The Art of Finding a Publicist and the Importance of Enlisting One

As an author there are a lot of things I'm savvy at doing on my own, namely, writing. But writing alone doesn't get one noticed as most authors know.

I have excellent business sense and a wicked sense of efficiency which has always worked in my favor. In addition to managing my own social media mediums, I've tracked down blog radio shows and gotten myself engaged as a guest. I've participated in blog interviews given by other promising authors who maintain a very large following. I've had my story published in my local paper (which is a very large paper, serving three large counties), I've done local speaking engagements, I've been asked to do and accepted local book signings, but there's only so much I can do on my own.

In that respect, I've hired myself a publicist. This is a near must for any artist, especially a writer if that writer wants to a good chance at being noticed through the sea of works out there, not the least of which is the influx of self-published works; traditionally published authors like myself know it, and talented self-published authors know it. So in the past, and especially in these times, it's a great idea to get yourself a publicist to help you navigate that sea of words that we authors have been set adrift upon.

Our goal is to let readers know that our words are worth reading and a publicist can help with that in a big way. The unfortunate downside to being a decent writer is knowing that readers think just because it's in a book means that the writing is good. It's frustrating, but there it is. It's a truth that must be dealt with. Not all books are created equal.

So, my advice to you aspiring authors, hire a publicist if you can get your hands on and afford one. One great way of doing this is to make excellent connections online using social media, and if you've been lucky enough to find a publicist you want to make sure they have a lot of great community connections.

The publicist I have hired, for instance, carries these important assets with her (She assured me that she could do the following things): 1) create a sell sheet with my input; 2) create press releases; 3) schedule signings at local bookstores; 4) keep me in contact with the western community and events (which of course is essential to me as I've written a book in the historical fiction genre about Billy the Kid - the western community would therefor be my main selling demographic; and 5) contact local media, both newspapers and radio.

So at present I am feeling very fortunate, but I also need to remind myself that I worked hard to get to this point; to seek out like-minded people such as myself who could not only give me astonishingly great social media ideas, but put me in touch with people like my publicist simply because I've taken my role as writer and the novel I wrote, as well as the novels I have in the works right now, extremely seriously, just like the friends I've made along the way and have been with me up until this point. So I don't know if I could call myself "fortunate" so much as I could call myself "determined". Things like this rarely fall into your lap--you need to work at it, and let me assure you, it's tough, so you'd better be in love with the art of writing and all the struggles that come with it, because the book doesn't end when you write the last word. Then comes the submissions, rejections, finding a good publisher, and doing your best to make other good choices that will hopefully ensure your precious bound baby of pages winds up in the right hands.