Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 6 Issue 1

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK “BUY” TO PURCHASE ANY BOOK BE SMART ABOUT PUBLICITY SCAMS IN 2016 (CONT’D) non-fiction,. No legitimate talk show host would request a fee. In a situation like that, your publicist will probably get the money and you'll get nothing. Also be very wary if a publicist doesn’t clearly discuss their fees or services and offer reasonable expectations—not pie in the sky with a cherry on top. You could be talking about big bucks, so insist upon a contract and have a lawyer look it over. You should receive a schedule of what he or she will do for you as well as projected costs for each of the items. You’ve probably heard this before, but for your own protection, get everything in writing. As Yogi Berra once said, “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” FINDING A LEGITIMATE PR PERSON THE RADIO SHOW IS PRESENTED BY WRITERS OF SOUTHERN NEVADA WATCH FOR NEWS ABOUT COLD COFFEE PRESS HTTP://WWW.COLDCOFFE EPRESS.COM WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE  BLOG  BOOK  EZINE  RADIO SHOW  FACEBOOK Many of the archived radio shows now on You Tube First of all, before you sign on the dotted line and fork over a retainer, check their track record for success. Even with the websites that say they reach 50,000 readers or figures like that, do your homework. Ask the potential publicist for the names of some of the books or authors they have worked with and check the rankings. Talk to some of the clients if possible and find out what services they contracted for and if they were satisfied. In the case of a website, pick a few of the books they are promoting on their site, and see what the rankings are with online booksellers. If the figure is something like 3,785,431, you know it was wasted money. Make sure that any publicist you do hire has experience promoting books in your genre. In other words, don't hire someone whose professional experience is solely promoting romance if you've written a sci-fi thriller book. Outline your goals and what you anticipate from your PR campaign. Explain what kind of exposure you'd like and be practical. Don't automatically assume because you are working with a publicist they can make you a bestselling author overnight. I’ve heard new authors say they would be disappointed with anything less than sales of 5,000,000 copies. This is the kind of talk that shows they haven’t got a clue to the dog-eat-dog world of book sales. Yes, New York Times bestselling authors can often anticipate those numbers, and occasionally a new author gets lucky—generally one under contract to a major house—but if you research average sales numbers for your genre and have reasonable expectations, then you can work out a plan with your publicist. Don’t give them an impossible goal. Truthfully, publicity services can be very expensive and they're not for all authors. Some authors with deep pockets spend thousands of dollars a month. Don’t plunge yourself into deep debt thinking that you’ll ma

Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 6 Issue 1 | Page 24