Publicity PS

Hey, thanks for all the responses…My own response to this was getting so long that I decided to make it into another post!….Basically, I think Kevin, Charlie, and Olen have excellent points–originality is always the best way, and if you can think of original ways to get a lot of busy people’s attention, go for it. I’ve done a good deal of publicity on my own for my books, and I’m always trying to come up with new ideas (a film could work, Olen–but could I make mine NC17?)…I’m sure my efforts have helped somewhat. I think, at the very least, doing stuff on your own, will make any writer feel like they’re being proactive, that the fate of their book isn’t totally beyond their control (which it probably is!)…I guess, if you can afford it, having a publicist can’t hurt either, but does it necessarily help?…Heidi talked about finding a publicist who can work well with your publisher. I think if that works out it could be a perfect situation. You have your own publicist filling a niche that the in-house person can’t and–meanwhile–you do a lot of creative stuff on your own as well that neither publicist would have thought of and you get all the bases covered. My fear in the first part of this scenario is that the personal publicist and in-house publicist would simply wind up splitting the publicity job. The in-house person would figure that since someone else is making the calls to radio stations, etc, then he or she doesn’t have to, so that you would wind up paying X number of dollars to, essentially, get the same result…But if you’re at a smallish publisher, where you don’t think any attempt is being made on your behalf, then maybe a publicist isn’t such a bad idea…How’s that for being noncommittal?…I do have to say that, while doing a good chunk of publicity on your own can help in a lot of ways, it has its limitations. I used to work is sales and it’s a lot easier (and more natural) to sell something else, then to sell yourself. There’s a fine line between selling yourself and becoming a pain in the ass, and you have to be careful not to cross it. Professional publicists also–ideally–have up-to-date media contacts, etc, which would be nearly impossible for writers to cultivate on their own. Maybe you don’t need a publicist to get your local paper to do a story about you, but it would be difficult to make any headway at, say, People magazine….Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into all of this and I think writers have to think about what’s best for them…You’ve given me a lot to consider, but I’m still on the fence…