Well – I can tell you that there was a ton of buzz about the Huffington Post’s recent book section addition on my floor. As I work in publicity, you can imagine how all those publicists took the news that a major publicity outlet was going to increase its book coverage. And then we read Amy Hertz’s (Editor of HuffPost Books) post about how us lowly publicists can achieve a coveted spot for our books.
She is very adamant that this new section is NOT a book review section. That was number one on her list.
Also on her list:
- We should all blog – publicists, authors, authors’ friends, and especially editors. We have to prove that we fell in love with this book for a good reason.
I understand that blogging tends to be important (although only if you can create original content). But, as you know, I can barely keep up with my own personal blogging. And I guarantee you that I don’t have as much free time at work as I do when I’m off the clock. If the book is important enough blogging should be part of the publicity campaign – but we deal with so many books at one time. Right now I’m dealing with 6 books and I am, by far, one of the least busiest people on my team. One can’t be expected to sustain a blog for each book and really, one post per book won’t make a huge difference.
- We can ask bloggers to review our books (but, let’s be clear, this is only if “you’re not willing to step out from behind your desk, if you’re not willing to let the world know how you feel personally about the books…). And if you are going to pitch bloggers don’t send a generic pitch, personalize it – take a lesson from Jonathan Fields.
Uh – yes, I’m insulted. The fact is: more blog reviews are better than one (even if it is my own blog doing the review). I know that bloggers don’t respond well to generic pitches from experience. I’ve done blog outreach and I sat down and personalized every single email. Well, it was slow, I didn’t have any other books to work on and I’m an assistant. This is not a practical solution so I would like all bloggers to please check their inflated self worth at the office door. The following bit is from Jonathan Fields touting the need for personal interaction in today’s social media-evolving world:
When my book, Career Renegade, came out earlier this year… I hand wrote personal notes that were included in nearly every copy that went out. Then, I sent personal e-mails, not anonymous blasts, and DMed most on twitter. And…we only reached out to those I knew would be genuinely interested…
Was that hours of extra work? Yup! Was it worth it? (He goes on to say yes, it’s worth it).
What did I notice most in that paragraph? The heavy use of “I”. Of course he’s taking the time to send out personalized notes – it’s HIS book! Expect it from the authors – not the publicists. We send out press releases to gauge interest – (and, yes, we really do only send to those people we genuinely believe are interested) – and then we cultivate personal relationships from there. Read his whole piece, I’m not saying he doesn’t have a point but I do think he’s being overly harsh on publicists.
- Forget the publication date.
It’s standard practice to time the majority of a book’s publicity around the publication date. I agree that buzz starts early, especially on the Internet and that it’s good to start pitching even 2 to 4 months out. This means that publicists will have to get especially creative since most of the time we just don’t have anything to show the media this far out if galleys (advanced reader copies) weren’t made for the title.
- “Start a conversation with our readers. …whatever you do, speak personally, authentically and from the heart because they can smell an adapted press release a mile away.”
News Flash – every press release I write is from the heart (for the most part). I will sometimes spend hours, days on a press release making sure that the wording does the book and the author justice, that it truly tells the story and let’s others see why we chose to publish this book in the first place. What more do you want from me!? We come up with article and feature ideas, try to bring all the pieces together, make sure the media is happy, our authors are happy, the authors’ partners and friends are happy. And you tell me it’s not enough? My blood, sweat and tears go into my job – I love it! And I’m the first to admit that there are things that could be better and that sometimes I slack on a title, but give me a break, the entire system, as has been suggested, is not broken.
-Emily
Emily Lyman
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