The Pros and Cons of Hiring One-Stop Shops vs. Multiple Specialists for Book Publicity

There are many different services that publicity firms and individual publicity consultants offer to authors looking to promote their books. These services can include any combination of the following:

• Helping you identify your personal brand, your target audience, and your potential reach as an author

• Creating media kits (press releases, fact sheets, Q&As, etc.), distributing press releases on the newswire services, and creating sales pitches targeted to specific markets

• Working with you to fine-tune your website and create the best possible web promotion for your book

• Scheduling book signing and reading events

• Contacting local and national television and radio station producers to set up interviews

• Working with local and national print and online editors to obtain feature coverage

• Setting up speaking engagements at targeted venues

• Placing articles you’ve written in targeted print and online publications

• Helping you identify your strengths as a blogger, so you can capitalize on the blogging community

• Working with you to develop an integrated social media brand image on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and other social media sites

• Setting up blog tours and online author interview opportunities

• Providing guidance on the creation of promotional items (bookstore posters, bookmarks, postcards, tear sheets, business cards, etc.)

• Acting as a sounding board for ideas, helping to answer general questions, and providing guidance on promotional issues

Most publicists feel comfortable doing the majority of the items listed here. Some, however, may specialize in one or more these tasks – there are those, for example, who work only with authors and books in specific content areas; others specialize in scheduling feature interviews with national media; some mainly offer blog tours or set up social media pages, while others specialize in magazine article placement. 

What any publicist does specifically for a client will vary depending on the book’s subject matter, whether the book is fiction or nonfiction, the amount and types of publicity the author is looking for, the author’s platform, and the author’s budget.

So, what should authors consider before hiring a publicist? I suggest thinking about 1) the scope of promotional work you’re looking for, 2) the budget and timeframe for the work, and 3) whether or not you want to hire one publicist to handle everything, or use a number of specialists to handle different aspects of your publicity.

Which brings me to the main question: Which is better, the one-stop shop (hiring one publicist to handle all of the work), or farming out different parts of the publicity work to multiple consultants?

Here are the pros and cons (from a publicist’s point of view) for each option:

The Pros of the One-Stop Shop

-       You get one unified, focused perspective and source of guidance to work with (rather than possibly having to deal with conflicting information and points of view from numerous consultants)

-       You have one contact point for your publicity, which makes it easier for media, speaking venues, readers, etc., to reach you or your publicity contact

-       The person handling your publicity will be able to easily integrate all the aspects of the book’s promotion because s/he is the only one doing so

-       Your branding and all of the publicity information put out about you is consistent, because it comes from one place

-       You may be able to save time on your projects because just one person is handling all of them (rather than having to wait for different people to coordinate/adjust their schedules)

-       You may be able to save on costs by hiring one person whose rates, style, and availability fit your budget and needs

The Cons of the One-Stop Shop

-       The publicist you choose may not handle all of the types of publicity you want to use in your promotional campaign

-       The publicist may not be able to accommodate the timing you want for some of your promotional projects

-       You might want more perspective than just one person’s on your promotional campaign

The Pros of Hiring Multiple/Specialized Publicity Consultants or Firms

-       You can spread out the expertise you need depending on what each publicist/promotional expert offers

-       You can bounce ideas off of multiple experts to see what fits/suites you best

-       If all of your consultants are on the same page, you can use them as a kind of marketing team that works together to help you promote your book

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The Cons of Hiring Multiple/Specialized Publicity Consultants or Firms

-       You can get conflicting information and/or opinions from different PR consultants, which can result in confusion, misunderstandings, and/or discord in your working relationships

-       You can have problems establishing boundaries, especially if some or all of the consultants are used to doing the same thing

-       People looking to contact you or your publicist may have a hard time deciding how to best reach you if there are multiple individuals promoting your work at the same time

-       Your brand may be difficult to manage as a unified image if multiple people are presenting you to the public, or if your consultants aren’t all on the same page

-       You may find it time-consuming to juggle the intricacies of having all the consultants work together efficiently

-       You may be tempted to play one expert off another in the hopes of finding a champion when you don’t agree with one of your consultants, which can result in a breach of trust

-       Your projects may take more time if there are any scheduling conflicts or miscommunication/confusion/misunderstandings among the consultants.

-       It may cost more to hire multiple consultants or firms

There is no right or wrong answer as to whether you should hire just one person for all your publicity needs, or consider using a number of different people with expertise in certain areas. Personally, I prefer to handle all of my client’s publicity – doing so makes it easier to be responsive, provide guidance, and maintain a consistent promotional and brand image. But, I have, on many occasions, worked with other consultants on client projects, and I’ve enjoyed those interactions.

Whichever way you decide to go, it’s crucial to be up-front from the beginning about what you want the individuals you’re hiring to do (rather than spring it on the publicist or team after the work gets going). If more than one consultant or firm will be involved, it’s especially important to be clear on individual assignments, so that each consultant knows what his boundaries are and how his work fits in with that of the other consultants you’re using.  

When Selling Books, Don’t Forget to Finish Your Swing

As many of you know, I have a daughter who plays college softball. Thus, I spend most of my weekends in the spring driving for hours on California highways and sitting in the stands at college stadiums, cheering the team on while trying to avoid the inevitable sunburn and rear-end numbness we softball moms lovingly refer to as “bleacher butt.” Yes, it can be tiring and time-consuming, but the end result is worth it – I get to watch my daughter and her teammates play the game they love, and nothing gives me more joy (except maybe, after a few nights spent on lumpy hotel mattresses, coming home and sleeping in my own bed).

While I don’t purport to know a lot about softball (I never played it, although I did play a season of women’s rugby in college and have the dental work to prove it), I’ve learned some invaluable lessons from this sport that my daughter adores. One lesson, in particular, that resonates is the adage to “finish your swing,” which my daughter’s hitting coaches claim is the most important part of sending that softball over the fence for a home run. And, just as in softball, finishing strong can be the best way to guarantee success for authors who are trying to promote their books.

As a publicist, I’ve been hired by many authors who are eager to succeed at the publicity game. They are willing to pay me for my services, travel to parts unknown to give talks and sign books, and spend lots of money on printing, postage, and other expenses to get the word out about their work. But while the majority of the authors are willing to part with their hard-earned cash, I find that oftentimes they don’t consider that the work of promotion isn’t finished once I’m able to garner whatever type of publicity they’re looking for, whether it’s setting up a book or blog tour, helping them place articles in magazines and journals, or scheduling media interviews.

And that’s because making these types of events happen is not all there is to it. Once an event or interview is set up, there’s a lot more work to be done – booksellers want display copies, giveaways, and sometimes even food and drinks supplied for their events, and most of them expect the author to fill the seats with attendees.  Likewise, other venues where authors appear (whether it be a library, a museum, a church, a specialty store, or a professional organization luncheon) often hold the same expectations. And even bloggers expect review and giveaway copies, along with the promise that the author will share the blogger’s link on social media sites.

This means that authors have a continued role to play once their publicists book gigs for them. Yes, getting the bookseller, producer, or venue host to say yes is the first step (and oftentimes a big one, depending on the importance of the event to the author), and yes, some events, blog posts, and interviews bring their own viewers. But, in most cases, the work isn’t finished with the confirmation. In addition to showing up (which requires a certain amount of preparation in itself), authors can expect to provide all the amenities for the event including, in many cases, the attendees.

But it’s not fair, authors say – I have to write the book, hire a publicist, pay a lot of expenses, and then I’m supposed to fill the room, too?  

The answer is a resounding yes – your publicist and the venue host can do a good portion of the promoting leg-work for you but, in general, the events your publicist sets up for you will only be successful if you follow through.

But where do I find people to attend my events? authors ask.  Many authors are reluctant to go back to their friends and family members who have already been asked multiple times to buy books and attend signings. But there are other ways to promote an event – here are some to consider:

• Think outside the friends and family box – post notices at work, school, church, book clubs, etc. Hand them out to your fellow yoga classmates, post them at the grocery store and coffee shop near you, and keep them handy when traveling, so you always have one to give to a potential attendee.

• Offer incentives for people to come – free food, drink, giveaways, etc., can often be a motivator for those who are considering attending an event

• Place notices in local media online calendars

• Send out press releases to local media and schedule interviews prior to the event

• Announce events on social media sites

• Blog about your upcoming events – share some insights into what you plan to do there or what the event means to you

• Promote your event or interview at related group meetings and on social media sites where you and your books’ content would be of interest

• List event dates and times prominently on your blog and website

• Send out reminders to those on your email lists

• Be proactive in promoting – tell anyone who might be interested, as often as possible, about your upcoming appearances, interviews, etc.

While completing these activities might sound daunting, consider the ramifications of not doing any social media promotion, not sending display and review copies, not providing giveaways on blog tours, not listing events on your blog and websites, and not talking about your upcoming gigs to anyone who might be interested. Without these types of author follow-up, your events run the risk of not being very successful. You might have connected by setting up the event, but the real power is in the follow-through. Ask my daughter – she’s hitting .415 this season, and she’ll be the first to tell you that even though her swing is strong, the really big hits don’t come unless she finishes moving that bat all the way through.

Defining Success: How Three Authors Made Their Publishing Dreams Come True

Success often means different things to different people, and that is certainly true for most authors. While the majority of authors would probably agree that being able to complete a book is an accomplishment in itself, many define success as more than just the act of writing.

For some, success is achieved through obtaining a contract from a major publishing house. Others want to build their own writing empires by going the self-publishing route. For many authors, success means landing a book deal after being self-published. Others wish to achieve a certain status on the bestseller lists, while others desire to develop a solid core of readers. Some aspire to become established in a particular genre, while others write only for themselves or their family members

There is no right or wrong when it comes to an individual author’s goals. And the definition of success will be different depending on what authors believe is most important to their personal plans for themselves.

The following authors are clients who have been successful in their publishing efforts. They come from different backgrounds and write in different genres. And although their individual goals differ, each of them has managed to achieve the level of success they envisioned. Here’s how they did it:

Corey Lynn Fayman
Author of the San Diego-based Rolly Fingers mystery series, Black Beach Shuffle, Border Field Blues, and the soon-to-be-released Slab City Rockers. www.coreylynnfayman.com

A powerful new voice on the crime-fiction scene (ForeWord Reviews), Corey Lynn Fayman is the creator of Rolly Waters, the San Diego, California-based guitar-playing detective first featured in the San Diego Book Awards nominated mystery Black's Beach Shuffle. Encouraged by this early success, he set about writing a second Rolly Waters Mystery, Border Field Blues, winner of the Genre Award at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival, and has inked a deal for his third novel with Severn House Publishers. Corey hails from San Diego, where he's worked as a keyboard player for local bands, a sound designer for the world-famous Old Globe Theatre, and an interactive designer for organizations both corporate and sundry. He also teaches at various colleges and universities.

What specific goals do you have for yourself as an author and how have you achieved those goals?

My initial goal was just to find out if I could write a mystery novel, one based on the idea of a guitar-playing detective that had been rolling around in my head for a while. About halfway through the process I realized that one book wouldn’t be enough if I wanted to do justice to the character, as well as find finding my authentic voice as a writer. I committed myself to writing two more books in the series, not matter how long it took, no looking back. The second book, Border Field Blues, took much longer to write, but I learned so much in the process. It taught me how to write, and prepared me for the challenges of completing the third book on a much tighter deadline. My other goal in writing three books was to give the series a chance to be picked up in the marketplace. Getting a contract with a well-known and respected publisher like Severn House gave me a great shot of confidence. People like Rolly Waters. I’m on the right track.

What's the next step for you as an author?

Getting to know the business better, and figuring out how I can become more active in advancing my writing career without becoming an empty shill. There are so many ways to promote your work these days, from traditional book tours to blogs to social media to book trailers. You can’t do them all. You need to settle on the ones that work best for you. I’m partway there, but it’s still something I’m working on, finding my promotional voice, so to speak, now that I’ve developed my writing voice.

What advice do you have for authors who are just starting out?

Learn to read your own work with a jaded and objective eye. Don’t fall in love with the stuff you thought was brilliant and important when you first put it to paper. Let your characters lead. Let them help you discover the story. Your book may not turn out to be what you originally had in mind, but it will end up being a better book. I remember feeling surprised when I had Rolly Waters run from the crime scene in the opening chapter of Black’s Beach Shuffle. I didn’t know why he did it, except that it felt right at the time. It ended up being a great way to introduce a key fault in his character (poor impulse control), as well as setting up later plot points.

On the business side, try everything and find out what works for you. Go to conferences, develop a blog, enter contests, and join writing groups (online and in person). Anything that keeps you moving forward is valuable. Learning what you don’t like to do is valuable too.

Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Nonfiction author of several how-to books, including What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?, and creator of the romantic mystery series, Saving Grace, Leaving Annalise, and Finding Harmony, and the first spin-off, Going for Kona. www.pamelahutchins.com

Often compared to Janet Evanovich for fiction or Erma Bombeck for nonfiction, award-winning author Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes romantic mysteries and hilarious nonfiction, and moonlights as a workplace investigator and employment attorney. She is passionate about great writing and smart authorpreneurship, and her books have hit the best-seller lists multiple times.

What specific goals do you have for yourself as an author and how have you achieved those goals?

The most important goals for me are to write and publish the books of my heart as best as I can create them, and to make writing novels my full-time occupation. To write the books of my heart, I had to eschew the traditional publishing path (although I had published one nonfiction book traditionally, before), where each agent wanted me to rewrite my novels differently to appeal potentially to their editor contact. I wasn’t on board for that, not at this time of change and opportunity in the publishing industry. I decided to publish them independently. To make my indie novels the best they could be, I modeled my process after traditional publishing and ensured that my books received multiple levels of topnotch interactive editing attention. It was expensive, but paid for itself immediately. While no author is the best judge of the quality of her own books, I hope that the contest wins, amazing sales, and the thousands of reviews are a positive indicator of the results of this process.

As to the full-time novelist goal, that has become a reality after three short years of publishing, but ten long years of writing. To meet this goal, besides writing books that would appeal to readers, I had to develop my own brand, cover my own expenses, and create my own income stream. I modeled my writing career after successful hybrid authors like J.A. Konrath. Konrath stresses that an indie writer needs to produce quality volume at an attractive price. To this end, I publish one full-length novel every six months. While working on my brand and visibility, I studied the paths of some successful erotica and YA indie novelists and their first-in-series-permafree strategy. While the thought of giving away my best-selling book scared me, I decided to try it, and it worked. I supported it with aggressive, ongoing online advertising, and my writer income became sufficient to give up my day job as an attorney. You can read all the ins and outs of this journey and process in What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?, an updated version of which will be released in February 2015.

What's the next step for you as an author?

Write, write, write! I have my next seven novels lined up in a row to write, and I’m really looking forward to it. I brainstorm collaboratively with my husband, too, so that’s a lot of fun. After the impact of my 2013 60-cities-in-60-days book tour across 17,000 miles and the 2014 America-the-Beautiful tour over 11,000 miles of North Western states, I’m also hoping to schedule a book tour trip up the west coast of the US and Canada to Alaska one summer soon, and a bicycling-across-America book tour one spring in the not too distant future as well.

What advice do you have for authors who are just starting out?

I coach a lot of published and unpublished writers, on writing, on publishing, and on promotion. By and large, I see them in too much of a hurry to get through the writing part to get to the publishing part only to eschew the promotion part. Put in the work, and the time, up front. It takes hundreds of thousands of words to develop voice, and millions to develop your storytelling ability. I wish I’d seen different for any writer, but I haven’t. This goes double if you’re going to publish independently, without the extensive editorial support of big publishing. Slow down and write a book that won’t net you scathing reviews. The Internet is forever, my friends, and a name once sullied with a reader is hard to overcome. (And even if you write a super book, you are really the only one who can “sell” it, no matter how it’s published, so be prepared to get your hands dirty with promotion.)

C. L. Hoang
Author of the historical Vietnam War novel, Once upon a Mulberry Field www.mulberryfieldsforever.com

C. L. Hoang was born and raised in South Vietnam and came to the United States in the 1970s. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and earns his living as an electronic engineer, with eleven patents to his name to date. His debut novel, Once upon a Mulberry Field, a love story set at the height of the Vietnam War, has won multiple awards, including a Gold Medal (Historical Literature Fiction) in the 2014 Global Ebook Awards, a Grand Prize (Fiction) in the 2014 LuckyCinda Book Contest, an Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest 22nd Annual Self-Published Book Awards (2014), and a nomination as a Finalist (Historical Fiction) in the 2014 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

What specific goals do you have for yourself as an author and how have you achieved those goals?

My goal in writing Once upon a Mulberry Field was to share different perspectives and stories from various people, both Vietnamese and American, whose lives had been affected by the Vietnam War. Thus, many of those stories may prove of interest to such diverse audiences as American veterans who served in Vietnam during the war, their families and friends, Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in America after the war, as well as the baby boomers who came of age during the tumultuous sixties. The general themes of love, loss, and redemption may appeal to a female audience, and there may also be interest from history buffs or younger folks curious about that chapter in history.

To try and reach all those different audiences, I offered to give a talk about my book at as many venues as I could get access to: book club, library, church group, rotary club, spa resort, writer’s group etc. It was nerve-racking at first since I’m not a born public speaker, but it did get easier with time and practice. The ultimate reward that makes it all worthwhile is the direct, personal connection with my audiences.

Book awards, both regional and national, also serve to validate and highlight the quality of a book, especially when it comes to self-published works. In my case, they helped to open some doors for me that might otherwise have been off limits.

What's the next step for you as an author?

After Once upon a Mulberry Field was published on Valentine’s Day of 2014, the rest of the year was devoted to promoting the book to its intended audiences. That was a full-time effort that left little room for anything else, which made me realize just how much I missed my quiet writing time. So hopefully 2015 will be a year of rejuvenation for me, if you will, as I will try to scale back on my book marketing duties and reserve some time to write again. There are still many stories floating around in my head demanding to be told, and I would love to capture them for a second book that I hope won’t take six years to write!

What advice do you have for authors who are just starting out?

Believe in your story with all your heart, and tell it in the absolute best way you can. Write, edit (with professional help), rewrite—until you start spinning around in circles! Then go out there and promote the daylight out of it, all the while remaining realistic about your marketing goals. Seize on any public speaking opportunity to share your story, no matter how uncomfortable you may feel (for it gets easier with practice). After all, who else can tell it better than you can, right? Enter book contests to get an idea how you stack up against the competition. Besides boosting your confidence, a book award can distinguish your work from the rest of the field and win you some good will—even potential new readers. Some contests also provide helpful commentaries from the judges. But most of all, stop and savor every small accomplishment along the way, and no matter what happens, never lose that sense of fulfillment already achieved just by finishing your book. Happy writing and best wishes with your publishing efforts!