What NOT to do at a Book Festival or Writers Conference

The spring book festival season is underway. As a public service, here is a list of bad behavior I've observed and/or had to contend with.

Panel Moderator: 

1. Wait to contact panelists till two days before the event—or not at all. 
2. Be unfamiliar with panelists’ work: Not read author’s book (at least the first few chapters and website); not know who the literary agent represents; not know titles the editor has worked on. 
3. Have no agenda for the panel, or a vague one, e.g., “I will read brief introductions, and each of you should speak for 12-15 minutes. Then we will take a few questions.” 
4. Let panelists talk for so long that there’s no time for audience Q&A. (This happened with the panel in #3.) 
5. Talk a lot about yourself or read from your own book. Your job is to help the panelists shine. If they look brilliant, so will you. 

Panelist: 

1. Cancel at the last minute because you just realized that the finances won’t work for you. Or cancel due to “family reasons”—but keep the plane ticket the organizers paid for. 
2. Author: Leave book at home, or not have a reading figured out—and practiced!—beforehand. Agent/editor: Leave business cards at home. 
3. Read for 15 minutes when you’re asked to read for five. 
4. Monopolize the conversation and/or interrupt other panelists. 
5. Belittle the moderator (“If you’d read my book…"), other panelists (“I can’t believe you’d say such a stupid thing!”) or audience members (“If you’d been listening, you wouldn’t need to ask that question.”) 

Audience:

1. Leave your cellphone ringer on. 
2. Give copies of your manuscript or self-published book to panelists. 
3. Pitch your book during Q&A session. 
4. Ask self-serving questions instead of general ones. (“Why didn’t you answer the query I sent you six months ago?” vs. “What should a writer do if an agent hasn’t responded to their query after six months?”) 
5. Engage a panelist in lengthy conversation afterwards, when there’s a line of people waiting behind you. 

  I'll be at VaBook Festival next week. Now go forth and be good!

So You Want to Publicize Your Book?

Beyond the Margins unveils their bright new site design along with this: Toot It, Don’t Blow It: Interview with Book Promotion Expert Bella Stander. Included: My list of what should be on an author website.

On SheWrites, Lori Tharps (whom I met at this year's VaBook Festival), offers Countdown to Publication: My PR To Do List for her new novel, SUBSTITUTE ME.

Inside Scoop: Remaindered, Bothered & Bewildered

(This just in from a YA author who, for obvious reasons, wishes to remain anonymous.)

Prior to my publication date, I wisely took Book Promotion 101 and got Bella's handy dandy packet o' info. In that packet was the hilarious poem "The Book of My Enemy has Been Remaindered," which made me laugh aloud because I was sure that such a thing would NEVER happen to me.

Oh, how wrong I was.

But first, let me recap what the publicity department at my publisher did for me. They sent my book to reviewers. As far as I can tell, that's about it.

The book was universally well reviewed, and was placed on an important annual reading list for teachers and librarians nationwide. Not bad for a first-timer.

Beyond sending the book out to reviewers, I'm not sure what my publicity person did because I couldn't get anything else out of her. I tried to be helpful, I asked if there was anything I could do--if they wanted a bio or photo or anything, but they didn't seem open or receptive to that.

So I took the hint, and did else myself, including booking appearances at numerous book festivals, setting up signings and school visits, getting newspaper articles, teen targeted web reviews and NPR interviews and, of course, doing the things I knew I'd be doing myself anyway, like printing up book cards, and getting my website up and running.

My first book fest was an inhouse publicity eye opener. I booked myself into this fest which was in the state where the book I wrote is set. A no-brainer, if you ask me. Because my book was set instate, there was a feature article on me in the Sunday arts section of the newspaper.

I contacted my inhouse publicity person well in advance of the fest and made sure she knew it was happening so she could alert the regional sales rep to see that all went well. She congratulated me and assured me that everything would be fine. Weeks later, I contacted her again to give her the newspaper article and to remind her of the festival dates. Once again, congratulations and assurances. I figured all was right with the world.

Then I arrived at the fest. No books. None. Nada. Zip.

Luckily, having taken Book Promotion 101, I was prepared with book cards and book plates to sign for the many people who would have bought my book if they could have. When I returned from the fest, I contacted my publicity person and told her that the fest was wonderful, except...well, that pesky little detail: no books.

Her reply? I should have told her I was doing the fest so she could have been sure that books would be there for me.

Like a far too polite trouper, I refrained from forwarding her the entire chain of emails between us about the fest, and assured her that next time, by golly, I'd absolutely tell her where I'd be appearing and when.

Without going into any more gory detail, this is the rest of what happened between me and my inhouse publicity department. I set up more appearances. I contacted my publicist. My calls didn't go through and my emails started bouncing back. She'd left the house, I hadn't been informed and had, in fact, been without a publicity person for weeks.

I was assigned her former assistant. Another book fest came and went with NO BOOKS. Emails began to bounce back from the former assistant. She too had left the house.

I was assigned another assistant. She cheerfully returned emails, and made sure my books were at the next fest, though by that time there was little else she could do for me, although I asked. My title was now over a year old and the house had written me off.

A couple months later, the house remaindered my book, and offered me copies at deep, deep discount: $1.49 a copy. I promptly ordered 300 copies, since I figured I'd been handselling the book anyway and might as well continue to do so.

Then, mere DAYS after my book was remaindered, it was nominated for a state book award. With this award, the state puts forth a master list of titles, students throughout the state have a full year to read books from the list and then vote on their favorite. Of course, students have to be able to GET the book to READ IT. A conundrum, no?

Also, I've been told by an author I know who won this state award last year, that being on the master list generates lots of school visits and book sales, and that most books on state awards lists are at least two years old; it takes that long for books to filter through librarians and teachers. My book was a full quarter shy of two years old. Prematurely remaindered, methinks.

My agent asked my editor if the house was keeping books in stock through their own website so students from this state could at least order it from the house. Three weeks have passed. As yet, we've had no reply.

To add insult to injury, the day the 300 copies of my book arrived at my house, the FedEx guy knocked at my door and told me to sign for delivery of a pallet loaded with 25 boxes of books that was dropped at the end of my driveway because, and I quote, "It's a curbside delivery. You want me to break up the pallet? It's another $75 bucks."

Luckily I have a hand truck, a healthy back, and an attic that's high & dry.

So, the book is for sale on my website, I've donated copies to a teen readers website for a monthly contest, I'm doing a summer event at a local bookstore as part of a teen readers series and I'll handsell the book and, generally, I'm pretty sanguine about the whole thing now.

And I'm sure that, in time, I'll laugh at "The Book of my Enemy has been Remaindered," again. But not just yet.

Inside Scoop: Gilbert King P.S.

One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about Gilbert King: how he got his opinion piece, Cruel and Unusual History (which has a great kicker in the last graf), into Wednesday's New York Times.

Are you ready?

King had submitted a similar piece to the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which was rejected by both. He figured "what the hell," and wrote another on Sunday night, which he emailed to the Times on Monday morning. "They got back to me right away," he says. And that was that.

Moral: Carpe diem!

Inside Scoop: Gilbert King

A week ago I received this email:

I like your blog and have been reading it for some time. My name is Gilbert King and my book, The Execution of Willie Francis, has just been published by Basic Civitas Books. I thought you might be interested in how I got published, because it really started with my website, www.williefrancis.com. I built it, sent it to agents, got lots of interest and signed with one I really liked after just a few days. The site, I think, was also instrumental in my landing a book deal with Basic, too.

If you think you'd be interested, I could send you a copy of my book right away. It's getting some strong early reviews (Starred Reviews in Kirkus and Library Journal) but I'm trying to do some marketing of my own!

The guy had me at "I like your blog and have been reading it for some time," but being a suspicious person I clicked on the link to King's site for the book. WOW! The very model of the perfect book website. King's email pitch is perfect too, except he should've included the book's subtitle: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South.

We set up a phone interview for Wednesday afternoon. That morning, what do I read on the NY Times opinion page but Cruel and Unusual History, with the pull quote, "The death penalty's barbaric past, ignored by the Supreme Court." Byline? None other than Gilbert King.

Naturally when we spoke later, the first thing I asked King was, "Are you famous now?" He laughed. "Not quite, but I got about 30 emails from strangers, who must've Googled me." And the Basic publicist had him lined up for some interviews, including Air America that evening. (I counseled him to stand up for radio and phone interviews, and sent him a link to Ten Essential Tips for Successful Interviews by AuthorBytes founder Steve Bennett. King wrote me after the Air America interview and said that standing really helped.) Soon he'll be doing bookstore signings in New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, various spots around Louisiana, and Boston.

King had a long and unusual path to publication. I assumed he wrote THE EXECUTION OF WILLIE FRANCIS because he was a history scholar, or had come across the story in his travels. Nothing of the sort. After working as an assistant to the head of Macmillan Books in the early 1990s, King got out of publishing and became a photographer (see a slide show of his fashion work at GilbertKing.com). He shot some books published by his friend Carlo De Vito, then the head of the Chamberlain Bros. imprint at Penguin, formerly publisher at Running Press. I'll let him tell the next part himself; I wish I could transcribe the gruff voice he put on for De Vito.

"One time Carlo hired me to do a golf book, and the writer quit in the middle of the project. He said, 'King you’ve gotta write this book.' I did and I enjoyed it, so I photographed and wrote some other books for him. Then he said, 'Go out and find a real book you can do. We’ve gotta find you a book deal, it’s the least I can do for you. "

"I couldn’t find anything. He said, 'Let’s look through this crime encyclopedia. You’ve always liked crime.' Then he found an entry on Willie Francis. 'King, you gotta do this: The man who died twice.'"

"I said I’d look into it, but it sounded like a gimmicky story. He said, 'You’re not looking into it hard enough; it’s a great-looking story.'" [Don't you wish you had a mentor/goad like De Vito? I want to meet this guy!]

"So I went down there to St. Martinville, Louisiana, and found the written confession of Willie Francis. Just eight words: 'It was a secret about me and him.' I came back to New York and said to Carlo, 'I think I can do it. You want me to write up a proposal?' He said, 'No, I’ll just give you a contract.'" [Don't you wish you had a publisher like De Vito?]

With no deadline (!!!) from De Vito, King worked on the book part-time for 18 months, between photography gigs. Then Penguin shut down Chamberlain Bros. , and in early 2005 King got the word that they were canceling all book contracts, including his. It was a setback, but he also saw it as an opportunity to sell his book to a higher-profile imprint. "I was determined, and just kept working."

You know how agents and everyone else (including yours truly) advise writers to finish their book first, then put up a website about it? Well, King did the website first, "which sort of inspired me to move forward." He told the friend who worked on it that he wanted it to look like an upcoming PBS special. It does.

One Sunday night, King sent a short email query with a link to his new site to about 20 agents. "By Monday noon, I had 12 responses to see the book and talk on the phone. By three days later, I think the rest of them had responded. The website was just so good."

Farley Chase at Waxman Literary Agency read the first couple of chapters and told King that he needed to have a proposal. "He was a little bit hesitant at first, which I liked. He said, 'Let’s get you involved with an editor, rather than hand in a complete book.' I thought that was a good idea. It gave me a chance to shape in my mind where the story was going." King signed with Chase, who "has a great narrative vision. He helped me for five or six months with rewrites on the proposal. That was invaluable."

King got a deal for THE EXECUTION OF WILLIE FRANCIS from Basic Civitas in the summer of 2006. "Basic was one of our dream submissions. It was really right up their alley." Other publishers were interested, he says, but often their response was, "Wow, that’s a great story, but I don’t know if it’s something we can sell. It looks too depressing. Is he innocent? Because if he’s innocent we can sell it." King says, "Our view is that it’s a really good story; it’s a lot more rich if it’s not told in black and white. I was confident that once the full breadth of the story was told, people wouldn’t care whether Willie Francis was guilty or innocent. "

As in the NYT opinion piece, King has been pushing the death penalty angle in order to have a news "hook." But now, "I’m trying to focus on readability, because reviews are saying this is a really good story." I've only read the first two chapters, but so far I'd agree. However, he's still brushing up on Supreme Court history so he can sound intelligent in interviews.

Inside Scoop: Lisa McMann Tells It Like It Is

Once a month I'm a guest "speaker" on the Backspace forums. That's where I met Lisa McMann, author of the bestselling YA novel, WAKE. Like many authors, Lisa was apprehensive (read: terrified) at the prospect of going out on tour and speaking to groups of strangers.

I gave her some presentation tips and told her to read NAKED AT THE PODIUM: The Writer's Guide to Successful Readings--and do every single exercise in it.

Lisa returned the favor by mentioning me in a Writers in Profile interview with Kelly Spitzer. Better still, she tells exactly what she and her publisher did to publicize WAKE, and offers terrific advice on promotion in general. For example:

...if you want to succeed, you definitely need to market yourself – it’s not just about the writing.

I think it is absolutely vital to have a web presence if your goal is to sell books or be read. If your goal is simply to say, “I have a book published,” then no web presence is necessary.

There are millions of people who would give anything to be in your shoes. How badly do you want this? Enough to step out of your comfort zone and go get it? Enough that you don’t want to have to start this process over again because you were too afraid to promote your first book and it’s failing? If you want it, if you want this life as an author, if you ever want to sell another book, your goal needs to be this: You must do everything in your power to make this book succeed, because if you don’t, and this book fails, nobody gets fired...except you.

Inside Scoop: Why I Love What I Do

Meg McAllister, McAllister Rowan Communications Group, has an uplifting antidote to PW's A Day in the Life of a Book Publicist:

Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy what I do, and the joy I take in being a productive part of the publishing process and its ensuing marketing industry. My partner Darcie and I are known for our "straight-from-the-hip" assessments of the publishing industry and the business of marketing books, and thankfully people like Bella create sites like this where we can come together to share ideas, express concerns and...hopefully...enlighten one another from time to time.

Authors are VERY brave people! Just the act of putting words on a paper can be nerve-wracking, but then sending a book out there (like a mother sending her child off for the first day of school) into the big world to be savaged by agents, acquisition editors, publicists and media, should come with a Purple Heart. So why do you do it? Being somewhat jaded (but we hope terribly charming with it) marketers, Darcie and I have come to view authors as brands, and the books they write as tools in a larger plan/agenda.

But this week I was reminded in a big way that sometimes an author writes simply to tell a wonderful story, and in doing so share a part of themselves that impacts millions. If you don’t already know who Randy Pausch is, I urge you to learn, hear, and read more about him. A highly acclaimed professor from Carnegie Mellon, Randy is making news daily, not for his academic accolades, or his vast knowledge in the computer science field, but because he’s dying.

A relatively young (at 46 just a year older than I), vibrant, father of three, Randy has an aggressive and terminal case of pancreatic cancer. In September 2007 he was told that he would have a relatively short time left to live. Faced with a diagnosis that would send most of us into a flood of tears and a tub of Hagen Daaz, Randy instead agreed to take part in an academic tradition known as “The Last Lecture”. The premise of The Last Lecture is what insights and messages would we share with the world, if we knew this would be our last opportunity to do so. Randy addressed a standing room only crowd at Carnegie Mellon and talked not about achieving greatness, but about realizing childhood dreams; not about dealing with mortality, but living each day with renewed wonder and joy; and most importantly, not about achieving personal success, but helping others achieve theirs.

If you haven’t seen the lecture Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, I implore you to invest the 76-½ minutes to do so, because it could change your life. Also please consider reading THE LAST LECTURE, which expands on Randy’s story, the lecture, and the impact it’s had on people throughout the world .

Randy’s lecture reminded me why I do what I do for a living. I want to promote books (though alas I am not promoting his) that have a meaning and a purpose that transcends Amazon rankings, bestseller lists, and units sold. I want to open the door to ideas and discussion. And I guess in my own way, I want to achieve success by helping others realize their goals.

So the point of my story is this: When you think about why you want to publish, why you want to promote, start by asking yourself why you write, and what it is you’re hoping your reader will really gain from reading your book. And when you have those moments where you’re bogged down with writer's block and insecurities, or when you’re that jaded (did I remember to mention charming?) publicist dealing with stress and media rejection, or when you’re that beloved publishing consultant dealing with everyone else’s hysteria while courageously dealing with her own issues and demons, perhaps Randy’s signature phrase will offer some inspiration: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Inside Scoop: Have You Lost that Loving Feeling?

More wisdom from publicist extraordinaire Darcie Rowan, McAllister Rowan Communications Group:

As I wrote in the previous post, the relationship between a publicist and author is a lot like a marriage. You meet, you date, you fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after – or not! Sometimes the happy marriage with your publicist starts to go downhill. Bickering ensues, then loss of confidence, and ultimately the traumatic divorce. But remember, there are ALWAYS signs that the relationship either wasn’t meant to be, or is in great need of counseling. With more apologies to David Letterman...

Top 10 Signs that the Honeymoon Might be Over--and What You Can Do About It

10) If the “baby doll” you’ve hired takes more than an hour to return a call or respond to email during normal working hours (it can happen occasionally, but should never be the norm), chances are she's desperately seeking out the freelancer to whom she outsourced a portion of your publicity campaigno. Remember: You hired that publicist – not her cheaper freelancer!

9) If after the first three months, your campaign isn’t getting the results and attention you were led to expect. Talk about this! If your publicist doesn’t want to entertain your concerns or hear your side, there may be trouble brewing in paradise.

8) If your publicist won’t talk to you about pitching ideas or campaign directions, you have a problem. Your “soul mate” should want to talk with you and SHARE ideas.

7) If your “sweetie” starts writing press materials and sending them to media without first showing them to you. This is a HUGE problem, especially if they're filled with typos and misspellings. You should be given enough time to add your comments and corrections.

6) Be wary if your “little darling” writes a press release containing incorrect information – or it appears that she didn’t read your book. No publicist should be pitching a book that they can’t discuss with the media.

5) If the press alerts or press release your “hunny” submits for your approval either starts off talking about the book rather than the issue(s) it addresses, does not contain at least 3-5 bullet points that frame story ideas and/or broadcast segments, is less than a page, or goes on for several pages, these are all signs that your publicist is a little green when it comes to pitching to the media. Talk her about what’s the most important aspect of your book [which means you'd better know it too!--Bella].

4) If your “snookums” provides updates without specific names of media people or specific outlets. Ask for that info; it’s not top-secret. You should know who has been sent your book. If the list includes “The Sally Jesse Raphael Show” or “Montel Williams,” watch out! Your publicist is either working off an ancient list, or isn’t really working on your book at all.

3) Your publicist is really the INTERN or has less than one year of experience. If this turns out to be the case, call the president of the company and complain. You are not paying high prices to work with the intern. When you start the "marriage,” you should find out who will be working on your book and how much experience they have in the business.

2) For whatever reason, you and your publicist don’t see eye to eye, don’t have similar goals, have “lost that loving feeling,” or you’re having more arguments with them than you do with your real spouse. It may be time to have a fresh set of eyes look over the project and see what could be done differently. We aren’t condoning cheating, but it wouldn’t hurt to see what the competition thinks of your successes and failures.

And the #1 sign that your publicist may not be “The One”:

She told you that you would “absolutely, definitely be on Oprah” [silly you for hiring her anyway!--Bella] but doesn’t have a strategic plan to make that happen. Help create one! No use in sitting around waiting for something to happen if your “loved one” doesn’t have a plan, a goal or a CLUE. And remember, when it comes to publicity, NOTHING can be guaranteed.

Inside Scoop: How to Know When a Publicist Just Isn't That Into You

From publicist extraordinaire Darcie Rowan, McAllister Rowan Communications Group:

The relationship between a publicist and author is a lot like a marriage. You meet, you date, you fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after – or not! Often, an author will call just one publicist and decide on the spot to hire them without seeking other proposals or checking any references. This is like proposing to your blind date before you've met. We’ve said before that authors should approach hiring a publicist as a savvy, informed consumer. So with apologies to David Letterman, here are...

The Top 10 Signs a Publicist May NOT be Right for You

10) If a publicist takes more than a day to return your call or email inquiry, chances are she [or he, but we'll use "she" from now on] isn’t eager to speak with you. Or worse, is too busy to speak with you.

9) If she can't supply you with at least three references to talk with, you should stop and wonder why. Maybe she doesn’t have any clients that liked their campaign results?

8) If your publicist-to-be sounds like she doesn’t know or understand your genre, doesn’t have any knowledge of media in that area, or tells you that “relationships with the media don’t mean anything,” chances are she won’t know enough about your subject to do the best job for you. Move on, and find a publicist who is excited and thrilled to talk with you about your subject matter.

7) If your “intended” won’t offer a written proposal that outlines her vision and publicity plan for your book, you should stop and wonder why.

6) On the flip side, if a publicist offers to submit a proposal without actually seeing a copy of your manuscript, or shoots a proposal off within an hour of receiving it, chances are really good that you're looking at a boilerplate, “insert name here,” proposal that she uses for everyone and everything. A historical novel shouldn’t have the same PR campaign as a diet book.

5) If the “love of your life” PR pro doesn’t ask: "What prompted you to write this book? What is your publisher’s PR department doing for it?" and "What are your PR expectations?" she is not asking the right questions. And if she's not asking YOU the right questions, how is she ever going to come up with the right answers when PITCHING you to media?

4) If the publicist shows you sample materials/case studies with frequent misspellings, typos and severe grammatical errors, just imagine what your press release will look like! These bad habits will continue throughout the relationship.

3) If your "sweetie" is eager to work on your account without a written contract that outlines what you should expect from the campaign, be very careful. If you end up hating this relationship, you will have almost no legal recourse.

2) If you are told while you’re “dating” that you will definitely be on certain shows, but your contract doesn’t have any of that information, SPEAK UP NOW. Chances are the publicist only told you what you wanted to hear – not what is realistic!

And the #1 sign that your publicist may not be “The One”:

If she tells you, “Absolutely, your book will definitely be on Oprah.” Not only should she be avoided, she should probably be committed. Because she's either lying to you or to herself.

Inside Scoop: Not for the Faint-Hearted

The following article is by book publicist Meg McAllister of McAllister Rowan Communications. Note her use of "reality" and "realistic." Publicists use those words a lot when it comes to authors, and for good reason. As a publisher wrote me:

Most authors are far too idealistic and have too many silly, time-wasting notions of how this business works. It is best to dispel those notions early, so we save time and angst later. I have little indulgence for author naïveté. If you want to be successful in the publishing business, then know how it works or forego your right to whine about it later.

Book Publicity is Not for Wussies!
For most authors, the reality is that their responsibility to their book does not end with writing it. This can be a real wake-up call. More and more traditional publishers are encouraging (read: demanding) that authors contract with their own publicist “to augment what we will do for the book internally”--which in 7 out of 10 cases is little to nothing!

Due to the rising cost of everything from production to postage, publishers are even scaling back on standard review mailings. Instead, they're opting for email blasts and postcard mailings to solicit interest before sending books out for review. And the general rule is that they take a reactive rather than proactive stance with publicity. They wait for the media to call them; and with mailings, they generally place follow-up calls to about half of the recipient list.

They're not bad publicists; they're just responsible for an enormous volume of books and have very limited funds for each. That’s why, in most cases, your inhouse publicist will welcome an extra pair of hands; it’s a win-win situation for all.

Faced with that reality, as an author, you need to approach the decision of whether to hire a publicist with the same cautious optimism and objective strategy you did when deciding to write your book. If you invested a lot of time, effort, and money to write it, you're going to have to do the same to promote it. You’re making an investment in yourself (and your writing career!--Bella) and on something that will benefit you in the long run. So you should consider the hiring of a publicist in the same manner as you would any other investment--as a savvy consumer.

Here are some tips:

Educate yourself on what to expect.
You’ve found your way to Bella, so congratulations, you’re already way ahead of the game! (I didn't pay her to write that--honest!) Seek the opinions of people like her who’ll offer honesty and objectivity. If you suspect someone is telling you what they think you want to hear, rather than the truth, they probably are. This is not a good thing.

Think performance, not price tag!
You want a publicist with a track record, a reputation, a vision and a price point with which you feel comfortable. As when buying a new car, you should avoid high-priced bells & whistles you don’t need, yet don’t put your life on the line by choosing a clunker just to save a little money.

Talk to other authors.
Get the pros and cons from their point of view. Look for every side of the story: someone who chose the most expensive publicist, someone who chose the cheapest publicist, and someone who went the DIY route.

Talk to more than one publicist/PR firm before making a decision.
While you may end up going with the first one you spoke to, you should “date” around before making a commitment.

Vetting a publicist is a lot like filling any other job.
Don’t just take a publicist’s word for it – we get paid to spin – check references and ask questions about strengths, weakness and work habits.

Be realistic about your publicity budget.
You should have at least $5,000 in the kitty to start with. NEVER consider getting another mortgage on your house or taking a cash advance on your credit card just to pay for PR. If you plan properly and talk to publicity firms about working within your budget, in most cases you can come away with an effective PR effort.

Make the decision to hire a publicist with eyes wide open, and realistic, informed expectations.
Not only will you prove to your publisher that you are committed to helping sell your book, but that you're willing to spend your own money and time to do so. In some cases, if your campaign progresses further than expected, the PR department may be willing to allocate more money and thereby extend it.* Instead of being derided as a publicity wussie, you'll be lauded as a marketing genius.

*This just happened with one of my clients, who after spending lotsa bucks on an ace publicist and superb website, plus snagging terrific blurbs with zero inhouse help, is going from a "local tour" (i.e., signings close to home) to a publisher-sponsored West Coast tour.

Inside Scoop: How to Stay Off the Media Blacklist

Below is the first in a weekly series of tips from Meg McAllister and Darcie Rowan of McAllister Rowan Communications Group, who collectively have 50 years of experience in the publicity business. Darcie will be a guest speaker at my Book Promotion 101 workshop in New York on March 8. She's also been on one of my publicity panels at the Virginia Festival of the Book.

Rule #1: Try not to piss off the media!*

It’s sad but true, the media can—and will—blacklist a publicist, author or expert if they break some cardinal rules. Maybe there isn’t a “Wanted” poster with your picture on it displayed in someone’s office, but some media people will actually flag your email address, pass along your amateur voice mail messages, or ridicule your email misspellings on their personal blogs.

For example, days after the 9/11 tragedy, a national newspaper decided it had had enough with scheming publicists and experts desperately trying to gain ink from a tragic situation. So it published a list of those ethically challenged people, who were from some of the biggest public relations firms.

Here are some tips on the right way to offer yourself as an expert or a source.

Know who you're pitching to.
Never contact a newspaper, TV, website or radio outlet without first having familiarized yourself with it.

Always read newspapers/columnists online, listen to radio shows (many are also online), and watch national TV shows to get a feel for what they’re covering. Mentioning a particular column, article, or segment—especially if it ties into your pitch—is a great ice breaker and is also important for establishing media credibility. Show you know what you’re talking about by targeting your pitch to select media. When pitching to TV producers, help them to build a show segment, don’t just pitch them a talking head.

Don’t be a stalker.
Leaving constant messages, sending daily emails, or contacting media at inappropriate times will win you no friends. Leaving a message once or twice, or doing a voice mail/email combo on a particular pitch is enough. One national morning show producer commented about the hit list of authors/publicists that she keeps on her desk. These clueless people called WAY too much, which bothered her so much that she would never return their calls or book anything with them!

Learn to take no for an answer.
Tenacity is admirable, and as an author/publicist it is your job to be persuasive, but there’s a fine line between persuasion and argumentativeness. You want the media to see your point of view, but you also need to respect theirs. If a media contact says no, it's okay to ask why (politely), as a tool for learning more about that media. Then move on.

Don’t send emails with attachments.
If you have extra materials that you want the person to see, offer a link, whether to a document, video or picture. Attachments clog servers, and clogged servers make it more difficult to get work done. Making their work harder will make media recipients hate you. (Some companies' servers reject all email with attachments.)

ALWAYS be honest and upfront.
Don’t promise something you can’t deliver, and never present unverified information as fact. It will get you blackballed.

*Note that there is no Rule #2. Remember the saying, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel."