Pitching a publicity firm: A guide for authors

Many authors don’t realize that pitching your book to a top publicity firm is a lot like pitching it to a prospective agent or publisher. Good firms are going to interview you as much as you interview them and will only take on authors that they feel are a) a good fit for their firm and b) have a message that the media is going to be interested in.

Why?

Like agents, publicists have two sets of clients. On one side publicists have the authors and publishers they represent and on the other they have the media contacts that they have built relationships with through the years. If a firm starts taking on bad books from poorly qualified authors, those media relationships get damaged and the brand takes a swift nose dive.

What key factors play into a publicity firm’s decision to take on a new author?

• Credentials of the author
• Timeliness of the message
• Quality of the book
• Realistic expectations (i.e. does not utter “I HAVE to be on Oprah”)
• An author who is passionate about their message (i.e. willing to get up early for interviews)

All of the factors listed above play into a judgment on how much national media potential the book has and whether or not that publicist is confident they can be successful with the book. If not, there is no sense attaching the brand to an author.

So, for those of you that are out looking for a publicist to help promote your book, remember the following:

1. Do your research. There are hundreds of book publicity options out there: freelancers, boutique firms, large conglomerates and the list continues. Before you start sending your book to any of the numerous publicity firms you’ll find on the internet, it’s a good idea to take a little time to decide what’s important to you. Do you want to have one person that can throw 100 percent of their attention to you and your book? Or, is it important to you to have a team-based approach to promoting your book? Is brand recognition important? How far do you want to take your book? Thoroughly review a company’s web site and take careful consideration to how the firm (or freelancer) is presenting themselves. If you are not impressed with the way the represent themselves to you, you’ll not likely be comfortable with the way they represent your book to the media.

2. Follow the submission guidelines. If a firm says they absolutely don’t review poetry (or short stories, mysteries, or whatever genre,) don’t send them your poetry book. If a publicity firm asks you to provide a synopsis and author bio in addition to a review copy of your book (as P&P does,) do it. The reason they are asking for so much information is to get a good impression of how much potential your project has.

3. Provide any additional examples of media experience! We have a clause on our submission guidelines asking authors to provide “any other information you feel is important, such as your website address, endorsements, newspaper clippings, examples of past media experience, etc.” Now, if you haven’t received any press yet, don’t panic! It usually won’t make or break whether or not a publicity firm decides to take on a book. We like to have those interviews or press clippings as samples of any previous media coverage an author has gotten and to give us an idea of how they’ll perform on air. Go ahead and send ‘em.

4. Please provide your contact information. Believe it or not, I have received a couple of random packages from authors that contained their book and nothing else. Not even a return address on the envelope. No cover letter, no synopsis of the content, and NO CONTACT INFORMATION. I speak the truth. When you submit your book for review, make sure that you provide a good e-mail address or the phone number where you can be reached the majority of the time. And if you don’t provide contact information, please don’t call me angrily asking why you haven’t heard from anyone yet.

5. Help me help you. One of the best cover letters I’ve ever received from a prospective client contained an entire section titled, “Why is this book a good fit for Phenix & Phenix?” The author then gave several articulate, well-reasoned answers to this question. This was so nice because it gave us a good idea of where the author wanted to take his book. It also showed that the author had researched our firm and had an understanding of the characteristics we look for in books. I think this is applicable to querying agents or submitting manuscripts to publishers for consideration. Think of ways to make their lives easier. Why is it going to be advantageous for them to take a chance on you? And remember: be patient. Because of the nature of the media, publicity firms usually have a timely turnaround. Agents and publishers take longer, but think about how many manuscripts they have to go through each month!

Finding a good publicity firm is very important, but when you’ve worked so hard on your book, isn’t it worth it to be choosy? Keep these tips in mind when you start looking and remember to follow the rules when you start submitting.

Publicity Q&A

One of our blog readers sent us a question Friday:

Dear Ms. Andrews--

I'm enjoying your blogs. I'm trying to avoid the POD/subsidy publisher thing. What are my options?

Martin MM

Thanks for the note, Martin. This is a popular question among authors that contact our firm.

Finding the right publisher for your book is extremely important, so kudos to you for doing your research before inking a deal. I’ll start off with a little bit of industry background to get all our readers on the same page.

Print-on-Demand (POD) is a publishing method that has proliferated over the last ten years or so. Books are printed one at a time, as ordered. They are not stored in warehouses and have very limited distribution, mainly through online outlets and special order. No matter what the publisher tells you, it’s very rare to see a POD book sitting on the shelves of Barnes & Noble or Borders stores outside of an author’s local area.

When you’re deciding on a publisher, it’s important to determine your goals first. If you’d just like to have your book available through online outlets and “back of the room” sales or if you just want to sell a few copies to family and friends, POD might actually be a good option for you. In those cases, having solid distribution really doesn’t matter and POD publishing allows you to keep your up-front expenses low. Plus, you’ll be able save yourself the time and energy of trying to find an agent and you’ll be able to see your name in print more quickly. But, beware! Typically the overall quality of POD books leaves a lot to be desired (I have talked to many, many POD authors that were very unsatisfied with the final design of their book) and there are many POD publishers that do not have the best interests of their authors at heart. As a publicity firm, we tend to shy away from publicizing most POD books because of the lack of quality.

A large number of our clients are published through large houses like Thomas Nelson, St. Martin’s Press, Zondervan and others. We enjoy working with these books because they are well-designed, well-distributed and are written by authors with impressive credentials. The first step toward getting your book placed with a top publisher like these is finding a quality agent. I always point writers who are searching for tips on finding an agent to Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware , who blogs frequently about how new authors can find a top-notch agent. Searching for an agent requires the same type of research and precision that a publicist uses when targeting media outlets for a book.

Things to remember when looking for a good agent include:

• Don’t query agents that don’t rep books from your genre

• Pay close attention to the agency’s submission guidelines

• Be patient…finding a good agent can take time (i.e. don’t hound them!)

• Be wary of any agent that asks for $ up front or recommends paid editing services as a precursor to signing with them.

• If you have a personal connection or met them at a conference where they requested more information, make that clear in the subject line of your email.

Two good places to start looking for an agent are: agentquery.com and agentresearch.com.

If you decide to pursue self or independent publishing, there are a few quality companies to look at. Our sister company, BookPros, has established relationships with quality distributors like Biblio, Ingram, Baker & Taylor and even National Book Network. Going this direction is going to be much more expensive than POD, but as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Although there are no guarantees that you’ll sell thousands of copies, if you want a quality book with solid distribution and a national publicity campaign (provided by P&P), they are going to be your best bet. They also sport a proven track record of success, several awards for design and many satisfied clients.

Thanks again for the great question, Martin! If any of you other readers have publishing or publicity queries, please feel free to send us an e-mail or leave us a comment.