What PR is and What it isn't ...

Sometimes clients have strange ideas about what public relations (PR) will do for their company, product or service. The primary expectation is that with enough reviews and coverage for their books, in this case, that this exposure will result in a landslide of sales. Here is what PR will without a doubt do no matter what. If you get placements, reviews, interviews, features in print, broadcast and radio, you will gain exposure and increase visibility for your book and platform. Those two things will absolutely happen. Sometimes (and not all of the time) this exposure results in increased sales. Other times, it does not. My book Second Bloom received adequate exposure in regional press and a little national exposure. It did gain the recognition. When I would mention its name, many people began to recognize it and me. But it never triggered a best seller. The book A Feast at the Beach has had very good exposure mostly in national media, and it has, off and on, triggered great sales. It's really a crapshoot and sometimes clients get frustrated and measure our abilities with the sales. The only measurement taken in terms of what our PR services have or have not done is to measure placements. Our job is to get that placement and exposure. We have no control over the buying public or their behavior -- that is just a flat fact. Mixing up the two areas -- exposure and visibility with sales -- as a way to measure how effective your PR person is in doing his/her job is not an accurate measurement. If we could control the buying public's behavior or reaction to your products or services, we would be rich without a doubt.