Your Publicist: A User’s Guide for Novices

There seems to be some confusion as to what a publicist does and how to employ her effectively. From time to time, one does hear an awful lot of kvetching about the uselessness of publicists, as we are a much maligned group, perhaps only trailing agents and lawyers by a small margin. After a little cajoling, Sarah has persuaded me to illuminate the literate world as to the function and use of the book publicist. Some do’s and don’t’s:

• Do fill out your author questionnaire completely as early as possible. Give your publicist a thorough bio. Think about your back story—what makes you, beyond your obvious gift with words—worthy of the world’s attention? What is a feature story about you going to say? Were you in a street gang, but now rescue puppies? Is your book set in Umbria and you make amazing tomato sauce? Have you ever killed someone yourself in the exact manner your book describes? (No seriously, have you? Was your victim your last publicist? Just checking.)


• Imagine yourself giving a radio interview. What are you going to discuss with the interviewer? Generate a dozen questions or topics that you could cover and give those to your publicist with your author questionnaire.


• Have some nice photos taken—some in black-and-white and some in color. Some should be environmental shots (think People magazine). Try and keep dogs and cats out of the picture. I’m just saying, it’s been done. Be sure to include the photo credit.


• If you want to travel, let your publicist know where you have friends and family, specifically the kind that will put you up and then show up at your reading with lots of book-buying friends in tow.


• Collect email and mailing addresses at every reading, conference, and cocktail party you attend. Compile these into a mailing list. Format them to be printed on labels (Avery 5160s are nice). If you have a large enough list, your publicist might make you postcards. Postcards are great to send out to large groups of readers/friends/distant relatives. They’re also excellent to give to bookstores to send to their mailing list. If you’re going on tour, better make sure you have a list for each city. Again, those Avery 5160 labels are pretty nifty.


• Keep your publicist informed of all your activities. Don’t schedule readings or interviews without telling her. In an ideal world, journalists would always go through the publicist to set up an interview, but sometimes they went to kindergarten with you or live down the street and feel comfortable approaching you directly. Ask them to check with your publicist first, just in case she’s scheduling an interview with another show on the same radio station or she’s pitching an interview with you to another freelancer for the same publication. She’s crafty, your publicist.


• Do not keep prominent author or journalist friends a secret. Do feel comfortable in reaching out to them, via your publicist, early on.


• Do not follow-up every email with a phone call to see if your publicist received your message. Do not assume your publicist is doing nothing for you. She is a busy creature and she will get back to you when she has the information you need. That said, if she sends you a tour schedule, and you notice that several of the events don’t have times listed, feel free to ask her to give you those times.


• Be realistic. Is your book really material for Oprah or the New York Times? Assume your publicist is familiar with Fresh Air and All Things Considered, and that she’ll pitch your book if she thinks it’s appropriate.

Here’s what you need to remember: Your publicist is the medium through which you communicate to the rest of the world. The better informed she is, the better she can serve you. It’s also important to let your publicist do her job. Journalists prefer to be contacted by publicists because journalists are busy and can be brusque or “rude.” It’s easier to do this to publicists. Also, your publicist has spent a lot of time developing relationships with journalists—you might as well put those years of buying book reviewers cocktails to work for you.

So, that’s your publicist in a nutshell. Some publicists work for big houses and have large budgets and can send you on elaborate tours with an escort. Some publicists work for small houses and can do magical things with hotels.com and Travelocity. Either way, she’ll do her best to promote you and your work. Value you her opinion. She isn’t saying “no” to be mean, but because she doesn’t think that a particular activity is valuable expenditure of your time or her budget. Be kind to your publicist and remember a well-placed, “Thank you” never hurt anyone.

Comments

[Dan Fesperman]

Outstanding advice. Should be printed and posted on every writing desk as the publication date approaches. But shouldn't novices also know that stuff from below about their publicists' favorite Vodka?

[Megan]

Hey, Kathy! Gosh, I wish I'd had this cribsheet a year ago but am glad for it now.

[Kathy]

I don't think novice authors need to know how often we hit the bottle. It's best they find out the first time they visit the hotel bar at Bouchercon.

[Cara]

Real pearls of wisdom, Kathy. Dan's right, and I'd suggest that list goes up by the computer six months prior to pub. date. Stoli, yes I knew that.

[Laura]

ITA. As someone who's been on both sides of this process, this is just great advice.

For a journalist, the biggest problem is the second paragraph -- what is there to say after saying "So-and-so wrote a book. "?

And a writer who doesn't send a publicist a gift at tour's end is a savage.

[Kathleen]

This is increibly helpful. Thank you.

[Laura Benedict]

Bless you, Kathy! My first questionaire will be arriving soon and I had no idea what to expect. I will do my best to be my publicist's least-annoying, most helpful ally. And I will attend my first Bouchercon armed with lots of cards and a place to keep all the ones I'll be bugging people for. Thanks!

[Kathy]

Laura, I'm sure you'll do great! Have fun at Bouchercon.

[Stacey Cochran]

Kathy,

I'd love to buy you a drink at the Bouchercon bar. And thank you.:)

Stacey

[Kat Richardson]

I'm nervous about being the one negative voice, here, but, alas, my experience with my first publicist was not so positive, even though I did all of the things you outlined and asked where I could take on some of the weight for my publicist, since I knew she was the only person handling all publicity for four imprints. Again and again I was told either, "don't worry about it," or "I'm spread too thin" but no information on how I could help. I never recieved an author questionnaire, notifications of schedule changes, or requests for information went unanswered until I took them to my editor who passed them back to my publicist from her own desk. The overall impression given was that I was not important enough to rate time in the publicist's day--I know that's not the impression she meant to give, she did seem to be trying and legitimately overburdened, but it's still the impression I got.

The publisher recently hired an additional publicist who has been assigned to my imprint group and things have been much more positive ever since, but the opportunities lost, the reviewers and booksellers ignored, and the general feeling that I shouldn't take up my publicist's time with silly questions like "why may I not schedule anything with Barnes & Noble?" or "this bookseller would like to have books for the pre-release, what must I do to be sure she gets them?" have left a very bad taste in my mouth. I would argue that working with your publicist and being positive and willing is certainly advisable, but how is an author to know when they are not getting reasonable support from the publicist? I think some writers may have a legitimate beef and new authors especially simply don't know what they _should_ be getting from their publicist as well as what they should be giving. You've covered the latter, how 'bout the former?

[Kathy]

All fair questions and I’ve been trying to figure how to answer this fairly. First I want to explain the publicity timeframe. Six months before pub date, your publicist, when appropriate, will send your book for serial excerpt and set up events—some stores will set up events earlier, some later. Barnes & Noble requires that events be set up through their national office, not on a store by store basis. They try and accommodate all requests from local authors. Borders prefers events to be set up by regional managers, again not on store by store basis. Working through a national centralized office can slow the process down and may explain why you can’t get readings at all the stores you want. Untried authors are often only booked at a single local store.

Three to four months before pub date, your publicist will send out galleys to publications with long-lead time (magazines and higher profile electronic media), as well as your local media and book review editors and major dailies (LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, etc). This mailing will be followed up by phone and email.

Six weeks to a month before pub date, a much larger mailing goes out to a larger list of book review editors, media on tour stops, and local media. Again these are followed up with phone calls and email, and this is when you’ll hear most from your publicist.

If your publicist doesn’t answer your phone calls or emails, call your editor. Make it clear that you need to find out how to get books to the bookseller. (However, the bookseller really shouldn’t be going to you about that—they should order the books through their rep or distributor. And you should suggest to the bookseller that they go through normal channels to obtain books.) It’s also possible that your publicist has forwarded your email to the correct person to contact and the task is being completed without notifying you.

I advise new authors to sit down and talk with their publicist, after the manuscript has been turned in and the proofs are being corrected, and ask them how they work and what they plan to do.

I hope that helps.