To hire or not to hire an independent publicist. That is the question.
Scenario 1
You’ve just had a marketing meeting with your publisher and you’re on cloud nine. The book that you’ve worked so hard on has now become a reality. And your publisher has promised you a national publicity campaign. Three months later, your book received one review in your local newspaper – a review that you were responsible for. And nothing else. No morning show appearances. No Oprah. No New York Times review.
Scenario 2
Your first novel with your publisher hit the New York Times bestseller list! It will be smooth sailing from now on. For your next book, your publisher has promised you a 5-city media tour, a radio campaign, a national print and TV campaign. You travel from city to city, but less than five people show up at your booksignings. At one signing, the only attendee is a friend of yours. You are sitting in your hotel all day because your publicist has not set up any media. And the radio campaign you were promised? Your publicist reports to you that because your book is a novel, she was unable to book you a single interview. And this year, instead of the rave, stand-alone review in The New York Times that propelled your book to the bestseller list, your book was included in that paper’s summer book round-up.
The above scenarios are all too common and illustrate why you should hire an independent publicist, even if you are a New York Times bestselling author.
Even if your publisher is pulling out all the stops, a good independent publicist can and will get you more media coverage than your in-house publicist. Here are some examples of what a good independent publicist can do for you:
- Set up television, radio and print interviews in the tour cities your publisher is sending you to; if your publisher is not touring you, a good independent publicist can arrange a great media tour for you that you should consider.
- Follow up, Follow up, Follow up: Follow up is the name of the game in this business. An independent publicist will be persistent and make sure she follows up for as long as it takes to get an answer, without being a nuisance, even if that answer is negative. Yes, sometimes you don’t get an answer, but often, with persistence, an independent publicist will not only get an answer, but a placement.
- Why is following up so crucial? Sometimes a reviewer will respond by asking you to send the book, even though you have already sent it. And it just may lead to a review that an author would not have received if you sent out just one e-mail.
- What in-house publicists do and don’t do: Most publishers will send advance reading copies to hundreds of reviewers. What many don’t do is follow up with these reviewers. Usually they have relationships with the national newspapers and Publicity Directors even meet with the Book Review Editors at several top national newspapers before your book comes out. But in most cases, that is not enough. You need someone who makes sure your book is on reviewer’s radar. If you think that book editors will remember a book that was discussed six months before pub date, think again. Even if you’re Stephen King, book editors need to be reminded about when your book is coming out. And there are the daily book reviewers that you want to reach out to as well, who need to be contacted again and again, not just the Sunday book review sections.
- Internet Media Coverage Placements: This is so crucial in today’s world, where more readers are getting their information online than from newspapers, especially younger readers. A good outside publicist will be able to garner reviews and interviews and place essays on the top book websites that your in-house publicist may neglect, or not have time to pitch
- Positioning Is Everything: when a one-page publisher’s press release that summarizes your book is not getting the coverage you want, your Independent publicist will be writing pitch letters, interview questions, and press releases that will position you for individual markets. One press release doesn’t fit all. An independent publicist will think out-of-the box and tailor your press materials to the market she is pitching.
Here is a specific example of what I did for one client, which resulted in a book review in Cosmopolitan which in turn led to an excerpt for this author’s next book. Only two other books were reviewed in that issue, one by a bestselling author. How did I do it?
I sent e-mail after e-mail. I placed phone calls. I left voice-mail messages. When I finally got the book reviewer’s assistant, she told me that if they were interested I would hear from them.
But I didn’t stop there. The book was a chick-lit mystery, and I put together a one paragraph “teaser excerpt.” In less than a New York minute after I e-mailed the “teaser excerpt,” Cosmo called and asked me to overnight the book. Three months later, the review appeared.
Please catch my post next month when I will tell you what you should look for when hiring an outside publicist, and when you should do so.
In the months to come, I will be discussing in more depth what types of media coverage are most effective for small budgets and why; what types of media coverage are the most cost effective; the pros and cons of each type of media; and why comprehensive campaigns are the most effective for maximizing media coverage. Stay tuned…
Wow. I had no idea a publicist did all that. The scales have fallen from my eyes.
You know what’s scary? That publishing houses have cut back on the promo departments, and even in the “good times” the attention most books got was pretty slender. It’s also scary to think that your book is in the hands of someone who is worried that they might get laid off.
Thanks for the empowering post, Susan.
To hire or not to hire an independent publicist. That is the question.
This is a question I’ll be giving serious consideration to in the coming months. Thank you, Susan, for spelling out exactly what an IP does for a writer. I’m impressed.
Very interesting.
I guess I wonder what kind of financial outlay an author would need to budget for the type of campaign you outline above.
I am similarly curious as ArkansasCyndi, and also wonder if some of this couldn’t be done by the author herself/himself (at least if we’re assuming they have the time/energy/inclination).
I love the idea of not having to deal with the time-suck of self-promotion, but if you only get a couple grand as your advance, how can you justify handing over your hard earned money to a publicist?
True, you would be helping the author get her name out there, but you can’t guarantee anyone would buy her books.
Wouldn’t it be better to hire a publicist after an author has a small backlist?
Of course, if I managed to garner a ‘very sweet deal’ in the six-figure range, then I would definately hire someone to do my grunt work so I can write my next Harry Potter. :-)
Fascinating post, Susan!
How does the in-house publicist (at the publishing house) feel about an author using an independent publicist as well? What are the protocols for handling this tactfully (since, I presume, the in-house publicist might take it as meaning the author doesn’t have faith in her to do an adequate job?) Does the author just say at the start, ‘I’m using publicist X, so you don’t need to bother?’
And is there likely to be messy doubling up, two publicists contacting the same media people, reviewers etc?
Great post! This gives me a lot to think about.
Wow, great information. My question was going to be, how do we make sure the IP has the relationships to follow through with the right people, but I see you’ll be covering what to look for in your next post. I’ll be back!
Wow. I received a lot of comments to my article about hiring an independent publicist.
I’ll respond to Kristin first. If you check my posting on January 2nd (or 3rd) I write about what authors can do themselves that doesn’t cost a dime.
Cindy,
Campaign costs vary from publicist to publicist. Some publicists charge a set monthly retainer fee. I like to give my clients more options. If they have a large budget, they can choose all of the options, but if they have a smaller budget, they can choose one or two options.
Margaret,
If your advance is small, your print run is probably also small. Sometimes it may not be worth it to hire an independent publicist, but you have to weigh your goals and objectives. You may never have a backlist if you don’t have visibility and sell books. Publishers look at marketing and publicity when they decide to purchase a book, and if your previous book received media coverage, you are more likely to get your next book published.
Juliet,
Excellent question. I was going to address this is my next posting. But I will briefly address your question here. I advise authors to tell their in-house publicist that they are considering hiring an outside publicist for local media coverage, or to complement what the in-house publicist does.
Often, the in-house publicist will be more than happy that you’re hiring an outside publicist. Other times not. Usually, if the publisher has a huge campaign planned, they rather control the publicity. If the publisher is doing little, then your in-house publicist may be relieved.
I can give you one example where an author hired me to complement his publisher’s efforts. I had meetings with the publisher and we agreed as to who was handling what aspect of the campaign. Who was contacting whom.
In certain cases, I also contacted several editors and producers that fell into the publishers list. And it’s a good thing I did, because it led to the author getting a review that might not have happened.
But more on this in my next month’s post.
Rachel,
Again, check references. If authors are raving about their media coverage, it is a given that the publicist has media contacts.
You are hiring a publicist for her media contacts and relationships. That’s a given. A publicist who has been in business for more than 15 years, as I have, couldn’t be in business without media contacts. That’s the bread & butter of a publicist’s business.
It’s like asking a book agent, do you know any publishers?
Once I heard another publicist talk about publicity and marketing at a conference, I swore that I would get one when the time came.
I’m a believer!
Now to make it a reality.
Susan, I’ve shied away from hiring a publicist due to the expense, but I’m rethinking that after reading your post.
Thank you!
Light,
Nancy Haddock
La Vida Vampire
Last Vampire Standing