Should you hire an outside publicist?

I came across this blog post from literary agent Carly Watters: How much do you know about hiring an external publicist for your novel?  There are a lot of these kinds of columns to be found, including a few written by publicists, and they always seem to get something massively wrong. This post though hits everything right and I urge all authors to read it, (although the ballpark figure for pr on literary fiction is on the extreme high side – I hope it doesn’t put writers off from exploring the option).

There’s one point in Carly Watters’ post that I want to drill down on because it comes up for me every day and it just…there is no other word…sucks. I’ve received around ten calls for freelance publicity this week. I’ve referred every one of them to other freelancers or advised them on how they might work better and more closely with their in-house publicist. Three of the calls I got were for books that have already been published. Two of them were for books publishing next month. Carly Watters mentions this in her excellent post but it’s a point that deserves highlighting: If you are thinking of hiring a freelance publicist, start looking 8 to 12 months before your pub date. Not only because, as she notes, it helps everyone to be on the same plan, but also because A) the better publicists fill up for projects months in advance, B) you should give yourself time to find the publicist who is the right fit for you and your book, and C) a good freelance publicist will want to work with you and your publishing team to help develop and hone the message for the media as well as book buyers. Why this book? Why now? What does this book do better or different than other books? Etc. It’s all important in a fast moving media environment and will especially help the author as he/she talks about his book leading up to publication.

Meanwhile – No Kidding! In the middle of writing this I received a call from an author whose book had been published several months ago and didn’t receive the attention it might have. I explained the difficulties he is facing since the book came out so long ago (including that most media people are looking right now at books that will be published in June/July/next fall), told him I’m full for projects and referred him to the Publishing Trends Freelance Publicists list.

So. Forewarned, forearmed. The time to start thinking about book publicity is at least 6, ideally more, months before your publication date.

While I’m on m’soapbox, this post on author and publicist collaboration from the UK is well worth reading too: Ask Not What Your Publicist Can Do For You….  Note this part: “When a book is taken on, publicists are involved from the very outset, and the author should also be part of the team from the beginning.” And “no author ever became hugely successful without working in partnership…It’s never enough just to write a great book.”

Years ago one of my mentors said, “A good book always finds its way.” I believe this. But in our overcrowded, noisy, extremely competitive publishing landscape, why wouldn’t you give your book, as well as your career, a leg up.