[Janice D. Soderling]

I've just been reading the latest Poets & Writers. It has a regular feature titled Page One: Where new and noteworthy books begin. I noticed today for the first time that (with rare exceptions) each writer/poet listed has a publisher, an agent, an editor and a publicist.

An example is this notice about Les Murray.

"On the last day of 1985, I went home to live in Bunyah, the farming valley I had left some twenty-nine years earlier." Killing the Black Dog: A Memoir of Depression (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2011) by Les Murray. thirteenth book, first memoir. Agent: Margaret Connolly. Editor: Paul Elie. Publicist: Meredith Kessler.

Now I know what a publisher does, and have an inkling of what an editor and an agent might do, and even a hint at what a publicist normally would do, but since when was this job added to the retinue of a writer/poet? And what do they do to earn their share of the money?

I have enough problems just thinking about finding a publisher, and worrying should I try to find an agent who might be willing to peddle my fiction (I am confident no agent waste times on an unknown trying to get a book of poetry out).

I notice also name droppers who tell the world with whom they have studied (like the gold dust rubs off, we wish!) and where they earned their MFA in creative writing (and preferably also their two PhDs in rocket science and microbiology).

Tell me, folks. What is a publicist?

[Maryann Corbett]

Janice, is this any help? Wikipedia article: Publicist

I think for a big name like Murray a publisher might supply a publicist for a specific book's publicity campaign.

[Ann Drysdale]

Janice - I had one once. My late husband called her The Navajo Gooseberry Woman. I've sent you a PM.

[W.F. Lantry]

Janice,

You need to watch Entourage! Debi Mazur plays the publicist. She handles interviews, press calls, etc. Cleans up PR messes for the talent.

Back on planet earth, only the Franzen types would have a publicist. Agents wouldn't do that stuff, and neither would editors. I don't know of any poets who have one...

Thanks,

Bill

[Roger Slater]

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.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I knew this was the place to ask.

Bill, apparently Les Murray has one, but maybe that is ONLY for his memoirs.

Maryann, thank you, that is the kind of publicist I know for singers and companies and that sort of people who make megabucks. But I had no idea that writers hired them. Call me stoopid, out of the loop, whatever. I guess it is inevitable though, so many people have gone through the MFA programs and they need to find a job doing something related to writing when the novel they wrote in school has been turned down fifty times. Maybe because there wasn't enough sex and too much intelligence in it.

Ann, your PM hasn't arrived yet, I've cleaned my cluttered inbox. Really looking forward to getting the inside dope.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Roger, we crossposted. Thanks, that info was from the horse's mouth. Thanks for a peek at the inside dope.

Ann, I got your PM. Much appreciated.

Bill, you got Kate. Maybe even several of her. You got nothing to gripe about, you got a publicist .

[R. Nemo Hill]

Advertising manager.

Nemo

[Janice D. Soderling]

Nemo. Thanks. Right. I know what a publicist is in the real world, aka PR manager/consultant/whatever.

That a company had one, yes. But my stoopidity is that I didn't know that individual writers had them. I would think only the BIG writers (and really, the famous writers don't need them, or do they?), but all (but one) in the P&W Page One feature had a publist listed in their (ahem) entourage.

OK, I am getting educated. The good thing about being stoopid is that you learn all the time.

[R. Nemo Hill]

It's the current culture, Janice.
Celebrity. Persona.
Everyone sells themselves even if they do nothing at all.

They'll soon be assigned at birth, these publicists, as a replacement for horoscopes.

Nemo