Public Relations Counsel
With more than thirty years of experience in the public relations field, Nancy does not identify herself solely as a publicist, a role which has important but limited functions. Nancy is a public relations counselor.
What’s the difference between a public relations counselor and a publicist?
A publicist’s job is to get the client free coverage in the media, to set up tours for authors, to pitch and book and coordinate interviews with newspaper, magazine, television and radio media.
A public relations counselor does all this and more. Her main function is to help a client develop a mutually beneficial relationship with her various “publics,” or audiences, in order to achieve her goals. To do this, the PR counselor helps the author define her audiences and communicate with and engage with them. In publishing, those audiences are readers but also the publishing house team, booksellers, librarians, reader website owners, bloggers, professional organizations, special interest groups, neighbors and any groups or organizations that can impact one’s success as an author.
The PR counselor defines a client’s wishes, objectives and goals, then sets out to meet those expectations, using a broad range of tools. For example, in addition to securing media coverage for a client, the PR counselor may build brand identification, book and design advertising, advise on and create social media content, assist with marketing, communicate with booksellers and librarians about the client and her books, arrange and help with the content of blogs, organize tours, do media training for clients, write speeches—the possibilities are endless! Probably the most important function of a PR counselor is to advise the client on a wide variety of career issues.
Brand Identity and Promotion
Every author brings to publishing her unique background, talent, world voice and skills. These qualities are what set the author apart from everyone else who’s writing books. This dynamic combination can be conveyed to readers in such a way that when they see the author’s promotions, read his or her newsletters or social media posts and listen to the author’s speeches, they understand the kind of book the author writes and why the author is special, why they should buy the writer’s books. This is what we call the author’s “brand.”
Many authors have a difficult time defining their brand. That’s one of Nancy’s special gifts. Over the twenty-plus years since the 1995 birth of NBPR, she has helped many authors define their brand and establish and grow a devoted readership for them. Where did she get this talent? She maintains that her journalism background is the foundation for her ability, that and her keen interest in and ability to detect what makes people different and special. Whatever the source, she is eager to help you develop and promote your author brand.
Internet Presence
Today the Internet is the major source of information for most people. That’s where they get much of their news, entertainment, and, yes, even inspiration and sometimes friendship. Establishing a presence online isn’t easy. Everything an author does and writes needs to be consistent with her brand, from website content and design to social media posts. At the same time, an author needs to be entertaining. Nancy can help you develop and exercise that skill.
Included in this mega PR tool is advice and assistance in developing a presence on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. Nancy can advise you on how to post, when and what to post, and whether or not to advertise on these platforms and how much time and money to invest in these endeavors. Nancy can provide image design services and write brand-consistent, entertaining copy. One of Nancy’s particular talents is coming up with a creative, over-arching theme for an author’s promotions.
Growing Your Readership
Face it; people are fickle. What works today won’t work tomorrow. Nancy is constantly reading and researching, talking with industry experts, sniffing out trends. In fact, every year she organizes seminars for authors at national conferences/conventions to inform them on the latest trends in publishing.
Nancy brings this depth of knowledge to her role as author public relations counsel. And she gets a kick out of being creative in growing a client’s readership.
Event Planning – Conferences, Conventions and Other Reader Gatherings
These days readers are exhibiting signs of “Internet fatigue.” They’re tired of the impersonal quality of cell phones and tablets and computers as means of interacting with authors—and with each other.
Many readers want to meet authors in person now, and oftentimes they want to meet authors with their own friends. So how can an author tune into this reader trend? Ask Nancy. She has the contacts and expertise to connect authors with successful reader events, to pitch workshop and seminars, to organize parties and turn readers out for these events.
