From the Editor's Desk: The Seven Or So Habits of Highly Effective Book Publicists
One of my tasks at Foreword Reviews is to choose the 170 books we review in each issue of the magazine, so, in addition to sharing an office with hundreds of galleys, I’m continually shuffling through scores of tip sheets and cover letters and e-mail pitches from some of the best and worst publicists in the independent book industry. The good ones make my job easier. They don’t oversell a book, they don’t send me info I don’t need (eg, Q&As with the author, pages of testimonials, a life size author photo), they don’t write news releases that read like Hallmark cards. Good publicists know the book industry and understand what we do at Foreword. It makes me feel great when I choose one of their projects for review.
A good tip sheet makes my world a happy place and I lean hard on them because they distill the factual details of a book—a crucial step in helping me to quickly take stock of a book. Lousy tip sheets don’t list ALL the important metadata of a book in one tidy, prominent block of text. I’m especially frustrated when I can’t easily find a book’s pub date, publisher name, or a healthy author bio. Obviously, that same block of text will include a book’s title, subtitle, ISBN, binding, price, and page count.
Because our readers are mostly librarians, I get nervous when I receive good books from unfamiliar publishers because I’m concerned about things like whether the publisher has adequate inventory of the book along with solid distribution arrangements so that our readers can easily order the book. In other words, I love to see About the Publisher blurbs in tip sheets.
My favorite publicists don’t ever use the words bestselling or highly acclaimed when describing an author—unless they want me to die a little on the inside.
Effective publicists follow up with short, informative e-mails announcing that they submitted a book for review, as well as providing me with all the book’s crucial metadata—while NOT asking me to reply or confirm anything, especially whether we plan to review the book. In a perfect world, we’d have the book scanning resources or staff hours to inventory all submissions and then send out quick e-mails confirming that we received a book … alas.
If an e-book or PDF is the only way they can submit a review copy (I prefer physical review copies, even books printed two-sided on 8 ½ x 11“ paper and shoved in a big envelope), great publicists will feature the book title in the subject line, list the tip sheet metadata in the body of the e-mail, and also attach a PDF of the tip sheet, along with the e-book.
Considerate publicists don’t call me to pitch a book. It’s not that I have a phone phobia as much as I can’t quickly find the book on one of the many shelves in my office, so a phone call requires that I make a mental note or jot something down on a sticky note and that’s asking for trouble.
Publicists know their books far better than I ever will, so they do me a huge favor when they submit a book with a handwritten note saying something like, “Of all the books we’re doing this season, here’s the one I’m most excited about. It’s a good fit for Foreword and your readers will love it.”
Yes, certain publicists know that I can be testy, petulant, and quirky, but they also know I’m trying to stay on good terms with hundreds of independent publishers and thousands of librarians and booksellers. Without a doubt, my job would be dreadfully more difficult without the help of skilled publicists providing me with honest, well-written book details.
Matt Sutherland is Managing Editor at Foreword Reviews. You can e-mail him at matt@forewordreviews.com.
Matt Sutherland
