A panel discussing all about publicity in publishing, led by Jenna Petts, Senior Publicity Manager at Penguin Michael Joseph.
Many people go into publishing thinking that editorial is the best and only way in without knowing that there are so many different paths and options within the industry. A very interesting and underrated one I’ll be talking about is publicity. In the Industry Arena at the Young Adult Literature Convention, a talk was held on publicity within the publishing world. Jenna Petts, Senior Publicity Manager at Penguin Michael Joseph, hosted it and explained the basics and depths of the area. She delivered an insightful talk that taught me a lot about publicity, specifically the behind the scenes of going on tour with an author, and reinforced the idea that it is a path I want to venture into after university.
Petts says publicity is “the process of getting public attention for a person, product, company, or event through media coverages, events, or public appearances”. Publicity is different to marketing, even though they do work together closely. The latter involves paid promotion, while the former focuses on free, earned media coverage. Publicity influences external outlets to feature the product in a more organic way. Since Covid, the events landscape has become a bit trickier, especially for Science Fiction Fantasy and Young Adult. That has not disencouraged publicists, but instead has made them think more creatively about how to get their authors in front of audiences.
When thinking of organising a tour for an author, there are many things that go into consideration beforehand. Each book will have different business needs, such as size of overseas fanbases and the time of the year when the publication date is scheduled for. Once it is decided, the most crucial thing to do is to create a schedule: a guide and plan of action on how your time with the author will go and a detailed way to keep track of what has been planned. Tour locations chosen need to have key audiences in mind, who do you want to read the book you are promoting, and where are those readers? Another important document that will be created and shared with the author is the contract. This will contain contact details, booking references, dates, clear times, briefing notes, train ticket references, etc. It’s important to keep it updated and accessible.
Jenna also talked about a really big tour she worked on, bringing the best-selling author and creator of the Grishaverse, Leigh Bardugo, to the UK. As she is a very popular author, a lot of the decisions were made by her. For the release of her book “Hell Bent”, Bardugo wanted big events, but not a lot. She required specific high flight classes and staying in hotels of 4 stars and above that had 24/7 room service (one hotel didn’t, so they had to Uber Eats a curry to her hotel one night!). Other things to consider were accessibility options, locations, suitable press, capacity of events, and passionate fans. Events like this are rewarding but tiring, so the publicists had to make sure that she had the best conditions. The results of the tour were extremely promising, with all the tickets selling out in a week, and the London event selling out in 24 hours.
Jenna talked about some learnings and takeaways that publicity teaches:
- Touring is hard. It sounds glamorous and like endless fun, but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes to make it seem that way. Publicists need to make sure to rest and have a full meal whenever possible.
- Publicists have to play bad cop. They might need to speak and calm passionate fans and are in charge of asking the hard questions.
- Things will go wrong, but they need to be prepared and think quickly for solutions.
- Communication is key and teamwork makes the dream work.
Now you know more about the reality of being a publicist! Jenna was amazing at explaining and she was a lovely person who clearly loves her job. I hope this was helpful for anyone considering publicity as their path into publishing just like me.
– Luciana Medrano