ROSALIE MACFARLANE TALK (27th October 2004)
It’s at this point of a dinner, when the speaker is introduced, that I usually relax. I’ve attended a fair amount of literary lunches and dinners where our authors have been the guest speakers. I guess it’s only fair that I’ll now experience what they’re going through.
LITERARY DINNERS
Literary dinners are just one of the ways we promote books. The organisers will have invited two or three writers who are expected to give an entertaining talk after the meal. And then hope to sell lots of books afterwards. But there’s always the risk that one author will do so much better than the others – which is all right if it’s your author.
Some years ago I attended a literary dinner in Birmingham with John Suchet who had written a novel about Beethoven. Among the other guest speakers was Harry Secombe. Fortunately for John, they decided to ask Secombe to speak last. All through the dinner, Harry was scribbling notes on various bits of paper, and seemed to be rather agitated.
When he stood up to speak, he chucked the papers aside, spoke for a few minutes, and then burst into song. When he finished, everyone rose as one, and the applause almost took the roof off. The queue for Secombe’s book was definitely the longest, but I think the other authors agreed that he had deserved it.
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLICITY
This is the first occasion I have given a talk about my work in publicity, and I hope by the end you will have some idea about how we go about promoting books.
Our primary purpose is to help sell books by using the media to spread the message.
The key to a successful publicity campaign is a wonderful book with lots of angles to interest the media. Every book we publish is sent out for review. We keep in close contact with the literary editors of all the national newspapers and magazines – telling them about the books and when they are going to be published.
However, as you know we can tell them why a book should be reviewed, but we can’t force them to review it.
This means we must look to other ways of getting publicity for new books as we are not only competing with other publishers, but all sections of the entertainment industry.
We start planning our campaigns at least six months ahead of publication. As we publish approximately 30 hardbacks and paperbacks per month, the Marketing department have to be very selective about which ones to earmark for their promotion budget. Publicity is regarded as “free”, so the limits on our activities are not so constrained – but of course, nothing is entirely free.
Some books are publicised by reviews alone, but if authors are willing and able to give up their time to help us, then we can widen our media horizons.
So the first thing to establish is whether or not they are happy to help with publicity. Where possible, we will meet the author well ahead of publication and explore ideas for getting the media’s attention. We’ll discuss what we can use for publicity - perhaps the research, aspects of the book that might be topical around publication, or whether or not they’d be willing to write features.
The national press are looking for topics that will be relevant in next week’s papers – so it helps if the author has something new to say or is an expert in a particular area.
This means that publicising non-fiction books is much easier than fiction – as the focus will be on a definite subject - and therefore easier for the press to make up their minds whether or not it will appeal to their readers.
It also means they don’t have to read the book before making a decision.
Non-fiction books are also more likely to be reviewed, and biographies have a better chance than most other non-fiction subjects.
RADIO
As authors know their subjects well, and are usually pretty articulate, we approach the broadcasting media as well as the press.
Radio is particularly brilliant for books.
BBC Radio 4 buys rights for dramas and readings – and although this is outside my remit in Publicity – these have often boosted sales hugely.
The programmes on this network are excellent – You will be familiar with them - WOMAN’S HOUR, START THE WEEK, MIDWEEK, LOOSE ENDS and EXCESS BAGGAGE - all regularly have authors. And when an author is asked to be a guest on DESERT ISLAND DISCS – we know they have truly ‘arrived.’
The other BBC stations also offer opportunities. On BBC 5 Live the SIMON MAYO programme has a weekly book panel as well as running straight interviews. Radio 2’s DRIVE TIME programme with Johnnie Walker is heard in thousands of cars and kitchens every weekday evening. And on Radio 3, authors can be invited to take part in PRIVATE PASSIONS or NIGHT WAVES.
BBC programmes, particularly Radios 2, 3 and 4 have been running for years, so they have a loyal audience – and even better, their listeners are proven book buyers.
TELEVISION
Television doesn’t offer as many opportunities, but apart from the obvious celebrity books, writers with heart-rending personal stories, or are experts in lifestyle subjects can be on day time television’s RICHARD & JUDY or THIS MORNING. And recently we’ve managed to get authors onto BBC1’S BREAKFAST or GMTV SUNDAY on quite a wide range of topics.
PARKINSON and JONATHAN ROSS are only interested in headline names.
BOOKSHOPS and FESTIVALS
Other opportunities to publicise books include public appearances in bookshops – signing sessions for the best-known writers, or talking at evening events. Increasingly literary festivals are attracting great audiences. All of these provide a chance for authors to meet their readers. But the experience can range from the triumphant to the disappointing. Some events are brilliantly planned, while others – and it is not always poor organisation – just don’t attract the crowds.
The major festivals get quite a lot of newspaper and broadcasting attention, and are very well attended. They include the CHELTENHAM LITERARY FESTIVAL in October, the HAY FESTIVAL in early June or the EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL in August. There are about 100 other festivals to which authors could be invited running throughout the year in Britain alone.
If you were to measure success in terms of sales, then the festival circuit wouldn’t score very high – except for the biggest-selling authors. However, they are an excellent opportunity for writers to meet their public.
And there are other good reasons for going. There is the publicity that festivals create; the chance to talk to a big audiences, and if not big, then you know they are at least committed readers – And if the sales afterwards aren’t that huge, the word-of-mouth potential is strong.
IN THE BEGINNING
I have been working in Publicity for many years, and there have been quite a number of changes since I began. In the 80s, you’d set up a tour for an author, and traipse around the country visiting local radio stations, newspapers, and bookshops. My knowledge of the rail system was very good in those days.
But this meant we could be out of the office for a week or more on one tour alone.
We don’t do such tours any more. For a start the local media have become far more parochial. And we don’t have the budget required for all these train journeys and hotels.
Authors still travel, but it will be in response to literary dinner or festival requests. There are exceptions though. Last year Jimmy Greaves went around England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales for a period of 3 and a half months.
BIOGRAPHIES
We spend a lot of time publicising biographies, as we publish a fair range of them. In the last year I have publicised books for:- a high-powered businesswoman, an actor, an American music mogul, an agony aunt, and an ex-boxer.
NICK LEESON
Most of our books are by people who are not very well-known. But publishing a high-profile book is exciting if anxiety-making.
I was looking after the publicity for Rogue Trader– Nick Leeson’s story of how he managed to lose huge amounts of money for Barings. He was locked up in the jail in Singapore when we published the book . His wife, Lisa was corralled into doing the publicity for her husband. It wasn’t an easy time for her. The interviewers’ questions about her husband’s behaviour was was the first time she fully realised how much he had been deceiving her as well as Barings.
NELSON MANDELA
However, we have published successful books without an author. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is a good example of this. We decided quite late in the autumn to have a launch party. The Reverend Trevor Huddlestone was invited, and people who would never have wanted to venture inside South Africa House before, were raising glasses to Mandela as we watched a video interview with him.
My moment to meet the great man came a couple of years ago. I was asked by his agent in London whether we would like to arrange a party at South Africa House. We even had a reason for doing so – having sold 1 and a half million copies of his book. But the only time he could spare was between 11 and 11.30am on a Saturday morning. if it had been anyone else - I don’t think that we would have got such a splendid crowd of guests.
He arrived, and at once threw the timetable out of skew, by walking into the centre of the room and shaking hands with the guests. He then gave a wholly engrossing, funny, and profound talk for 25 minutes – Virginia Bottomley was sitting rapt at my feet, and you could have heard a pin drop. Then the High Commissioner read a poem – which lasted about the same length.
When Mandela left he was at least an hour late for his next appointment, but he made time to stop and thank everyone in the kitchen who had been helping at the party.
ROY HATTERSLEY
I have worked on every book we have published by Roy Hattersley, and a number of these have been biographies. He has had great reviews for Blood and Fire – the story of William Booth, who with his wife, Catherine started the Salvation Army, and for John Wesley.
But, no matter how wonderful the reviews for these books, none of them became a best seller. It was the memoirs of his dog which made the top ten for several weeks. No one ever forgets Buster’s Diaries, and newspapers are still keen on following his exploits.
The tour around bookshops and to literary lunches were somewhat fraught for this nervous publicist, because Buster dislikes men in uniform. Roy Hattersley prefers travelling by train, so the guards passing by our seats had to move nimbly out of the way - to avoid Buster hurling himself with an alarming growl at their trouser legs - before being hauled back to his rightful place underneath the seat.
THE PRINCE OF WALES
I also did publicity for Jonathan Dimbleby’s biography of The Prince of Wales. The book was embargoed until the SUNDAY TIMES had run their serial. I had not sent out a single book or press release, so was somewhat amazed to hear RADIO 4 NEWS reporting on the revelations about the marriage which they had picked out of the SUNDAY TIMES, declare that the massive media coverage was due to the publisher’s hype!
MICHAEL WATSON
Every book is a challenge and I love working on ones which offer a variety of opportunities to approach all the media. In May this year, I handled the publicity for Michael Watson. Most people vaguely remembered his fight with Chris Eubank which had left him unconscious at the side of the ring. His story was about his recovery, his remarkable faith, and ended with his triumphant London Marathon walk last year.
Michael wasn’t always easy to understand when speaking, so it was a challenge to get him to focus on some of the best stories in his book – such as his meeting with Mohammed Ali at Bart’s Hospital, complete with a very funny imitation of him. The book got into the SUNDAY TIMES bestseller list, and this was mainly because he was committed to helping us – in spite of the physical effort it caused him.
JOHN McENROE
It’s essential we get full commitment from authors. When you publish a celebrity book it is even more important. Tennis books are notorious for not selling. But John McEnroe was so determined to top the bestseller lists, he gave us ample time for interviews and signing sessions. The result was that Serious got into the top ten in both the hardback and paperback editions.
ANNE ROBINSON
We had acquired the rights to Anne Robinson’s Memoirs of an Unfit Mother about 18 months ahead of the launch of THE WEAKEST LINK on BBC television. That was lucky. But she was exceptionally busy around publication, flying to Los Angeles every other week, and recording for the BBC. But Ms Robinson was set on giving us as much time as possible. Because her star was rising high, I was able to get all the big interviews I wanted.
CLAIRE RAYNER
Claire Rayner was also very hardworking, in spite of having two gammy knees and requiring assistance for every train and plane journey. It didn’t stop her flying up to Edinburgh or Dublin.
The result for both autobiographies was that they got into the top ten of the bestseller lists – a sure way of judging whether or not a publicity campaign has worked.
THE TIPPING POINT
Timing plays a crucial part in a campaign, and no matter how hard you try, it can all come to nought if the time is not right. Some years back, we published a book called The Tipping Point by a young American journalist called Malcolm Gladwell. We invited him to London, and I secured START THE WEEK. I was delighted. Then I got the business producer of Channel 4 NEWS interested, and BBC 5 live’s NICKY CAMPBELL.
I thought that everyone would “get” the premise of the book, which was about why trends or things become popular, and how to get them to that “tipping point”. The Channel 4 News people wanted examples, so I suggested the popularity of Pokemon , the increasing use of mobile phones and – particularly pertinent to our business - the constant bestseller status of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
However, could I get the newspapers interested in interviewing him? Or even the marketing magazines? They didn’t even want him to write features. They just didn’t see that the “tipping point” would enter the language. Although Malcolm Gladwell did quite a lot of local radio interviews, and got a fair number of newspaper reviews – I didn’t feel that the book had the impact I had hoped for.
But his time did come. By the end of the year the book had caught on. CAMPAIGN magazine voted it number 2 in their list of the ten most influential books of 2000.
WORD OF MOUTH
In the end, there are many reasons which contribute to the success of a book’s sales in addition to publishers’ publicity.
I mentioned Captain Corelli – this was probably the first book which indicated the importance of “word of mouth” as a way of encouraging people to read books.
The spread of reading groups has fostered this as well.
And then last year, BBC television decided to focus on books.
THE BIG READ
They called their series THE BIG READ. It was always said that television never did anything for books, but the BBC consulted publishers, the book trade, libraries and schools before launching the series, so when it was broadcast – helped by the fact that reading groups have reached their “tipping point” - it was a huge success for all of the books voted as favourite novels.
Other television programmes have now jumped on the bandwagon. RICHARD & JUDY started a book club last spring, which was so successful they had a summer books series. They are so pleased with both, they will do another book club next spring. And there are others: BBC4 have a series called THE BOOK SHOW. There is an ITV one. And Princess Productions are planning to launch one for BBC1 next spring.
All this is very good news for books, and indicates that books are now fashionable in the media.
However, we can’t rely on television to help promote books. They are likely to tire of it and move on to something else. And there are authors enjoying success – without help from television.
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
At the moment, the star on our list is Alexander McCall Smith. People have asked me, why is he so popular? I think one of the reasons is that you can recommend his books to anyone, and know that they will probably enjoy them.
I wish we could do this for other authors – but sometimes overnight success takes years to achieve. McCall Smith had already published over 50 books before he arrived at his best-selling position today.
FINALLY
Publicity may have helped him a little along the way…but only in tandem with everyone in the publishing house – from the book cover designer to the marketing and sales departments.
Publicity alone doesn’t guarantee sales but we are a significant cog in the publishing machine, and when we work well together as a team - we can achieve success for many of the authors on our list.
