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PRESS ROOM
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The
Keys to Promotion and Publicity
by Tracy Budd Day
After reading Allen Weisse's An author Goes Solo: Hiring Your Own PR
Firm in the winter '99 Bulletin, I thought I might be able to offer
a few tips to other mid-list or first-time authors considering a similar
route. I am an independent publicist who works with a variety of authors,
and if you think your job is over after you've sold your book to a publisher,
I suggest you think again. That's when the real work of selling begins.
What to Expect from Your Publisher
As publishing becomes ever more a "bottom-line" business,
the level of promotional activity planned for any one book is increasingly
determined by a profit/loss formula set not by your editor but the marketing
and promotional department. Chuck Adams, an editor at Simon & Schuster,
recently told writers at the Mystery Writers of America Symposium that
"the higher the larger the promotion budget and correspondingly
the less they invest the less publicity/promotion help you will get."
How much money will be committed to the promotion of your book? A sticky
question and one many publishers will hedge on, but a question that
should be asked nonetheless. Editors can rarely influence the profit/loss
formula at the outset, but once galleys have begun circulating and a
buzz develops about a book, they are in a position to push it along,
and the better your relationship with your editor, the more likely he
or she will be to promote your interests within the house. your editor
should act as intermediary between you and the promotion and sales force,
but if you feel this is not about to happen, speak up. You can write
a personal note to the head of promotion, requesting that you be invited
to make a presentation to the sales force to "sell" your work.
Who on the staff will be handling promotion?
Publicity departments may have a high staff turnover rate, and many
publicity associates are recent college grads at the bottom rung of
the career ladder. Publicity is where many aspiring editors begin. According
to a survey conducted by the Omega Group in 1996, publicists at the
bigger publishing houses are usually working on eight to ten books at
a time. My advice is, get to know your publicist, make an impression,
volunteer as much information as possible and follow up. Many houses
will ask the author to fill out a questionnaire listing contacts. If
no one asks you to complete one, go ahead and make your own list, detailing
who should be contacted, how and when.
Knowing what you have to work with in terms of galleys and copies of
the bound book will help you start to plan your own promotion efforts.
Galleys are the best bet with reviewers and other members of the press,
who need to see a book weeks or even months before publication date.
Find out when galleys will be available, how many copies you get, and
whether or not you have to pay for them.
How many free copies of the book will you receive? My experience is
that a finished book, rather than galleys, goes over better with bookers
for electronic media (TV, radio). It's also less expensive than a press
kit, which rarely gets looked at anyway.
Hiring an Independent Publicist
Here's a short list of questions you might ask yourself and any publicist
you are considering hiring. How long have they done book publicity and
for whom? Most independent publicists and firms have a variety of clients
and commitments. As with your publisher you want to know where you rank
on the list.
Does he or she handle books in all genres or do they specialize? How
sophisticated is his or her knowledge of niche outlets? I have a personal
preference for mystery and my rolodex is stuffed with possibilities
for mysteries, which reduces the learning curve. But I have publicized
books in other areas as well, and a bit of creative thinking and research
allows me to place stories for non-mystery clients.
How many authors or projects does the publicist take on at one time?
I can work on may projects simultaneously, but I carefully plan my calendar
around clients' publication dates. Does the publicist work on an hourly
basis, or a placement fee or a project fee? Dr Weisse lamented working
with a firm on a placement-fee basis. The difficulty I have with this
type of arrangement is that publicity is not a commodity business. By
tuning to what I call a la carte placement services, you may end up
paying for a placement in the New Haven Register, which is fine if you
live in New England, but if you are a Southwest author, this might not
increase the sales of your book.
Publicity should really begin when you are in the outlining stage of
your writing. Think about research, interviews, and other activities
- is there a story hidden somewhere?
While publicists do much of their work by phone and fax, this can still
add up to a lot of time and high cost when charged by the hour. Monthly
retainers or project fees give you a concrete idea of the expense involved.
The publicist will have calculated his/her anticipated time commitment
and reflect that in the fee. My preference is a monthly retainer or
a project fee broken down into four to six months of activity.
Ask for a proposal/plan of activities and also whether a fee is charged
for this. As a publicist, I am not going to give away all my secrets
in a plan, but I will provide a skeletal outline of activities, i.e.,
TV, national morning shows, local cable, network affiliates, etc, but
without names of contacts. a proposal will give you some idea of how
imaginative the thinking on your project is likely to be. It will also
help you see how much will be expected of you in terms of time and travel,
and what you are willing to do to promote your book. If you are uneasy
with some of the ideas proposed, SPEAK UP. You are the person who is
going to be out front, not your publicist. And if the first publicist
you ask charges a fee for a proposal, keep looking. Finally, do you
like him or her? Personal chemistry really counts. You may not always
get to meet in person but will spend a lot of time communicating. You
should feel comfortable and grow to trust the publicist's judgment,
even if you do not always agree.
Publicity 101 for Authors
A national morning show producer once told me, "Please don't send
me authors who can talk only about their book." Consider what else
you as a writer bring to the table. Author Leslie Glass, for example,
sit son the board of the New York Police Department Police Foundation.
When the NYPD was coming under press attack, she appeared on a national
morning show and managed to plug her latest book. One author I worked
with recently had interviewed Gregory Peck and the fashion designers
Givenchy and Vera Wang in the course of her research. do you think this
helps in securing interviews? Absolutely. Another author frequently
includes recipes in her mysteries. Capitalizing on her talent in the
kitchen she was able to attract the attention of food editors who gave
her more print coverage than book reviewers. Maybe you found yourself
climbing hundreds of feet below the earth in a cave or sky-diving for
the first time. Whatever it is, don't keep it a secret, because it might
be the hook that will get your book the attention it needs.
Review your life and all the people you have met along the way. This
is no time to be shy. Did you go to elementary school with anyone now
associated with the media? High school or college? Many colleges have
very good alumni publications, which they mail out to thousands of alumni
across the country. By listing every possible person or outlet, you
will show your publisher the kind of support you can bring to the book
personally, and your willingness to follow through.
Author websites are growing in popularity. If you have one, terrific;
if not you should seriously consider creating one. Your website needs
to be updated on a regular basis. Let your readers know where you will
be appearing, what you're working on. Ask readers for feedback. Author
Lisa Scottoline ('95 Mystery writers of America Edgar Award Winner for
best paperback) once used her site to post a chapter of her current
book. She asked for feedback and comments, and wound up with a story
in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Boston pianist/author Janice Weber now times the publication of her
books with the release of her classical CDs. Her books sometimes arrive
on reviewers' desks with copies of her current musical release, helping
her to stand out from the dozens of other books reviewers receive weekly.
Some authors have postcards printed up showing their book jacket and
including information about upcoming signings or blurbs. You can mail
these to your own list of contacts, use them as business cards, or send
them to booksellers.
Though booksignings have long been popular, I find them unpredictable
and often disappointing for the author. If you are going to make this
kind of appearance, insist on being positioned near the front of the
store, not back by the water fountain. If possible, work with the bookseller
to create a thematic window display that includes items other than books.
You might try organizing multi-author events. This allows the bookseller
to pool the available advertising dollars and, for marginal authors,
may make the difference between no appearance and a very successful
one.
If you do plan to contact booksellers independently, be sure to do so
long in advance of your book's publication date. There are over 1800
independent booksellers in the country and a large number of specialty
bookstores. Many of these have newsletters that carry reviews and list
upcoming author appearances. Ask if you can include one of your postcards
in their mailing or make use of the mailing list to send the cards out
yourself.
Don't overlook the public library circuit. Libraries across the country
have budgets, buy books and sponsor readings. The Queens New York library
system has the largest book buying budget in the country, spending over
$4 million dollars annually.
One final thought: Do your homework and verify your contact list. If
you are going to do any type of mailing, be certain to personalize it.
reviewers change frequently and there is nothing worse than sending
a mystery to a reviewer specializing in history or addressing a letter
to a writer who has changes newspapers. Mailings addressed to "to
whom It may concern" usually wind up in the wastebasket.. when
you do receive a review, a mention by a feature writer, or make any
kind of promotional appearance, remember to send a thank you note to
the writer or producer. Successful publicity and promotion are the result
of careful planning and opportunities seized. Be flexible and think
creatively.
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