Top Ten Tuesday // Questions I’d ask book publicists!
Hello hello! Somehow, despite all odds, we have made it to another Tuesday of 2020. The LAST Tuesday of August!!
(For all my book-loving friends and followers who hardcore stan Halloween: we’re almost there, my friends!! 👻)
Anyways, another Top Ten Tuesday has rolled around, brought to us by our trusty leader, That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is “Top ten questions you’d ask authors” or something along those lines. I was trying to brainstorm some questions that I really would want to pester my favorite authors over, but instead of authors, my mind kept reverting back to publicists!
A little context: I recently graduated from college with my degree in Public Relations and Social Media Marketing, and I think it would be SO cool to work in the book publishing industry. I mean, getting to do something that I love and put books into the hands of readers? Oh hell yeah, dream job right there! Since I studied PR and media marketing, I think I’d have a lot of fun being a publicist for a major publishing house or for some of my favorites authors – planning book tours, placing media, helping them get their books into the hands of readers who will absolutely adore them.
So, for this Tuesday, I decided to write a list of the top ten questions I want to ask successful publicists in the publishing industry (please, help a girl out!!).
1. Where did you go to school, what did you major in, and do you think it lends well to book publishing?
PR is weeeeird, man. Like I really had no idea what I wanted to do when I started and even now this idea of working in the pub industry hasn’t started blooming in my head until the last year or so. I’d love to know where successful book publicists go to school (sadly, a lot of big publishing houses recruit heavily from large, upscale schools such as Ivy’s, NYU, the Cal schools, etc.) and if they think their degree lends itself really well to their current job!Â
2. What are some crucial skills that helped you succeed in publicity?
This one is kinda self explanatory. I feel like I have this weird gap period between graduating from college and building up experience to actually get a job in the publishing industry, so I’d love to know what useful skills I could work on building up in the meantime!Â
3. What does working as a publicist at a publishing house entail?
Do you have a few authors that you work with, or are you assigned one in particular? What is the hierarchy of the publicity department like? SO many questions!
4. How have platforms like Booktube, Bookstagram, Book blogs and Book Twitter influenced the way you market books?
It might be because I’m aware of the various niche book/reader communities now that I’m in them, but I wonder how the growth and visibility of these platforms has shaped how publicists plan their book campaigns. I can imagine it’s very different marketing a book on Bookstagram than it is on a book blog, so I wonder how the publishing industry has adapted!Â
5. What’s your favorite part about marketing a book?
I can imagine that there’s so much that goes into marketing a book. Identifying key audiences, effectively placing media, planning the ongoing promotion of a book! I’d love to hear what different publicists enjoy about the process and why.Â
6. What are the author/publicist relationships like?
The other day I watched Leigh Bardugo’s title and cover reveal for Rule of Wolves, and her publicist was the one to moderate, ask her questions, and assist with the reveal. I wonder if that’s the same publisher who helped her launch Shadow and Bone, and what that kind of relationship is like! I think being able to grow with an author and watch their writing and their career evolve would be super gratifying.
7. What’s your day-to-day like?
Give me a typical 9-5 day! What’s it like, what type of tasks do you do, what platforms do you work with, etc! I want a full itinerary – and I promise I won’t stalk you!Â
8. How closely do you (or the publicity department) work with other teams/departments?
So in a lot of cases, the publicity department and the marketing department are two separate things. Which is odd, right? PR & marketing often walk hand-in-hand, and I’m sure that they work very closely with one another to get the job done! I can imagine we’d have to pull in editorial, since they tend to know the book best, and creative for those bomb af graphics!!
9. What has been your experience working with the media?Â
For this question, I don’t mean influencers, I mean news outlets! What have you learned about pitching, about creating trustworthy media relationships, about creating buzz around a book that the news will be interested in? This is a huge component of PR and I’d love to hear about how it applies more narrowly to publishing.
10. Lastly, what advice would you give someone like me?
How can I become a more competitive candidate? What should I know going into this industry, and what’s one thing that will make or break my success? People who have been through it know so much more than I do, so please, please, tell me all your secrets!Â
Well, guys, thanks for sticking with me on this long, chaotic Top Ten Tuesday. It’s hard to imagine ever truly breaking into this industry because it’s just so dang niche and competitive, but in my wildest dreams, here’s where you’ll find me!Â
Hope you all have a lovely rest of your week, and thanks for reading! xx
16 Comments
Deanna @ A Novel Glimpse
Ooo! I like what you did with the topic here. I would be very interested in the answers.
erin
Thank you! (: I hope one day I finally get the chance to ask em!!
Jawahir
I also majored in marketing and my dream job would definitely be marketing books! I just love coming up with creative content and ideas that go with the book. It’s too much fun!
erin
Yes it’s so much fun!! Like I’d be happy all day everyday if I got to make money promoting books, wow truly a dream!
allison @ universewithinpages
I’ve always wanted to work at a publishing house too! It sounds like such a fun job, and I’d definitely want to know the answers to these questions as well.
erin
Ugh so much fun!! Like working with books all day? Sign me up! ♥
Ruby Rae Reads
This is such a cool listen of questions Erin. And I would also like to know. Especially your fourth question about the sale benefit of book-fluencers. Like how much do we REALLY help?? And about their favourite part. Such a cool post xoxo
erin
Right!!! Like the book influencer sphere has exploded recently (or at least become more visible?? In my personal opinion, but I could totally be wrong) and I’d love to know how publicists work w that!! Ugh so many questions so little answers
Ali
This seems like such a cool job! Maybe try reaching out to media publicists through Twitter or social media with some of these questions. It never hurts to try! With what I wanted to do, it was also super niche and I ended up somewhere that I’m happy with for now where I can learn skills and more about the industry I wanted to be involved in. My dream kind of evolved, but I think that’s the fun thing about putting yourself out there and being willing to try to reach your goal in creative ways…if that makes sense 😊
erin
Ohhh that’s actually such a great idea!! Maybe I should do some Twitter stalking, I mean why the heck not! Totally true, right now I’d settle for anything that got me some experience in the industry, even if it wasn’t necessarily what I “want” to be doing!! Gotta start somewhere (:
Margaret @ Weird Zeal
Working as a book publicist is kind of my dream job too! I don’t have a background in PR, but I always love helping organize author events at the bookstore where I work, and I’d love to do that from the publisher’s side 😄 I’d love to have the answers to all of these questions too!!
erin
Oh that’s so so neat that you work at a bookshop!! I’d love to do that for a year or two too, just to gain some customer experience in book selling, but there’s like no small-er bookstores where I live! Alas. Fingers crossed we both make it there one day!! ♥
Dini @ dinipandareads
Love your take on this week’s prompt. As someone who has been going through a bit of a re-think about what I’m doing in life (lol) I’ve been thinking about moving more in this direction as well, so all of these questions are awesome and I’d so love to know the answers! Great post 🙂
erin
Thank you! (: It’d be so fun to work in a field of something you’re passionate about, for sure!
emme
Loved reading this post!!
Working in publishing seems like such a fun job and it would be so interesting to hear the answers to the questions – especially the influencer marketing side. I’ve always found influencer marketing and it’s impact really interesting, from both a book and fashion/beauty perspective.
erin
Aw thank you!! Oh totally, influencers have so much power over different industries these days, it’s fascinating to see how the behind-the-scenes of all that works!