Love and appreciate your substack. I’m an agent, not a writer, so if this question isn’t a fit for this AMA feel free to ignore: I work with upmarket/ literary fiction and nonfiction writers. While I see freelance marketers out there who focus on fantasy/romantasy/romance (fiction w hardcore niche fandoms), I’m really not seeing the same growth in freelancers for other kinds of writers. I’ve got clients interested in investing in their trad-published books — and not via hiring an indie publicist, given the fragmentation/contraction of earned-media— but Im shallow on indie marketer recommendations outside of dragon-specialists. Love to hear your thoughts.
I’d love to expand a little on the question above. I had my debut traditionally pub’d adult novel come out last summer. I paid for outside PR with a very reputable company. But I actually feel like I got more traction/visibility from hiring an online social media bookstagrammer I met at thrillerfest. Does this fall into the “marketing “ category? I would love to hire someone who can simply get my next book into the hands of high profile posters (insta or tick tok).
Yup, that is marketing, and you'll always get more traction/visibility with good social media placement. When potential clients come to me, I always ask them about their marketing strategy because authors need both PR and marketing. I feel like genre fiction especially benefits from social media marketing.
I offer marketing services, depending on the book. I think they're hard to find outside of genre fiction because the thought is that the publisher drives marketing. That isn't always true, though. I actually prefer marketing to PR. It's more interesting to me, and I like putting pieces of the puzzle together. I've been working with developers to create a marketing platform for authors, and we are almost ready to launch. We're testing some titles now.
Another answer to your question is that many publicists lack marketing experience, so they don't offer those services, and many "generalist" marketing people stay in-house.
What a brilliant idea Kathleen! Putting the right minds together to help with visibility and reach via a shared platform? Good for you for following through and working with developers. Can't wait to see what is born from it AND hear about your experience working with tech people. I had an idea to help connect wineries, wine professionals, and wine lovers, but I never took the steps to build it. Keep us posted!
Love and appreciate your substack. I’m an agent, not a writer, so if this question isn’t a fit for this AMA feel free to ignore: I work with upmarket/ literary fiction and nonfiction writers. While I see freelance marketers out there who focus on fantasy/romantasy/romance (fiction w hardcore niche fandoms), I’m really not seeing the same growth in freelancers for other kinds of writers. I’ve got clients interested in investing in their trad-published books — and not via hiring an indie publicist, given the fragmentation/contraction of earned-media— but Im shallow on indie marketer recommendations outside of dragon-specialists. Love to hear your thoughts.
I’d love to expand a little on the question above. I had my debut traditionally pub’d adult novel come out last summer. I paid for outside PR with a very reputable company. But I actually feel like I got more traction/visibility from hiring an online social media bookstagrammer I met at thrillerfest. Does this fall into the “marketing “ category? I would love to hire someone who can simply get my next book into the hands of high profile posters (insta or tick tok).
As another thriller writer, I would love to know their name.
Her name is Tonya and her instagram handle is @blondethrillerbooklover. She was lovely to work with
Yup, that is marketing, and you'll always get more traction/visibility with good social media placement. When potential clients come to me, I always ask them about their marketing strategy because authors need both PR and marketing. I feel like genre fiction especially benefits from social media marketing.
I offer marketing services, depending on the book. I think they're hard to find outside of genre fiction because the thought is that the publisher drives marketing. That isn't always true, though. I actually prefer marketing to PR. It's more interesting to me, and I like putting pieces of the puzzle together. I've been working with developers to create a marketing platform for authors, and we are almost ready to launch. We're testing some titles now.
Another answer to your question is that many publicists lack marketing experience, so they don't offer those services, and many "generalist" marketing people stay in-house.
What a brilliant idea Kathleen! Putting the right minds together to help with visibility and reach via a shared platform? Good for you for following through and working with developers. Can't wait to see what is born from it AND hear about your experience working with tech people. I had an idea to help connect wineries, wine professionals, and wine lovers, but I never took the steps to build it. Keep us posted!
Maybe we can connect offline? I'd like to discuss this with you.
Sure! Shoot me an email: kathleen@kmspr.com and we can maybe schedule a call?