Anyone know a good publicist?

Looking too....

Let me know if you find one.... I just talked with one of the biggest firms out there and they wanted to charge me $7k for a 2 month media campaine, yeah.... ok so anyway, what are our other options?

you can try the one that works for my publisher, she also has clients of her own. I have to say she gets the job done and is a darn nice lady!

Lessard Public Relations
www.leeannlessard.com

I've had pretty good luck with Judith Moose at JM Media Group. She's also the owner of Signing Stars Publishing. We put my book Angelic Heaven on the market last month and it's been a non-stop PR campaign ever since.

So far I've appeared for a signing event at the Hollywood Collectors Show and we've got another scheduled for this Sunday in Los Angeles followed by Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Chicago within the next few months. I've been interviewed by two magazines so far with another five still to go and there are three radio interviews scheduled for next month. I appeared on the WB Network show "Morning Saturday Edition" in San Diego and was also on CNN's "Showbiz Tonight" about two weeks ago. We're working on getting a few more television appearances scheduled and have had interest from "Access Hollywood", "Entertainment Tonight" and "Extra" so I'd say it's going pretty good.

Even though the PR I'm getting came with the publishing deal, she usually only charges her normal clients (singer Irene Cara, actors Joel Higgins, Gary Conway and others) a retainer that goes from $500 up to $1000 a month, which for a full-time publicist in this day and age is a really great deal. We work together on what gets booked and I don't do anything that I don't want to or she doesn't think is a good fit. We're a good team and she's really good at what she does. Drop her an email and I'm sure she'll get back to you.

JM Media Group
http://www.jmmediagroup.com

$500 up to $1000 a month, which for a full-time publicist in this day and age is a really great deal.

Sadly it's not great if that amount is almost or more than a family's monthly income.

Yes, poor people from the ghetto can be published authors too....

*sigh*

BarbaraSheridan said:

$500 up to $1000 a month, which for a full-time publicist in this day and age is a really great deal.

Sadly it's not great if that amount is almost or more than a family's monthly income.

Yes, poor people from the ghetto can be published authors too....

*sigh*

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Drop her a message anyway. You can't ever tell what she might be able to work out for you. Almost all of her clients have something to do with the entertainment industry but she's got a few corporate accounts too. If you need something specialized I'm sure she can tailor something for you that fits within your budget.

MichaelP said:

Drop her a message anyway. You can't ever tell what she might be able to work out for you. Almost all of her clients have something to do with the entertainment industry but she's got a few corporate accounts too. If you need something specialized I'm sure she can tailor something for you that fits within your budget.

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Thank you. And do forgive the previous Angst Fest . I've been working on the "tearjerker chapter" of a new book all day...life started imitating art there.

Michael, who published your book and what is it about? I can't imagine a self-published author needing or benefiting from a publicist, especially one in the entertainment industry, unless his or her book is specifically about that industry.

Signing Stars put out the book and it's about the '70s television series "Charlie's Angels". The show is celebrating its 30th anniversary and I've worked with Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd for several years. Signing Stars is great with books pertaining to the entertainment industry and Judith is a whiz at entertainment publicity. It's been a match made in heaven.

Then it sounds like it's a good match for your book. But to other authors who are looking for a publicist for their self-published book; it's not worth doing, unless you have a strong platform to sell your books at conferences, talks, talk shows, etc. If you aren't an expert in something, hiring a publicist to try to get you radio time, etc. is not only a very expensive proposition, it's not a good use of anyone's time.

Publicity for your work

scalepluspoints said:

... who won't break the bank?

Thoughts?

- james

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Hi James,

I am a publicist and also an author. I know what is involved in getting a book to mark and then promoting it. If you would like to know more about our services, you can eamil me at [email protected].

Our services are affordable as we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to follow their dream.

Maria

Maria,
I would be interested to know what you offer your clients and what success you've had. I have a hard time imagining how an individual, unknown author benefits from hiring a publicist.

Has anyone ever considered going to the marketing and advertising departments of their local college or university, and placing an ad for a marketing student? Audition all the applicants you get, and choose the one that gives you what you deem is the best value for the money.

I don't know. It's just an "outside the box" kinda answer.

PR Services

Nomad said:

Maria,
I would be interested to know what you offer your clients and what success you've had. I have a hard time imagining how an individual, unknown author benefits from hiring a publicist.

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The goal of a publicity campaign is to take a product or client, whether it be a book, a musician, an artist, a car, or a new brand of jeans, and bring it to the target audience. It is precisely the unknown author who benefits from a publicity campaign. Authors like John Grisham now sell their work by name only. There was a time when these authors also needed a push.

A publicist will take on the campaign so that, for example, the author, can concentrate on writing another book, or working at their day job.

Our services may include radio and tv interviews, PR, consultation, targeted press releases, among other publicity elements. Our campaigns are tailored to whatever the client's specific needs are. We also have a booth at Book Expo America and showcase our author clients work there.

We are also about to launch a new product that will allow clients to showcase their work to interested parties at the click of a button. That's all I'll say about that for now!

Our success comes from our combined 30 years experience in PR and marketing.

We believe that everyone is entitled to reach for their dream. Sometimes they just need a bit of help.

Maria

Publicist said:

The goal of a publicity campaign is to take a product or client, whether it be a book, a musician, an artist, a car, or a new brand of jeans, and bring it to the target audience. It is precisely the unknown author who benefits from a publicity campaign. Our success comes from our combined 30 years experience in PR and marketing.

We believe that everyone is entitled to reach for their dream. Sometimes they just need a bit of help.

Maria

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Okay, but the measure of success for any published author is to sell books. How will you help these unknown, self-published authors sell books, specifically? And how have you succeeded doing so in the past?

What a publicist does

A publicist brings the author/books to the attention of the public. Our job is to sell the story of the book and the author. This is done through media campaigns which may include contacting newspapers, radio, television, book reviewers, etc., nationally and internationally, groups and organizations that would find the subject matter relevant. It may also include, for example, obtaining gift bag hand-outs, that is, finding an event during which the organizers agree to sponsor or find sponsorhip (or the author/product developer pays) and hand out a copy of the product to everyone in attendance. They are all sorts of possibilities to achieve attention. It is a matter of research and contacting the right people.

People aren't going to buy the book if they don't know it exists. Publicists do not have control over how many copies are going to be sold - that is up to the public. It may well be that an extensive campaign is launched, the book receives a lot of media attention, but people still don't want to buy it. Same with any other product. You have seen products in the past, whether it be a new type of soda or a new type of sporting equipment that is launched with extensive hype only to be pulled a short while later, because the public did not support it.

I am not going to discuss specific clients as I respect their confidentiality. However, I can tell you that in my own personal case and in general, I researched extensively groups, websites, organizations that would be a fit for the issue that my book was about (landmines). These were the places that I targeted. I achieved media, nationally and internationally, requests for speaking engagements, interest from schools and libraries, and celebrity endorsement.

Maria

Okay, but what, specifically, do you DO for the client so that the public's attention is drawn to it? I went to your site and you list a bunch of self-published books. What are you doing for those authors that they can't do for themselves?

Nomad said:

Okay, but what, specifically, do you DO for the client so that the public's attention is drawn to it?

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Wait, wait! I know.

blah blah blah blah cheer blah blah publishers don't promote unknowns blah blah blah bring book to peoples' attention blah blah blah blah vague stuff blah blah no mention of actual book sales blah blah blah

Nomad said:

Okay, but what, specifically, do you DO for the client so that the public's attention is drawn to it? I went to your site and you list a bunch of self-published books. What are you doing for those authors that they can't do for themselves?

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I think I already answered that. Everything that I mentioned for my work. The list is not inclusive, by the way. As each book is different, each one will have different ways of promotion, although of course, the basics are there.

Can people promote their own work? Of course - just like you don't need a lawyer to launch a lawsuit. Some people prefer to do it on their own and some people prefer to hire someone to do it.

Some authors don't have the time to do it themselves. They may have a job that they can't give up. Some don't like or don't feel comfortable with engaging in marketing / promotional work.

Ultimately, the best person to decide what they want or need is the author themself.

And by the way, to answer Lloyd's question about sales, coming along nicely and increasing.

I guess what I'm asking for is a specific example of a Book--say Book X. Book X is about (fill in blank here), and this is what my company did: X, Y, and Z. Here were the results: the author of Book X was featured on x number of major talk radio shows, had x number drive-time radio interviews in major markets, had her book reviewed in x number of daily newspapers.

That's what I'm looking for. I am the marketing director of a publisher, and I can absolutely provide the information above for every title we publish. Of course you aren't responsible for tracking sales figures; no publicist is. But if you're selling your services as a way for self-published authors to get the public to notice them, you absolutely should be able to quantify the efforts you have made and provide a detailed list of the results from them.

Charting Results

Yes, of course we keep detailed records of contacts made, feedback and results for each client. This information is available to the client.

But as most publicists in ANY industry will tell you, publicity sells. So why not tell us what success you have had for your clients? I'm a little confused by your coyness regarding this. I've never met a publicist or marketing person who wasn't thrilled to be able to crow about publicity successes to anyone who would listen. Tell you what: I'll trade, tit for tat. I got reviews of our books in the New York Times Book Review this summer. How about you?

And the silence should tell you everything you need to know. Next!