Caren Johnson Literary Agency

By Catalina Alvira

I work at a publicity firm that specializes in public relations and marketing for the arts and entertainment industry. It’s the perfect job because I get to witness—on a daily basis—how a professional publicity firm puts together a PR campaign for its clients.

If you’re a newly published author (or even an aspiring writer), you’ve already heard the horror stories. Expect to spend a big portion of your tiny advance on hiring a publicist because your publisher probably won’t spend a dime to publicize your book. For this reason, agents, editors, and published authors all stress the fact that debut authors must be prepared to generate their own PR.

But really, what the heck does that mean, anyway?

Public relations—also known as PR—is the art of generating publicity for free. For a published author, it means getting your book reviewed. It means getting trade magazines and regional newspapers to write articles about you and your book. And it means thinking outside-the-box in order to get the word out there—in as many ways possible—and for free.

Can you do this yourself? Without spending $5000 to hire a professional publicist? Sure, and technically, you should. Because if you hire a publicist to generate PR for you, then it’s not free PR. It costs $5000.

While it’s true that a well-connected publicist can get you radio, TV, and other media coverage through their vast network of connections, it’s also true that, in the end, this kind of PR isn’t free if you spend $5000 to hire a professional publicist.

For some authors, hiring a publicist might make sense. For the rest of us cheapskates, there’s a reason why public relations is the art of getting publicity for free.

If you’re an author, promoting a book, then you need to learn the art of generating your own PR, which includes pitching yourself and your book as an article of interest for various magazines, newspapers, and websites.

How do you go about pitching yourself and your book to these media outlets? First, you need to think like a PR professional. And PR professionals are always asking the same question over and over: what’s the “tie-in”? What’s the reason why the magazine, or newspaper, or website should write an article about you or your book?

Every magazine, newspapers, and niche website/blog is looking for fresh content of interest to its readership. But before you (or your publicist) can pitch your book as an article of interest, there has to be a “tie-in.”

The good news is that most “tie-ins” fall into a four categories:

The Geographic “Tie-in”

Our publicity firm is located in Chicago, so our PR brainstorming meetings always start with the question: what’s the Chicago “tie-in”?

If our publicists want to get coverage in the Chicago trades, it helps to pitch a Chicago tie-in. The founding member of the arts organization grew up in Chicago. One of the lead dancers in the troupe went to school in Chicago. The playwright lives in Chicago. The lead actor visits his grandmother every summer in Chicago. Anything that will give the story a Chicago ‘tie-in” is fair game.

For authors, geography is a great angle to consider for a “tie-in” because the options are unlimited. Author have multiple possibilities for geographic “tie-ins.” Where was the author born? Raised? Graduated from college? Living currently?

The characters within your book also can have geographic “tie-ins.” Where do they live? Travel? Resolve their dramatic conflicts? Even the book’s setting is an inherent geographic tie-in. Important cities, towns, and historical landmarks—central to the book’s plot—all are tie-ins for a possible cover story within a regional newspaper or magazine.

The Gender/Ethnic/or Sexual Orientation “Tie-in”

There are trade publications and websites that target every demographic of our society. Good PR professionals understand what’s appropriate when trying to establish the right tie-in for each demographic.

You’re a lesbian author, so you’ll be scheduled for interviews in the gay pride publications. You’re a female author who writes about women’s issues and relationships, so your publicist will work the women’s interest magazine angle. Your characters are Latina, and your mother is from Mexico, so you’ve got the Latina connection within the Latino community magazines and newsletters.

In fact, the gender/race/sexual orientation “tie-in” may seem too obvious, in which case, the problem isn’t establishing the tie-in. It’s establishing how to distinguish your book’s tie-in from every other lesbian female Latina author who also has a lesbian female Latina tie-in.

Sometimes, it helps to go with the less-obvious tie-ins. If part of your book is set in Cuba, and you traveled to Cuba before writing the book, that’s a Latino tie-in. If you’re tackling an issue of cultural interest, like adopting a baby from China or Russia, that’s a cultural tie-in. If your brother is openly gay, and the main character of your book has a brother who’s brother, (and your gay brother inspired the character in your book), then that’s a tie-in.

The Plot & Theme “Tie-In”

One of the best ways to establish a plot & theme tie-in is to be familiar with the wide range of secondary-market publications. For example, magazines and websites about genealogy research are incredibly popular nowadays. So if you’ve written historical fiction, and you’ve done genealogy research in order to help develop your storyline, that’s a possible tie-in. Same with pets and animals. Maybe your main character owns an equestrian sanctuary, or has a pet parrot that’s featured through the book. Voilà—the perfect parrot pet tie-in.

Arts and Crafts. Music. Home and Design. Travel. Camping & Recreation. Boating & Sailing. Cars and Mechanics. Antiques. You really have no idea how many publications and websites are out there until you start digging for them. And once you start digging, pay attention to the most popular secondary-market publications. Then, try to come up with a tie-in for your own book.

The Outside-The-Box “Tie-in”

Recently, this whole idea of PR and “tie-ins” came together when I was randomly browsing through a publication that I never randomly browse.

The publication was The Costco Connection: a lifestyle magazine for Costco members. Inside, there was an article about Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel, Water for Elephants.

What’s the tie-in for the “book pick” article?

1). Sara Gruen is currently being sold at Costco warehouses and on costo.com.

2). Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco’s Book Buyer, chose Water for Elephants as her “Pennie’s Pick” (did Sara Gruen’s publicist pitch the idea of the “book pick” article to Pennie? Curious to know.)

3). Sara Gruen is a member of Costco (which the article specifically mentions)

4). Sara Gruen is giving away fifty signed copies of her book in a “signed book giveaway”—exclusive to Costco members.

This is the perfect example of the outside-the-box tie-in. Sara Gruen’s book is a word-of-mouth success story. Water for Elephants hit number one on the New York Times bestsellers list and was named the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year. And still, you see PR coverage about her book everywhere, including inside The Costco Connection.

I hope that gives you a glimpse into the professional world of public relations and how you can generate publicity for yourself and your book—for free. Next time, I’ll tackle how to write your own press releases, how to pitch directly to media outlets, and the importance of an interesting author photo!