Here are the questions I get asked most frequently, along with my answers:
What is your consulting rate for publicity services?
Sorry, but I’m all booked up for this year. Contact us to get on my waiting list for next year. If a spot opens up I’ll let you know about it first.
What’s the difference between PR and publicity?
I first realized that PR doesn’t really mean getting publicity (like many people think it does) when I interned for a summer in CNN’s publicity department during college. One day a scandal broke out. A producer had incorrectly reported in a CNN special that in the Vietnam War, the U.S. used nerve gas in Laos as part of a secret mission to kill American defenders.
CNN retracted the story, but all hell broke loose in the media and at the network. I was put on the phones to handle angry calls from the public, quickly learning that PR really means “public relations,” i.e. dealing with the public’s perception of your company or product. Trust me, the network didn’t want any more publicity at the time!
This is why PR guru Howard Bragman says that PR now really means “perception and reality.” Marketing guru Seth Godin says that “publicity is the act of getting ink, while PR is the crafting of your story.” He also says “Few people have a publicity problem, but most have a PR problem. You need to solve that one first, and you probably won’t accomplish that if you hire a PR firm and don’t give them the freedom and access you need to work with them on your story.” So… what’s your story?
I’ve been told I should focus on getting my book reviewed instead of on getting publicity.
While book reviews are a form of publicity, here’s the problem: book reviewers don’t care about making you look good. That’s why they’re often called ‘book critics.’ They’ll look for and publicize your book’s flaws, while feature writers and radio/TV producers will point out the good so you appeal to their audience.