Last month I took an hour out of my schedule to learn something about publicity in the publishing business and conducted a phone interview with Pam MacColl, Communications Director and Publicity Director for Beacon Press.
I found Pam to be delightful. Warm, funny and dedicated to Beacon Press and its mission which is unique for a publishing company. It is as follows, and I quote, “The mission of Beacon Press is to affirm and promote these principles: the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in society; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence; and the importance of literature and the arts in democratic life.”
Pam is a graduate of Lafayette College with a BA degree. San Francisco was where Pam got her start in publicity, some thirty years ago. Like most of us that have lived or visited San Francisco, Pam also loved the coastal city. However, she felt better opportunities in publishing could be found in New York City which was her next destination. Pam commented, “My key to success in the publicity world was having Bernie Ilson, now deceased, as my mentor. Bernie owned a large publicity firm in NYC that handled everything from publicity to consulting. And, Bernie was the best. He taught me everything I know about publicity. Anyone going into the field of publicity needs a Bernie-type as a mentor to really understand the inner workings of publicity.”
After a few years under the direction of Bernie Ilson, Pam then went with New American Library for a year followed by a two-year stint at Random House in NYC and then to a small family publisher, Pioneer, which was based in Providence, Rhode Island. Pioneer had her working with mothers who wrote books and articles and focus groups of mothers to advise what type of issues they wanted discussed in books and articles. Pam had enough flexible time with Pioneer, that in the summers, she was able to visit her parents who owned a small book store in Maine. Pam added, “I loved my summers at the bookstore in Maine. I would spend hours working in the bookstore or reading the many books on the shelves. I could get lost for hours in the world of books. I always knew, even as a child, that I wanted to end up working in books.”
Pam worked as a media relations consultant for nine years before she went to work for Beacon Press on a part-time basis when her children were young. As her children got older she then started working at Beacon full time. She has now been with Beacon Press as Director of Communications for eighteen years.
Beacon Press is an independent publisher of serious non-fiction and fiction. Their books often change the way readers think about fundamental issues; they promote such values as freedom of speech and thought; diversity, religious pluralism, and anti-racism; and respect for diversity in all areas of life. Beacon Press publishes about thirty-five books a year and that list, according to Pam, ‘Is growing”.
Pam has three publicists that report directly to her and she assigns each of them ten to twelve books a year in which to focus their efforts. She furthered, “At Beacon Press the Publicity Department is part of the Communications Department and the Marketing Department. As I am also Director of Communications, I assign four people to work on social media, blogs and special sales. I, myself, work very closely with Tom Hallock, the Associate Publisher and Director of Sales and Marketing for Beacon Press. We are a team and work very well together. We all collaborate and develop a strategic planfor each individual book. And, then we develop an overall plan for the book which incorporates the following:
- what events to have for the book
- what media to use
- if any travel will be involved
- they talk about who do you know with the author
- they discuss any advances to pay
- they discuss if they will pay for any travel for the author
- they discuss if they will support any author tours – but rarely as these are expensive.
- if they are only getting 25% of their sales through a book it is not worth it to send an author on tour.
- if we will co-sponsor an author or do a book tour or newsletter.
Pam commented, “Beacon had a winner with Kate Whouleys’ book, Remembering the Music. “Kate new our Associate Publisher, Tom Hallock and together they tapped into the entire elder care market and the sandwich generation caring for those with Alzheimer’s. This also enabled them to get into nursing homes to market Kate’s book. In addition, USA Today did an article on her book which really gave the book a huge amount of national coverage.
Beacon does look at every book to see if it has an academic to paperback possibility for an event program. Every year, Beacon establishes a budget for publicity. Usually they allocate about $1,000 for travel for an author to have two-three events annually. Beacon really makes use of social media and they think it will be a huge part of the future of publicity. In terms of social media, Beacon uses Facebook, Instagram, Snap Check and Google. In addition to the social media platform, they also use it as a way to accelerate authors and get them on book review talk shows like those on National Public Radio.
Beacon sends out galleys and advanced reading copies to the media. While they usually print fifty to one-hundred in advance publications of a book, they then send several hundred books to the individual media outlets for public relations. Beacon likes to get advance copies popular radio programs like NPR’s All Things Considered to see if they can get their authors on NPR talk programs.
Pam used to travel quite a bit to pitch books. She still goes into NYC and uses the Diane Rehm show on NPR to pitch new books. She said, “Diane is friendly to book publishers. And, I like doing book interviews on her show.” She has been presently reducing her travel other than on the east coast in an attempt to use more social media to push books. She does always try to get Beacon Books featured in the opt-ed issues of popular news media such as the New York Times. Pam furthered, “We have authors all over the world. Some write and teach and come to Beacon Press directly. I tell them to first send us a proposal at Beacon Press. We have agents also that come to Beacon Press and she tries to get them to first send a proposition to Beacon Press.
According to Pam, “Generally speaking publicity tends to get earned media attention and appears to have value. Which is why Beacon publicity keeps a cache of authors and their respective books written up so that she can always pull from for publicity.” She particularly likes to have Beacon Press books featured in the New York Times book review but it is so big now and the only one left that focuses on local media. She furthered, “The Boston Globe probably does ten reviews a week and are competitive but no longer with a local flavor.”
From an organization standpoint, Beacon Press has monthly marketing meetings and monthly editor meetings. In all of this, they try to brainstorm to figure out ways to get attention for their books and authors. I found it interesting that she mentioned, “Sometimes Beacon pulls books from a back list and make the book relevant again today. This may get media coverage but it doesn’t always result in sales.
In terms of marketing and advertising Beacon Press, Pam stated, “Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the marketing of books at the moment. We have found that Word of Mouth Advertising is the Best. She has found that social media is word of mouth because of the influencers. It is people to people. Social media is in concert with word of mouth. She mentioned that often we will have an author like Kate Whouley that is well connected will do tours. Sometimes we will support some of their activities but not pay all and expect them to pick up some of the tab.”
Beacon Press authors usually pay for the tours themselves because it is good for their curriculum vitae. Pam mentioned, “We let the authors do what they want to do. We do reach out to book stores for the authors particularly if we think the author and their book is worthy of a tour. But, you have to keep in mind, book tours are expensive. Sadly, I have found we don’t sell many books when we have author tours so I rarely use them anymore. We were finding that at established events where maybe only fifteen attend the author’s book review we were selling one book which is not worth it for Beacon Press. The big thing now is audio books and Beacon Press is moving into it rapidly, along with e-books for young people. Just so you know the readers of e-books are usually seeking only textbooks.”
Beacon’s ultimate goal is BEST sellers and runaway best sellers, not just selling books but they end up promoting topics we care about that reflect our mission unlike many other publishers. Pam stated, “Always we have to keep in mind our Partner Organization. Again, Kate Whouley and her book, Remember the Music, fits in well here because there is a national alchemizer’s organization and we created an arrangement with them whereby we could also use their website. We have changed a lot, due to advances in technology. We do not work with review media anymore. Authors do not travel as much anymore and the use of television to promote your publicity is a thing of the past.”
Self-publishing and publicity are all the things right now. Some self-published authors find it hard to do their own publicity. It is however, doable to reach out to the media yourself. Success in any business is sales and it is no different for Beacon Press. They too, have to move in the direction that creates sales. And, right now that is social media.
Knowing, I like nature and nature writing, Pam suggested a Beacon Press poetry author to follow who specializes in nature writing and one of her Beacon Press books to read, “Owls and Other Fantasies” written by Mary Oliver. Pam was correct, the simple book cover designed by Beacon Press is both soothing and attractive as are the poems of nature inside the book.
My interview with Pam McColl was absolutely fabulous. I learned so very much from this interview. My take away was as follows:
- I just formed a great working relationship with Pam MacColl, the Publishing Director for Beacon Press. We are now friends on Facebook and she suggested I contact her for lunch should I ever get to NYC. This kind of networking never hurts.
- Getting into publishing is not an easy task. It helps if you can first find a notable mentor.
- Social media is definitely the way to go today when getting your book published. And, it’s even better if you have already established social media contact on your own with a blog or such before you go to the publisher.
- Book tours are great for publicity and marketing of your book but they do NOT produce much in terms of immediate sales.
- Old books can sometimes be brought back to market again.
- Try to get on radio talk shows to ‘pitch’ your book.
- One needs a strategic plan and an overall plan to really promote your book
- Try to find a partner organization that works well with your book’s message to assist in using them to promote your book
- Self-Publishing is where the action is today.
- In the end, it’s all about SALES.
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Judith
weberwoods 