What exactly do you do on a publicity campaign?

This question was posed to me today and the answer isn't cut and dry simple unfortunately. It depends on the topic and merits of the book.

For example, I am representing a retirement book for government employees soon. This is a non-fiction book written to inform government employees of their many retirement options and advertise a company's services at the same time.

The book is well written with no apparent typos, has a great cover and has a relevant topic. The author obviously isn't as interested in book signings as in lectures for people who are interested in his topic to garner new business contacts. He is also more interested in local media so he can reach potential clients.

For this client I will planning an event calendar around his area at local libraries and other free venues then send that calendar to the local teacher's unions, fire union, fraternal order of police and any other civil servants I can reach. I will also be contacting his local media around the events I line up and try for several interviews. So long as there aren't any devastating events such as the Virginia Tech shooting I should be able to garner interest in his local area. After I have covered his local area, I will spread out to the national level and make contacts.

A book I represented last year was a political thriller. The premise of the book was fascinating and was decently written. Unfortunately, that genre is extremely hard to write well because all of your facts have to be dead on to get a good review. This author was not dead on all his facts. He also was not returnable for book stores and if you have read my other posts, you know that this is the kiss of death for book signings at book stores. This author is also from a large metropolitan area so authors aren't big news.

I struggled with representing this author. None of the bookstores in his area would host him since he wasn't returnable. Not a single one would even host him on a consignment basis. I set him up to do signings at several local coffee shops but he went to one and stood up the rest. I tried for any and all local media and I did get him some articles and interview requests. The last interview request he turned down. I really wasn't too hard on him though because by this time he was getting reviews back that weren't bad but did point out a lot of storyline flaws. I really don't blame him for getting discouraged.

Another author I'm speaking with has a book that he churned out quickly -he admits this -and is a powerful message delivered poorly. I have told him flat out that I will not send it to my reviewers because I won't get positive reviews from them if they even post a review at all. This author's message is so powerful though that I am trying to figure out how to sell his message without really pushing the book angle hard. Wish me luck on that one. I really just want the author to rewrite but his publisher (not truly traditional but claims to be) REALLY doesn't like that idea.

Honestly, a media campaign cannot be planned until the book is in the hands of the publicist. What I do for an author depends on the topic, quality and region of the author. As I come across different problems in the campaign, I shift my tactics and try different ideas continually.