Tips to Hire a Publicist or Marketing Person in Publishing?
Our new VP of Marketing, Victoria Andrew is our rock star and goddess of publicity for 3L Publishing's authors. She joined our team this winter, and I hired her because I have never seen a publicist kick major behind the way this woman does. Not only does she bring an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm to my team, but also she is incredibly passionate about literature and publishing. When you can find someone who is just as passionate as you are about your company then you've found the ideal person. So, here is why she makes other publicists' skills dull in comparison to hers (and if you're an author what to look for in an ideal publicist):
15 Years in Publishing -- Victoria knows more about the publishing and book business than even I do. When we first started talking, she brought up refreshing ideas about how to approach the publicity side of the business from an entirely new vantage point. While I've spent the majority of my career working on magazines and custom publications, she's spent the majority of her career focused exclusively on books. If you're looking to hire a publicist to support your book, look for someone who really knows this industry. Ask them their specific credentials when it comes to book promotion. How many years experience do they have in this industry? What is their education? Simple experience in, say, marketing or public relations won't cut it. Your publicist needs to fully understand the ins and outs of book publishing.
True Knowledge of Book Promotion -- most PR people will tell you the standard promotion tactics. These include developing a media kit and press release and pitching to the regional and national media. He or she might suggest you do a wire drop and show great enthusiasm over a good pick up on a wire drop. Let me tell you something: in all of my experience with wire drops, they only provide exposure. I've never seen a wire drop trigger real sales. Regional and national media pitching is standard to all publicity campaigns. What you want to hear from your book publicist are ideas that you've never heard before. I'm not going to give out our trade secrets here on the blog, but Victoria is going to tell our clients WAY more than regional and national pitching and wire drops. A publicist who truly knows book publicity and understands this industry is going to share a whole lot more than ideas about pitches to broadcast, print and radio. And if that is all you're hearing out of your prospective publicist's bag of tricks then you're not going to get what you need.
True Results -- Victoria gets results not once a week or every other day. Victoria gets results every day! Yes, you read that correctly. She is so good at what she does, she gets results every single day. Just over a weekend (a weekend), she set up three new radio interviews just for me and California Girl Chronicles. She has focused strategies and goes through her bag of tricks in an incremental, strategic way. While the kinds of results vary, she still gets them. She doesn't give our clients a bunch of excuses as to why she can't get them a book review or an interview. She doesn't have to make excuses. So much of what she does is driven by ardent, passionate enthusiasm and commitment. She doesn't go through the motions, because she's getting paid. She communicates with our clients on a consistent basis. She answers questions. She picks up her phone. She doesn't shrug her shoulders when she hasn't gotten good pick-up and blame the author or blame the subject matter. She figures out how to succeed and get those results. In a business that can seem like all air and feathers, Victoria makes it more like concrete and sales.
If you would like more information about our PR services, send an email to info@3LPublishing.com. If you would like more information on 3L Publishing, visit our website at www.3LPublishing.com.
15 Years in Publishing -- Victoria knows more about the publishing and book business than even I do. When we first started talking, she brought up refreshing ideas about how to approach the publicity side of the business from an entirely new vantage point. While I've spent the majority of my career working on magazines and custom publications, she's spent the majority of her career focused exclusively on books. If you're looking to hire a publicist to support your book, look for someone who really knows this industry. Ask them their specific credentials when it comes to book promotion. How many years experience do they have in this industry? What is their education? Simple experience in, say, marketing or public relations won't cut it. Your publicist needs to fully understand the ins and outs of book publishing.
True Knowledge of Book Promotion -- most PR people will tell you the standard promotion tactics. These include developing a media kit and press release and pitching to the regional and national media. He or she might suggest you do a wire drop and show great enthusiasm over a good pick up on a wire drop. Let me tell you something: in all of my experience with wire drops, they only provide exposure. I've never seen a wire drop trigger real sales. Regional and national media pitching is standard to all publicity campaigns. What you want to hear from your book publicist are ideas that you've never heard before. I'm not going to give out our trade secrets here on the blog, but Victoria is going to tell our clients WAY more than regional and national pitching and wire drops. A publicist who truly knows book publicity and understands this industry is going to share a whole lot more than ideas about pitches to broadcast, print and radio. And if that is all you're hearing out of your prospective publicist's bag of tricks then you're not going to get what you need.
True Results -- Victoria gets results not once a week or every other day. Victoria gets results every day! Yes, you read that correctly. She is so good at what she does, she gets results every single day. Just over a weekend (a weekend), she set up three new radio interviews just for me and California Girl Chronicles. She has focused strategies and goes through her bag of tricks in an incremental, strategic way. While the kinds of results vary, she still gets them. She doesn't give our clients a bunch of excuses as to why she can't get them a book review or an interview. She doesn't have to make excuses. So much of what she does is driven by ardent, passionate enthusiasm and commitment. She doesn't go through the motions, because she's getting paid. She communicates with our clients on a consistent basis. She answers questions. She picks up her phone. She doesn't shrug her shoulders when she hasn't gotten good pick-up and blame the author or blame the subject matter. She figures out how to succeed and get those results. In a business that can seem like all air and feathers, Victoria makes it more like concrete and sales.
If you would like more information about our PR services, send an email to info@3LPublishing.com. If you would like more information on 3L Publishing, visit our website at www.3LPublishing.com.
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