Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd.

Rainbow 2000 said:

http://www.cameronpm.co.uk/

Has any individual self publishers had any successful dealings with it? Spent over a thousand pounds. So far, my results are very poor. Where did it go wrong? Is it the book or the publicity and marketing campaign? Was skimmed work done? If the book is no good, then why take on the job?

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It's difficult to tell.

We don't know the book they were publicising, we don't know what they did to publicise it, and we don't know how easily available the book was. So we can't tell you what went wrong, I'm afraid.

Press releases and hard copy books are sent out to people but this sent out list is kept confidential. So, how do one know what work was done?

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I can't tell you.

All I can say is that next time, it would be useful to find out what the distribution list is before you subscribe to it. I'm sorry; I know that's not helpful for you. But it might help the next writer to come along.

The owner is an American but the voice mail has an Irish accent! I thought I was going to deal with an Irish man in the U.K. and I felt safe doing so, but it turned out otherwise.

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Did you ask if this was the case? If you did, and they misled you, then you might have a case against them.

I am asking individual self publishers, and not the self publishing companies who deal with the marketing company; they will definitely praise this company. Thanks.

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If someone is self publishing they're doing the work themselves. Companies which offer these services are often dodgy. I would avoid them.

I'm going to move this to BR&BC, as it's more suited to that room than to our book promotion room; but if the room mods there disagree with me they're welcome to move this right back.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Rainbow 2000 said:

Old Hack, STOP messing around with silly, senseless replies! E.g. Why are you defining what is self publishing when I did not ask this question?? Leave it to those who had dealings with it, and can provide replies which are forward thinking with intelligence! I did ask about the distribution list but I was refused. This is what is meant by "confidential" as I have stated.

Where have you moved my thread to?? What is BR&BC?? Why not provide the link?? Have you got authority to do so?? You seem to be passing your old age here and messing about, probably answering every thread with non-experienced answers! Sorry, this is foolish and a time wasting venture of yours. STOP, please!

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Old Hack is a super mod. She's also a serious publishing professional, and her time is far too valuable to waste on you.

You've been a total PITA with your inability to read the screen, your entitled attitude, and your fundamental idiocy.

You're not welcome here.

I was going to say that I did an interview with Ben Cameron, the founder of the agency, that might shed some light. In fact, I'm still saying it, in case anyone else is interested. I would add that in the opinion of most professional book PR folks I've met, investing in PR is a waste of money for self-published writers.

But your response to Old Hack, who's one of the kindest and most helpful people on the forum, made it clear that you're not someone I'd ever want to interact with.

Barbara R. said:

I was going to say that I did an interview with Ben Cameron, the founder of the agency, that might shed some light. In fact, I'm still saying it, in case anyone else is interested. I would add that in the opinion of most professional book PR folks I've met, investing in PR is a waste of money for self-published writers.

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Interesting. At Writer's Digest they told us in almost every session to get a PR person (assuming we could afford it), whether self-published or not. According to them, that's the way to rise above the masses and stand out. Alas, you have to find a good PR person/firm, and my guess is there are a lot of scammers out there ready to take advantage.

Writer's Digest accepts an awful lot of advertising from PR agencies.

I'm hesitant to accept any advice from Writer's Digest, without deeply researching first.

Rainbow 2000 said:

Where have you moved my thread to?? What is BR&BC?? Why not provide the link??

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I should have provided a link to the moved thread. Because without it, you wouldn't have been able to find it in order to post your reply.

Oh.

zmethos said:

Interesting. At Writer's Digest they told us in almost every session to get a PR person (assuming we could afford it), whether self-published or not. According to them, that's the way to rise above the masses and stand out. Alas, you have to find a good PR person/firm, and my guess is there are a lot of scammers out there ready to take advantage.

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PR people do good work in helping books to sell. But they're only a small part of trade publishing's bookselling chain, and if all those other links are not in place, the PR person's efforts won't be effective.

Self publishers do not have access to the full bookselling chain. They very rarely have an offset print run, or full distribution, or sales into bookshops and advertising which targets the booksellers in those bookshops, so they have little or no retail presence. They rarely have reviews in the bigger publications, or the clout to gain much media attention. And so there's not much that the sort of PR that trade publishers do can do for their books. At least, not until they're well established, by which time they'll probably have the knowledge and understanding to do the work for themselves.

There are a lot of scammers, people eager to sell you meaningless services. One of the most useless is exhibition space at book fairs like Frankfurt. Anyone who's ever actually attended knows that NO ONE EVER LOOKS AT RANDOM BOOKS ON SHELVES! Those fairs are all about deal-making between professionals; even published (vs. self-published) writers are de trop. And the focus is always on rights to next year's big book, not on already published work. Yet some so-called PR firms offer this sort of thing. They also promise to put your press release in front of 20 million professionals, or whatever. This means blasted emails that are automatically deleted if not screened out. Useless.

One top pro who does publicity for one of the big 5 told me that his most shameful act, done when he was freelancing and starving, was to take on self-published novelists who he knew all along he couldn't really help, for all the reasons laid out in Old Hack's post.