Literary Journalists: How to Get on Their Radar

As a freelance writer, I don't write books, but I write about books and authors for newspapers and magazines. This means I depend upon the expertise of publicists. I live by their tips. I need their prompt assistance when it comes to getting news about forthcoming books, review copies, and contact information for authors.

But a few months ago, an e-mail from a book publicist made me want to bang my head against my desk. Employed by one of the top publishing houses, she suggested that I review a book by one of her authors for the May issue of a certain magazine. But the May issue was already on newsstands. And while she admitted being unfamiliar with the magazine, she said she thought that the publication would review the book because it had covered the author's first work. In fact, this magazine won't run a story about the same author twice.

If this was frustrating for me, imagine how the author of the book must have felt.

Fortunately, this author had boned up on her publicity skills. Because I had written about her first book, she stayed in touch with me and let me know when her publisher had set the publication date for her follow-up work. This gave me plenty of time to pitch a story to another magazine—an even better one than the publicist had suggested. I've now written about this author and her two books four times.

Let me say that I work with many terrific publicists who bend over backward to send me galleys I request and to send unsolicited titles they think I might like. But even the best publicists are often overworked, some of them promoting thirty or forty authors a season, which is why many authors know they are their own best advocates. Whereas a publicist may be in charge of a few dozen titles at a time, an author represents just one.

Those authors savvy about acting as their own publicists also probably know, as any good (and not-so-good) publicist does, that freelance writers are invaluable contacts. Of the 320,000 editors and writers working in the United States, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that one-third are independently employed. That's more than 100,000 of us freelancers out there, searching for the next great story.

Many of us freelance full-time. We have established contacts at numerous media outlets. We specialize in ideas—and in understanding publication cycles, news pegs, and other aspects of timing. We know about a range of publications; we can see angles that literary writers may not have considered. And we often write about an author more than once. For example, a freelancer could write an author profile for a large newspaper, a trend piece about the book for a regional magazine, and a Q&A with the writer for a lifestyle Web site—all during the week of the book's publication. I, for one, tend to include books of authors I've profiled before in holiday gift guides or other roundups, such as Summer Reading or Fall Favorites.

The author-freelancer connection can be fruitful for both parties. So how can literary writers align themselves with freelancers? Not all freelancers are the same, of course, but knowing who we are, what we do, what we're looking for, and when, can help you on your way to forging that connection.

Understand What We Do. Freelancers inhabit an interesting niche in the publishing world. We work either full- or part-time and can write for a dozen different venues. How we land assignments varies. Sometimes a story arises from an idea we've pitched to editors; sometimes it's an editor who has contacted us. We're always on the lookout for new ideas, and we'll enthusiastically pitch stories about a book or an author we believe in.

“Even the best publicists are often overworked, some of them promoting thirty or forty authors a season, which is why many authors know they are their own best advocates.”