Publicity
Publicity is a very funny thing. Publishing Crimespree gives me exposure to a lot of people who want publicity, usually with out advertising. I understand it, and I even try to help, but sometimes the trhings we get are just kind of sily.
Strange occurance 1: I received a book to review that came with a press kit in a nice folder. Part of the press kit was a list of questions I could ask the author. Problem 1: When I interview someone I use mys own questions and really don't watn the publicist to give the questions to ask.
The next page was an interview with the author. The questions were the same questions I was given as questions I might want to ask. Now that's just silly, why would I bother asking questions I already have answers to?
Solution?: Don't include questions for me. The interview is a alright idea, but better would be a nice bio about the author that might include some background on the book's genesis as well.
Strange Occurance 2:
We get a lot of books mailed to us. It goes with the territory. We can not possibly review all the books we get, we don't have enough pages to do that. This means we have to find a way to cut down the numbers of possible books to review.
The first to go are books that show up a month or two after publication. Rare exceptions are made, but we are usually working on an issue three months or more down the road. Sneding me a April book in mid-May is just too late. The eralist issue it would run in is Sept., and that's just too far away from the pub date.
Solution?:
Get the books out as soon as possible for review.
Common occurance:
A lot of emails show up here from people looking for reviews, or other kinds of exposure for thier authors (or themselves). I've had publicists email four or five times asking if I'm going to review the new book from "Great new Thriller Writer". After getting the book and one email, that's enough. We are contstanly being "sold" to and it's gets old after a while. Truthfully I don't need to be updated every time a publicists author gets another review. What the New York TImes says about it isn't going to influence me.
I understand a book getting good reviews may help iinfluence a book seller to ordere more books, but I'm not selling books.
Solution?: Limit the Hard Sell and consider two different approaches, one for book sellers and one for the media who might give you exposure.
The list goes on and on. But I guess what I'm getting at is when trying to get exposure for a book, it is important to remember that most places that can give publicity are getting an awful lot of books and authors to choose from. If we get flooded with something it doesn't increase or desire to help push a book. So sometimes less is more.
One other pet peeve. I sometimes get notes in the book teling me not to run a review before the book hits the shelves. Well, sorry. I try to run it as close to the pub date as possible, but I really don't want to be told when to run a review.
Ok, enough ranting.
For the record there are a large number of great publicity people out there who do this stuff just right. They are a pleasure to work with. I wish there were more of them.
Strange occurance 1: I received a book to review that came with a press kit in a nice folder. Part of the press kit was a list of questions I could ask the author. Problem 1: When I interview someone I use mys own questions and really don't watn the publicist to give the questions to ask.
The next page was an interview with the author. The questions were the same questions I was given as questions I might want to ask. Now that's just silly, why would I bother asking questions I already have answers to?
Solution?: Don't include questions for me. The interview is a alright idea, but better would be a nice bio about the author that might include some background on the book's genesis as well.
Strange Occurance 2:
We get a lot of books mailed to us. It goes with the territory. We can not possibly review all the books we get, we don't have enough pages to do that. This means we have to find a way to cut down the numbers of possible books to review.
The first to go are books that show up a month or two after publication. Rare exceptions are made, but we are usually working on an issue three months or more down the road. Sneding me a April book in mid-May is just too late. The eralist issue it would run in is Sept., and that's just too far away from the pub date.
Solution?:
Get the books out as soon as possible for review.
Common occurance:
A lot of emails show up here from people looking for reviews, or other kinds of exposure for thier authors (or themselves). I've had publicists email four or five times asking if I'm going to review the new book from "Great new Thriller Writer". After getting the book and one email, that's enough. We are contstanly being "sold" to and it's gets old after a while. Truthfully I don't need to be updated every time a publicists author gets another review. What the New York TImes says about it isn't going to influence me.
I understand a book getting good reviews may help iinfluence a book seller to ordere more books, but I'm not selling books.
Solution?: Limit the Hard Sell and consider two different approaches, one for book sellers and one for the media who might give you exposure.
The list goes on and on. But I guess what I'm getting at is when trying to get exposure for a book, it is important to remember that most places that can give publicity are getting an awful lot of books and authors to choose from. If we get flooded with something it doesn't increase or desire to help push a book. So sometimes less is more.
One other pet peeve. I sometimes get notes in the book teling me not to run a review before the book hits the shelves. Well, sorry. I try to run it as close to the pub date as possible, but I really don't want to be told when to run a review.
Ok, enough ranting.
For the record there are a large number of great publicity people out there who do this stuff just right. They are a pleasure to work with. I wish there were more of them.
Views: 56
Comment
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Comment by Charles Kelly on May 25, 2007 at 1:14am
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As a reporter, I've been inundated with so much publicity junk that I have the same reaction as Jon. Just let me know something's out there: if I'm interested, I'll pursue it.
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Comment by Ali on May 23, 2007 at 3:40am
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That's why I consider Jon J my long lost brother - echo those notes
Ali
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Comment by Amanda Stevens on May 22, 2007 at 4:28am
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Very interesting and useful information, Jon. Thanks for posting this.
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Comment by Sandra Ruttan on May 21, 2007 at 1:37pm
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I'm glad you posted this Jon - I was tempted to say rant away! We experience so many of the same things, and I bet our volume isn't half what yours is, and I get frustrated.
One of my all-time favourites was from a publicist who'd interviewed the author themselves and then wanted us to run it. No way.
Some of the press kits are so elaborate, and contain such bizarre stuff, you wonder if they're selling the "hot new author" or the book. Honestly, I don't give a crap about all the extraneous stuff - it just goes in the garbage anyway.
If I'm ever going to hire a publicist I hope you don't mind if I hit you up for a referral.
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