Things to Look For When Seeking A Freelance Publicist by Sherri Rosen
New York City is a major city for publishing and for publicists. When you are seeking a freelance publicist here are some of the things to look
for and some of the questions to ask:
l. If you left a message in their office how quickly do they return your call? That will give you an idea how on top of things the publicist will be on your project.
2. If your book is being published by a major publisher, does he/she ask you what the publisher is doing on your behalf? Reason being
you don’t want to replicate the work that the publisher is doing, unless the publicist has a special connection to media that your publisher
doesn’t have.
3. All authors feel there book should be on the New York Times Best Seller List which is great! And you, the author, tell them that’s what you want. But make
sure she/he is straight with you and tells you that it could happen, to never give up, but that’ should not be the prime reason for getting publicity.
4. Look at the publicist’s website. Do you resonate with it? Do you like the feel when you move through it.
5. Think about your publicity budget right from the beginning and speak to the publicist to see what their charges are. The conversation
may begin and end right there.
6. If you feel the publicist isn’t being respectful to you and your work and doesn’t take anytime with you, Do Not Hire That Publicist!
7. Does the publicist ask to read through your book? If not, how does she/he create a media campaign for you if she doesn’t read your book.
Or does the publicist create what i call a cooky cutter list which she/he uses for everyone.
8. You want a media campaign designed especially for your and your book.
9. Ask for references. No one can speak about the publicist’s work better than folks she/he has worked with.
l0. Sometimes your book is being published by a small press, ask her if she could do some of things the small press is not doing for your book. Such
as sending it to book reviewers, book bloggers – for review.
11. Ask the publicist if she/he likes your book. You can tell if they are being straight with you. You don’t want to work with someone who either hasn’t
read through your book, or doesn’t seem to be too thrilled about your work. That complacent energy transmits when the publicist reaches out to media.
12. Is the publicist transparent with you? Does she/he allow you to see a summary of the media that publicist has created. Are you constantly informed
on what is going on?
13. What type of books has the publicist worked on? If you live in another country does the publicist work with multi-cultural authors?
14. If the publicist does not take anytime with you, DO NOT HIRE THAT PUBLICIST!
15. Make a list ahead of time of questions you want to ask during the conversation.
l6. Speak to a few publicists to get educated unless the first one you speak to is exactly what you were looking for.
l7..Does the publicist work as a team with you or she/he wants to leave you in the dark about a lot of things.
l8. Is the publicist flexible. Meaning if the press release you are using isn’t working, will the publicist change it. Or if you have an idea
is the publicist open to working with you on it.
l9. Has the publicist worked on self-published books? What has been his/her experience?
Hopefully this information is helpful to you and try to go with your gut feeling of either liking the publicist or my goodness “I do not like this person”.
Tags: authors, book publicity, first book, new writer, NYC, publicist nyc, publicity nyc, sherri rosen, Sherri Rosen Publicity Int'l, sherri rosen publicity nyc, writers
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2014 at 5:32 am and is filed under Clients, Friends and Colleagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 11th, 2014 at 10:32 am
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