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Anybody hire a publicist? Did it make a difference?

Good question, I hope we can be enlightened.

Book Trib runs affordable specials.

I hired a fancy, well-known, high priced publicist for Monsterland when it came out. It was a fortune. I didn't see any big difference. When I complained, he said I didn't give him enough time. He worked on the book for three months. I swear, I got more interviews than he did for my kid.

I found Book Trib after. They show up a lot on Publisher's Weekly. I met with the owner. She's a publicist who went out on her own and realized indies don't have big budgets. She has some reasonable packages.

I also started using [email protected] . She runs some good specials and I've tripled my mailing list with her.

I interviewed a publicist once and the things she talked about, I felt I could do (which I really didn't have a clue at the time, so didn't do). This was for a book published by a small press, so I didn't have complete control. The cost was out of my price range, which isn't big (I think it was $3000 for a 6? month campaign) and I just didn't have that kind of cash, or really expect to make up the money for a single, stand alone, debut book. But, that's my limited experience, which really isn't much since I've not actually hired one.

I always say that Alex. Book trip has packages for a few hundred dollars. I found their reach amazing

Carole wrote: "Book Trib runs affordable specials.

I hired a fancy, well-known, high priced publicist for Monsterland when it came out. It was a fortune. I didn't see any big difference. When I complained, he sa..."

Do you know anything about Lynn McGinnis? (LynnMcG.com)

No. she is not familiar to me.

Alex said: "I'm waiting to see if I'm going to keep the money I've been getting for my anxiety or have to start looking for a job, and I'm trying to put together enough money for a new laptop before this one dies on me, lol.

Thinking of you, Alex, and cheering you on.

I've been using Book Trib- Meryl Moss runs that agency and they have some affordable plans and a tremendous reach.

Carole wrote: "No. she is not familiar to me."

Thanks. If I find any info about her I'll let you know.

Carole,
do you have any experience with or information on Onlinebookpublicity.com or Hajni Blasko?

No, I haven't. I have been getting good results with [email protected]. It has yielded some nice sales and a bunch of book reviews.

I haven't hired a publicist, but I've submitted Weasel Words for a "Book Blitz" with Xpresso Book Tours. It's my first time using them, and only my second time trying a tour package. I'll post results when I know them, assuming I can figure them out. I'm also running a BargainBooksy promo on release date, 2/15/2021 (next Sunday). I know I've gotten a few advance orders from my own promo activities, but as I go through IngramSpark, I can't get sales figures until a couple of months after the fact.

Well. Weirdly, Xpresso told me their bloggers are mostly into YA and 18+ romance, not so much crime fiction. So they recommend I go with someone else. I appreciate the honesty, but I thought they were accepting all genres.

Anyway, I'll be going with R&R Book Tours instead and will let you now how that goes. We're currently looking at the first week in March.