What I Do
I guide authors along the path to the best publication possible without multinational corporate support. Cover, copy, positioning, marketing, advertising, timing, launch…the whole tamale! I bring a ton of experience and expertise to the game, and I am unique for having mastered both visuals and text—I write and I design! Since I’ve been hands-on for my entire career, I have first-hand knowledge and mastery of the most significant marketing tools: Amazon Ads, Facebook/Instagram, NetGalley, Goodreads, BookBub, Twitter, Reddit, podcasts, etc. I’m collaborative and transparent—and honest.
Marketing
A publishing marketer is necessarily a jack-of-all-trades, a fox and a hedgehog. My experience includes all of the following: Consumer and trade marketing. Print, TV, radio & digital advertising and promotion. Street teams, gorilla and urban marketing. Word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Social media marketing in its many forms and iterations. Promotion/advertising via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Sweepstakes marketing. Email marketing. SMS/MMS marketing. Viral video. I work closely with authors, their team, and our team to design and execute the most effective campaigns.
People who know me best know that I don’t do anything the same way twice, that I refuse to settle for the expected, and I’m always pushing the envelope, looking for the big idea, the new tactic that will cut through the clutter and raise awareness for our titles.
All that cleverness would amount to nothing if I didn’t execute, which I take pride in doing at the highest levels.
Publishing
I love books, as one would expect. I also like creative people, authors included. I spent my 35-year career passionately consumed with helping authors reach their audience. While I started in publicity, most of my career was on the marketing side, which involves pretty much everything but the stuff of publicity: reviews, interviews, media appearances, and bookstore events. The whole business transformed dramatically during my time at Doubleday, so I’ve participated in a broad and dynamic range of promotional efforts.
There’s no magic bullet in book publishing — success is a convergence of content, positioning, timing, packaging, distribution, publicity, marketing, and luck. While it’s often said that publishing will break your heart, I’ve also participated in many joyous and rewarding successes. That’s what continues to motivate me.
