Behind every ceo, great or otherwise, is a flack. Dan Vasella, for instance, has Kathy Bloomgarden, the Ruder Finn ceo and his personal gatekeeper, to help him explain and spin when the need arises.

But Bloomgarden is trying to grab her own sliver of spotlight these days in order to promote a new book called, “Trust,” another of these tomes about leading and managing serfs. And she did quite for well for herself by getting a write-up in The Wall Street Journal’s health blog the other day. Peter Rost slapped them around for writing a fawning item in order to maintain access, but it seems everyone is happy

Especially Kathy. When her book first arrived a few weeks ago, it was ranked at something like 499,000 on Amazon and new copies were fetching under $5. A few days ago, it ranked around 147,000, reflecting write-ups elsewhere. Today, Kathy can boast a ranking of nearly 35,000, and her book is going for almost $7. That’s new, by the way. Book dealers are cutthroats, you know.

Give Kathy credit. She knows how to manipulate. Now, if she could only help Vasella with that annoying problem over patents in India.

[tags]Dan Vasella, Kathy Bloomgarden, Novartis[/tags]