No one knows publicity better than a professional publicist. But what do you do when your own in-house publicist seems a little overwhelmed?
Talk to them about having you hire an outside publicist to work in collaboration with them. They may find it more a relief than a burden.
To find out more about this we asked veteran book publicist Susan Schwartzman to give us her thoughts.
Q: What should an author do if they really think that hiring an outside publicist might help their campaign?
SUSAN: Don’t wait until the last minute to hire a book publicist
Unfortunately, many authors query me after their book comes out which reduces their chances of getting reviews on websites and magazines which have a three-month lead time. Media tours generally take six weeks to book. You want to maximize media coverage when your book is just published, not six months after pub date, when bookstores may have already returned your book to the publisher and it’s no longer current. Have your publicist in place not less than 3 months before pub date.
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