do the ordinary work of book production for State University of New York Press. I never had that from the other nine books I had published.
Q. In addition to the media attention, what types of responses do you get from readers? Typical celebrity fan mail?
I actually don’t know who, among the people who contacted me, has read how much, if any, of the book. There has been quite a diversity of reactions. A choreographer out west is thinking of creating a dance based on the book. A European bed retailer gave copies of the book to anyone who bought a bed during a November sale. An Italian television show maybe something like, “The Tonight Show,” did a half hour segment based on the book, with actors on stage enacting scenes from the book. A fair number of bloggers have discussed things they think are in the book, thought I think many of them only read print media coverage of the book. The mail I have received from people who have read the book or who have read about it often consists of accounts of how a person writing me has creatively solved personal bed sharing problems. A few people have asked me for advice. One woman sent me pictures of a series of very creative art works she had sculpted/woven/painted about bed sharing. Some people have sent their thanks for helping them to understand something about their own bed sharing. Some people have sent advice – for example, to copyright the title of the book in every country of the world. A bedding manufacturer wanted me to endorse a product line (I’m not going to do that) and to help him to even get on the Oprah show (I can’t even get myself onto that show).
What has this experience taught you?
I could say that I learned that media visibility, however fleeting, takes a lot of time, so if one is really successful one scarcely has time to do anything else than be a character in the media. But I already kind of knew that. Probably what I learned the most was about the bed-sharing experiences of roughly 150 reporters, radio hosts, TV and radio producers, and cameramen and maybe the experiences of another 150 or so callers to radio call-in shows I was on. Lots of those people told me about experiences that often fit what I had found in my research and sometimes gave me new things to think about.
Q. Will there be a sequel? What’s next in your research plans?
I’m working on a proposal for a self-help version of the book. The initial publicity drew queries from three literary agents about a sequel, and I’ve been working with the agency that has the best reputation among the three to try to develop a proposal they are willing to represent. I’ve talked with scholars based in two Asian and an African country where couple/family sleeping is quite different from the way it is in the U.S. about doing a bed sharing study in their country. I’ve thought about doing an interview study of some other areas of everyday couple/family life. I’ve always got a lot of projects going, so it’s not simple to find time for new projects. The project I’ve been working on the most lately is a theory book on family obliviousness.