Book Publicity: The New York Myth

By: Melissa Sandford
Submitted: 2007-09-03 13:44:37
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MYTH No.1

"To be a great publicist you need to work out of New York."

Please do not be deceived. Regardless of location, when it comes to running a national publicity campaign all book and literary publicists work one-on-one with contacts across the entire country via telephone, email, post and fax. Book and literary publicity is one of the rare business endeavors unaffected by the location, location, location factor.

Overall, a pricey upper east side address is good for a publicists business, not necessarily an authors. Sharing zip-codes with large publishing houses makes it easier for a book or literary publicist to acquire a continuous flow of new authors for themselves.

While there are some exceptional book and literary publicists working straight out of The Big Apple, it should be noted that having a publicist located in New York does not automatically guarantee an author that their writing will reach readers.

Instead of focusing on a publicists location, it is beneficial for an author, to instead, focus on a publicists overall work ethic and understanding of the business. When interviewing a potential publicist, an authors questions should, at the very least, incorporate general campaign topics. For example, discussing media kits is a great way to begin a dialog with a potential publicist.

Publicists across the nation, from New York to California all seem to agree:

The most effective media kits include a table of contents, personalized pitch letter, short author bio/photo, book cover, brief excerpt, as well as press releases, articles, mentions, reviews, frequently asked questions, contact information and a sell or fact sheet which outlines information on the title, isbn, publisher, page count and release date.

Other topics to discuss with potential publicity candidates include traditional, tried and true campaign tools including press releases, media pitches, book tours, review solicitation and clipping/filing services. In addition, in this day and age, most literary publicists also opt to include a mix of modern publicity tactics into their campaign strategy. The internet has opened many new avenues to promote your book, for example - websites, virtual book tours, online social networking, blogs and podcasts, to name a few. Online, the opportunities to promote your book are limitless.

Just remember, as a book can not always be judged by its cover, a publicist cannot always be sized up by their city.

M. Sandford is the founder of Flutterby Effect, LLC http://www.flutterbyeffectllc.com - an elite literary publicity agency dedicated to promoting book and author alike.

Article source: Expert Articles

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