Saturday, March 26, 2016

#BookPR

BOOK PR RESOURCES 

If you have found this through our "Should I Know Who You Are? Book PR for the Modern Age" panel at AWP 2016 in Los Angeles, welcome, and thanks for attending our panel. Bios (and contact information) for our panelists are below.

Here are our recommended resources to get you started as you contemplate or launch into promoting your book. Good luck!
  
 *****

We are all big, big, BIG fans of publishing professional Jane Friedman!
Here’s her blog: https://janefriedman.com/blog/
These JF posts and articles are especially recommended by Kelly:
 Can You Promote a Book Without Making Yourself Miserable? by Ed Cyzewski
The Online Presence That’s a Natural Extension of Who You Are and What You Do. (Is It Just Fantasy?) by Jane Friedman
Follow Jane on Twitter: @JaneFriedman

Here’s an agent blog about promoting/marketing that Lori follows:
Rachelle Gardner: http://www.rachellegardner.com/

Lori suggests looking at the SheWrites.com site for the resources and writer blogs: http://www.shewrites.com/  
Lori has recently launched a new blog there, “Lit Life,” with all things about the writing life: http://www.shewrites.com/profile/loriamay 

Lori has written these useful articles:
 Writer's Digest. "10 tips for making the most of the MFA experience." 
The Writer. "Get involved: Play an active part in the writing community." 

Kelly wrote this helpful article, Getting Your Book to the Top of the Reviewer’s List:

I blogged tips about how to give a great reading:

Kelly likes “Website Tips For Authors,” by Midge Raymond, in Author Magazine

Beth recommends this article about the client/publicist relationship:

Katie suggests following:
Books & Whatnot: http://booksandwhatnot.com/
Ami Greko:
Here she is on Twitter: @ami_with_an_i
Here’s her “London Calling” book newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/LondonCalling/archive

I definitely recommend Lori’s book The Write Crowd as a go-to resource for thinking about the community: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-write-crowd-9781628923094/ (also available on Amazon or wherever you like to order books)
Bonus: The Bloomsbury book page for The Write Crowd also has some freebie articles and resources on a “Companion Site,” found here: http://www.bloomsbury.com/cw/the-write-crowd/?pid=222377


Find us on Twitter:
Kelly Davio, @kellydavio
Katie Freeman, @foxyhedgehog
Lori A. May, @loriamay
Beth Parker, @beth_parker
Leslie Pietrzyk, @lesliepwriter

Bios:
Kelly Davio is the Senior Poetry Editor and US Publicist for Eyewear Publishing in London, England. She also edits Tahoma Literary Review and directs the poetry-focused PR consultancy Small Press Love. Her poetry collection, Burn This House, was released by Red Hen Press in 2013. More information: http://kellydavio.com/

Katie Freeman is the Associate Director of Publicity for Riverhead Books, and has worked at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Pantheon Books. She has served on committees for the Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN American Center, Words Without Borders, Narrative 4, and the National Book Foundation and can be found online @foxyhedgehog.

Lori A. May is the author of several books, including The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & the Writing Life which was named a “best book for writers” by Poets & Writers magazine. Her writing may also be found in publications including The AtlanticBrevity, and Writer’s Digest. Lori is a faculty mentor in the MFA program at the University of King’s College-Halifax and a publishing internship supervisor with the Wilkes University MA and MFA writing programs. More information: http://www.loriamay.com/

Beth Parker has been working in book publishing since 1999 promoting a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction authors ranging from debut fiction to celebrity memoirs, YA, and more. She has worked on numerous New York Times bestselling campaigns in all genres. In 2014 she started her own PR firm, Beth Parker PR. More information: www.bethparkerpr.com

Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels, Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day, and, most recently, of This Angel on My Chest, a collection of unconventionally linked short stories about the sudden death of her 37-year-old husband. It won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published in October by University of Pittsburgh Press. More information: http://lesliepietrzyk.com/