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Guest
Speaker:
Caitlin Hamilton Summie,Publicity
and Marketing |
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On May 19th, twenty RMMWA members and their guests enjoyed dinner with Caitlin Hamilton Summie, former Director of Marketing and Publicity of both MacMurray & Beck and BlueHen Books, a division of Penguin-Putnam. Now the head of her own successful publicity company, Caitlin Hamilton Marketing and Publicity, LLC., Caitlin had plenty to share. First she explained the difference between publicity and marketing. Publicity primarily pertains to media-television, print, radio; and marketing pertains to signings, special promotions and niche targeting. Second, she raised the pros and cons of the bookselling business in the present. Some of the negative things facing authors include: diminished review space; too many books on the shelves; price of books; the fact that the book market is flat, except for the religious market; library budget cuts and the fact libraries are being requested to provide more DVDs and videos; and the loss of the Oprah Book Club. On the plus side, there is the internet; literary blogs; an upswing in the publication of literary trade paperbacks; Harry Potter; and city-wide reading. What happens to your manuscript once you turn it in? It goes to the sales, marketing and publicity staff. Her first job is to create a marketing outline. That's followed by a staff session where details of the campaign are discussed, ideas are made and budgets are finalized. By April 1st, all plans are final for a book due out in October. Once the plan is made, marketing and publicity take the book to the sales conference and introduce it to the reps. Hopefully all of the reps have seen the manuscript by now, and you hope some have read it and love the book as much as you do. You have three seconds to pitch the highlights. Once the reps have logged in, the print runs are decided, and the promotion is on. At this point, she starts sending things to the magazines and media with "long leads," five to six month advance time. Then four months out she sends to trades (Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus) and larger magazines. The book mailing is finished, more media is contacted, the internet mailings and information go out. Reviews and events are all set prior to the publication date; the success and/or failure of the campaign evaluated before the lay down date. Then there's the follow up, follow up, follow up. How can you help? 1. Education yourself about the business. Learn your pitch. 2. Fill out all Author Questionnaires. Some publicists don't use them, but it's very helpful for your publicist to know where you went to school, who you used to work for, contacts you might have, anything that can open a door. 3. Build a rapport with your publicist. DO NOT tick him or her off. Your publicist is not there to fight your battles. That's what your agent and your editor is for. In a large house you might not see all the work that your publicist puts in for you, but they work very hard. They might also have other books they're promoting, so you need to be the person they want to put that extra effort out for. Don't be afraid to ask your publicist what they're doing for you, but be positive and encouraging. 4. Look at your hooks: who are you, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses. Be creative! Develop personal mailing list. Have a website ready to launch, and secure your web name early. 5.) After your initial publicity push. After the initial publicity is over, your publicist is going to have to let your book go and move on to other books. This is inevitable, even for mega-stars. Look upon this time as your opportunity to extend the life of your book. Speak to book clubs. Get on panels and signings with other authors. You're now free to try all the ideas you might not have gotten approval for when the house was doing their publicity campaign. Go for it! AND, last but not least, send Thank You notes! They matter, they are appreciated, they work!
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