Your publicist is assigned once your copyedit is completed.
To see your publicist:
- Visit your book’s page.
- Click on Publishing Team.
- Scroll down until you see your publicist.
- Any issues, contact the Author Forum.
- Your publicist performs an initial six hours PR on your book at launch (we do this for all books).
- We offer the option of EXTRA PR packages for authors who would like more time, and a more involved relationship with their publicist (not currently available for authors on the Zer0 Books imprint).
- Your publicist performs additional PR for every five hundred copies your book sells.
- Your Publicist (and the Managing Director) review progress after the first clear three months after publication, writing a brief report in Promotional Plan. You will be notified about this.
Every book we publish receives our Standard marketing campaign, which involves your publicist working six hours PR on your book.
You won’t be in direct contact with your publicist for this (though there is a lot you can do to support their work via your book’s Marketing page).
If you take out an Extra Publicity package you will enjoy a one-to-one relationship with your publicist via email/video call and many additional hours to work with them.
Your publicist will cast an eye over your cover, and check its suitability for the market.
They will create and deliver a promotional strategy for your book and add their plan to the Promotional Plans box.
Your publicist will base their approach on:
They will send out a targeted mailout, which is likely to be a mixture of pitches for reviews, articles, and interviews (print, online, radio, podcasts etc.). We do not blanket email contacts, as this is seen as spam, and your publicist will tailor their email to the contact.
Your publicist will also include your book on relevant JHP social media, and create memes where appropriate.
Your publicist then handles the responses, and the office supplies review copies (electronic PDF or hard-copy format) as requested.
This initial approach is recorded in Marketing Activities on your Marketing page as Email/Press Release Arranged and your publicist will update our Contacts Database as they go along.
- Standard PR: 1-2 months before publication.
- Extra PR : 1-1 initial chat 3 months out, PR starts 12-10 weeks before publication.
The first four things all authors should do:
- In Promotional Plans outline in bullets what you will do to promote your book. Update this regularly after publication. Add your website and social media.
- Under a separate title add Priorities for in-house PR. Detail the most important activities you think your in-house publicist should do to promote your book.
- Check your Keywords are the best they can be. The right words and phrases in your title, subtitle, blurb and Keyword box (on your Marketing page) greatly increase your visibility on search engines such as Google, Amazon, Apple and LibraryThing. As most people “shop” for books on line, this is crucial to your book’s success. If you’ve written a book that teaches reiki and someone searches for “book on how to do reiki” and your book does not show up on the first 1-3 pages of results, potential readers are not going to find it.
- Write down 8-10 interview talking points for your publicist to use in the promotion of your book. Interview talking points focus on the most interesting content in your book that you can share in an interview. Each point should only be a few sentences long. This list is used to “hook” the interviewer to having you as a guest. Upload your interview talking points as a Microsoft Word doc to the Articles section of the Publicity box on your Marketing page.
Do everything in your power to help by being your own publicist. This includes:
- Contact local bookstores and organize events and signings.
- Do you have media contacts, influencers or someone who can make a HUGE difference to your book? Tell your publicist about them. Make sure you mention them in Promotional Plans.
- Keep in touch. Add confirmed publicity you do to the Marketing Activities box on your Marketing page. Keeping an accurate record gives our Sales Reps more leverage to sell your book and your publicist more scope promote your work.
- Upload articles ideas, pre-written blogs, that your publicist can pitch.
The more information you share, the more effective your publicist can be.
Please direct any queries to the most relevant section of the Marketing & Publicity forum.
Share this page:
