Anatomy of a PR Campaign

Valerie Britton-Wilson reports in regarding the promotion of her excellent book “A Touch of India

You asked to hear news of promotional stuff - I’m not sure how much info you want but I’m attaching here all the successful exertions of Wendy McWilliams - it’s her ‘Media Report’ doc and has more than you need - but if you scroll down from page 18 onwards you will find pretty much everything. She was very good indeed.

But even so, book sales generated during her efforts nowhere near covered costs. Hiring a PR person, even at Wendy’s more moderate rates, is expensive - I put a cap on it at the outset and would recommend others do the same as the chargeable hours mount up v quickly.

I still have not got a handle on FaceBook or blogging though I have tried. (I even paid a teenager for a few hours of lessons!)

I’ve got a few book groups and speaking events coming up so that will help.

I’m so glad I put a gmail address on the back cover because the biggest pleasure for me has been feedback from strangers.

Here are a few of them:

Love the photos. It's interesting, the photo of your mother on the back cover does make her look perfectly beautiful, but in other shots, I can see what you mean, that she was lively and appealing, rather than classically beautiful. There's a photo of your parents both laughing, where she looks absolutely irresistible.

All the threads are fascinating. The bios of your parents, and your feelings for them. The extraordinary story of the Indian great-grandmother, the poignancy that you could find out no more about her, the illusiveness, some care and love for her which was good, but so removed from the record. Your impressions of India are vivid and thoughtful. Thoughts on Indian culture, politics, history all extremely interesting. Bits of history always just what I needed; never felt like information dump.The stories from people you knew in India. All those threads are very well woven together, which is very impressive and effective. Very difficult to pull that off, I would have thought.

It is intriguing – did you find this disconcerting? – that her writing style is somewhat similar to yours. Voices in families are often similar. Great quotes from all the primary sources. The letter from the fiancee is utterly heart-breaking. Can he really have written hundreds of thousands of words to her? All buried in the jungle.

Your relationship with your parents, your scattering of their ashes, is very moving.

MOTI was a remarkable achievement, especially since neither you nor Sue really had any experience in fashion design, let alone the business. It was perfectly pitched – wearable, flattering, but really interesting and stylish design. Pearl is such a nice name. I've been waiting for it to come back into fashion, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

I found A Touch of India such a compelling read and enjoyed every page. I wanted the story to go on forever and saved the last few chapters to read very quietly by myself at home.
When I arrived at the part which mentioned Pearl receiving Woody's letter I could feel my eyes brimming with tears which did not stop until well after the Postscript: Note to Mabel.
I commend your courage in writing about your family with such honesty and sharing with readers your personal thoughts and feelings.

I just have to tell you how much I am enjoying your book. I ordered it from the local library because I thought it looked interesting but I had no idea that it was in part the biography of Mr Britton. It is so beautifully written. I love the humour. I have not visited India but your descriptions tell me that you have a very deep love of the country.

I knew your dad in his capacity with music education in Brisbane. I had asked different people about him some time ago but nobody knew where he lived at that time.

I found your book in the Hill of Content Bookshop the Saturday before lockdown, and I read it from cover to cover at Pellegrini's Coffee Shop over the next two hours. I too have had a long association with India, and found it very evocative with many similar experiences.

Authors and their Digital Presence Explained

A thoughtful and in-depth examination of how authors are not getting the best results from their digital presence. The writer explains why the interests of authors and publishers do not always align, and how a new generation of author-centric services are being created. 

It is ironic that the author brand is foundational — the success of all title marketing depends on it and all publishers depend on title marketing — but how the author brands are developed gets very little professional attention.
— http://www.idealog.com/blog/authors-need-help-digital-presence-still-not-getting/

Public Relations and Authors

If you are one of those independent authors to whom selling does not come easily, you might want to consider a publicist. Local publicist Phillip Anderson offers reasonably priced six week campaigns. Such campaigns typically feature the following:

  • Author interviews and reviews in relevant newspapers
  • Author interviews with key online news sources
  • Book reviews across national and regional newspapers and online publications
  • National and local author radio interviews (where possible)

Phillip can be contacted via email: phillip@phillipandersonpublicity.com.au. Before engaging in such campaigns, authors will need to get their ducks in a row:

  • Make sure their books are easily available in the areas reached by the publicity
  • Ensure that they have spare stock in case sales go well (though this does not apply to print on demand and ebook sales online)
  • Rehearse the points they want to get across in interviews, the key selling strengths of their book, the so-called 'elevator pitch'. And have some kind of idea of potential customers and what kind of angles might appeal to them

These might seem obvious points, but we have seen a remarkable number of authors who weren't really across any of them before initiating publicity efforts. Remember: bookstores will be much better disposed to independent authors who are making a clear and sustained effort to promote their work.