“Hiring a publicist is like getting an insurance policy for the success of your book,” Mark Fortier explains to Bestseller Interviews, a website that traditionally features interviews with the likes of Dan Heath, Seth Godin, and Steven Levitt about what goes into making a hit book. Fortier, who left a partnership at Goldberg McDuffie to launch his own PR firm earlier this year, discusses when hiring an outside publicist is a good move, whether it can actually turn a book into a bestseller, whether reviews really matter, and so on. The key to success, he reiterates, is that you can’t just expect a publicist to do everything for the book&38212;it’s all about maximizing the potential that’s already there. “If the author is not engaged directly in the process,” Fortier warns, “even the best publicist can’t make a book a success.”