Grass roots or the sky is the limit? Building your public relations cache over time with your email list and social media contacts is awesome, but have you considered the time and effort necessary to organize a campaign to rally all of your viable contacts? Hiring a professional public relations firm might not be in your budget, but could it be worth a splurge when you're about to launch your book or during the holidays when you want your push to get ahead of the competition?
Let's take a look at why you want to put a little extra cash into a short term PR hire.
1. You want exposure within the next 30-60 days. Know the difference between short and long term leads? Let's say you're launching your book in March. You'll need to get on the PR horse in say, November to get in contact with those big, long term leads (think major news outlets). Hire PR ahead of time to get you a huge boost at launch, but hire them in time to make it happen.
2. You're launching a book on a popular topic and need a fresh advertising angle or you're launching around the holidays. Of course your book is unique, but it may be a similar topic as a big author or other authors in general. Hire a qualified public relations agency to design a unique, short-term media burst so your target will only be focusing on your book to purchase. Holidays are a great time to hire PR because people are in the giving spirit- PR agents are accustomed to calling in favors and during the holidays is the time publications will help fulfill favors.
3. There's an even bigger chance you'll be able to use these connections again, but maybe on your own. If you're good at keeping in touch and nurturing your leads and contacts, write a thank you letter to the media outlets that got you the most return on your investment. Let them know you are available for expert quotations or whatever your specialty field is. When you're ready to make your next push, be sure to reach out to all of these candidates first.
When you are ready to take public relations matters into your own hands during the regular everyday, check out our tips on how to find the best free services geared toward writers that you can sign up for now here.
Have you hired a short-term public relations firm for a previous campaign? How did it go? Would you do it again? Tell other authors about it in the comments below.
Keep the Faith and May the Force be with You!