Not true, Bill. You don't have to be a Franzen to have a publicist. Many lesser known authors have publicists who help to secure media interviews, feature stories, social media hype, book reviews, etc. I know this because my wife is a book publicist. But you're right about one thing. Poets generally don't hire publicists. Publicity is hard to come by for poets and fiction writers unless they have a non-poetry hook (e.g., they wrote a book of poems about running a marathon, and they can speak engagingly about what it was like to train for the race, and the poetry part is merely an aspect of a larger story). It's easier for non-fiction writers to get publicity, since they can speak about a topic that may be of interest to the appropriate audience.
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