London SYP Speaker Meeting – Publicity: Staying in the Public Eye

Posted on November 13, 2008 in Uncategorized

SYP welcomed Danuta Kean, Rosie Glaisher and Pru Rowlandson to October’s Speaker Meeting. Each has had a unique experience of working within the field of publicity and they were able to offer some useful advice to budding publicists.

Glaisher has been Publicity Director at Penguin Press since 2000 and has focused on publicising a wide range of non-fiction titles from Allen Lane as well as Penguin Classics. For those out there who did not know, publicising books involves any sort of promotion or coverage as long as it does not cost any money. Glaisher states: ‘It’s surprising that so many authors do not realise this.’ Lots of people have the idea that working in publicity involves lots of glamorous launch parties. The truth is that this is only a very small part of most publicity roles, although it is a sociable business on the whole. Glaisher confides: ‘lavish launch parties are a huge strain on financial resources and there are so many other ways in which to launch a new title.’ Publicists can take advantage of free publicity from newspapers and magazines not to mention bookshop events and literary festivals. Glaisher emphasises that communicating with other departments, such as rights, editorial and sales is essential for successfully publicising a title. As well as this, keeping in touch with the author and checking that they can attend certain events in advance is recommended! Above all keep in mind the personal qualities needed. Glaisher states that these are: ‘Organisation, persistence and team playing. And always look forward!’

Rowlandson is Publicity Director at Granta and Portobello books and has been heavily involved with literary festivals such as the Debut Author’s Festival. She wishes to remove the myth that publicity involves champagne parties and promoting blockbuster beasts: ‘quite often I may have to promote a little-heard-of Polish author which is always a challenge.’ Rowlandson urges young publicists to consider every option and think outside the box. Keeping abreast of current events and trends is one way to stay ahead. Rowlandson swears by the Today programme on Radio 4. ‘Anything can happen in the news and this might be something that might publicise one of your authors. Your author might be an expert on a subject that is getting a lot of current media attention. Seize the day and push them into the limelight.’

Kean is a freelance journalist and publishing commentator whose work has appeared in The Times and The Financial Times. A prolific writer, she has contributed to many other publications as well as presenting Textual Analysis on Channel4Radio. She agrees with Rowlandson; if your author is an expert on a certain subject, push them forward. Niche communities are very active and have multitudinous magazines and web pages that may be exploited by publicists. Kean is not sure about Facebook and MySpace as a means of publicising an author. ‘It has to be interactive and stimulating to be worth it’, she states. Another thing to consider is the fact that the BBC do not offer as much coverage as they used to. This can be a plus, ‘but bear in mind that if you phone up BBC Leicester wanting your author to talk on a show, they must have a direct link to Leicester itself!’

This useful talk closed with questions and our trio of experts concluded that the secret of a good publicist is managing the author’s expectations in balance with mining for exciting ideas. With that, we all went to the pub around the corner to think about it over a nice pint of something.