At least once a week, somebody emails me and asks if I can recommend a good publicist.
Sure, I could. But usually, I don’t. That’s because you need to consider dozens of factors before hiring one.
–How much money can you spend?
–Do you want to get into only big national media, or do you want publicity in your own community?
–If you’re an author, is your title within a particular genre? If so, you might want a publicist who already has a list of media contacts that would want to know about your book.
–How much publicity are you willing to do on your own?
–Are you convinced you need a publicist? I know of 16 instances when you should hire one, and two in which you shouldn’t.
–Do you want to pay a publicist by the project, or by the hour?
–Are you willing to pay a publicist a lot of money if they can get media hits in major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal? If so, you might consider a pay-per-placement firm.
There are dozens more things to consider, including the most important one: the chemistry between you and your publicist. I discuss them all in my ebook "How to Hire the Perfect Publicist." Dr. Robert Kotler, a clinical instructor at UCLA and author of "Secrets of a Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgeon," used my ebook before hiring his own publicist.
"I copied the list of questions in Chapter 6 (Questions to Ask During the Interview) and used them with each of the firms I interviewed," he said. "It really spoon-feeds the right questions and forces you to focus on the elements you must hit upon during the interview."
Dr. Kotler, by the way, is in the January issue of Smart Money magazine, quoted extensively in an article titled "10 Things Your Cosmetic Surgeon Won’t Tell You."