It's Hard Out There for a Book Publicist

This just in from an inhouse publicist, "Jane," who's promoting a nonfiction book by "Sally," a nonfiction author who's going to be reading at a premier Denver bookstore. Sally was recently interviewed about her book on NPR and had an opinion piece on its subject published in a major metro daily. I had suggested that Jane pitch a local network affiliate that often has authors on its mid-day show.

I'm crossing my fingers that there will be a good turnout at Sally's bookstore event. Tour media has taken shape nicely in her other cities, but I have had SO much trouble with Denver media.

Despite (or perhaps because of? I guess a publicist never knows...) repeated and persistent follow-up, nothing has come through. The TV show was initially interested, but ultimately said they were "understaffed" on the days Sally would be in town. The other TV and radio shows I repeatedly reached out to either ignored me or said the book wasn't newsy enough, even though I pointed out all the Colorado-specific news hooks.

And the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have been utterly and mysteriously silent for the month-and-a-half I've been pitching them on this book. Sigh.

I'm bummed, because I wanted to get Sally topline media coverage in every city she visited, but at least I know I did my darnedest (even if it didn't pay off). I feel like maybe the run-up to the convention in August has the major Denver news outlets focusing strongly on the presidential campaign, at the expense of other stories that might fill their political/cultural coverage slots? Sigh, again.

So remember, authors:
Just because your publicist didn't get you any media coverage doesn't mean she didn't work her buns off for you.