A Day in the Life of a Penguin Random House Publicist

Ever wonder what a book publicist does in a day?

Unless you've received my welcome email recently, it's been a while since I've properly introduced myself. So, I figure, this might be a nice way to give you a look into who I am and what I do. (Plus, in my college days, I used to eat this kind of content up, as it really helps you understand your career options).

Without further ado, here we go...

Hello! My name is Abigail, and I’m publicist at PRH, where I work primarily with lifestyle nonfiction genres (such as cooking, craft, interior design, pop culture, etc).

Um, what’s a book publicist?

As a publicist, I publicize. But if I have learned anything from the number of people who have responded to that statement with "oh, so you're a publisher?", many people have no idea what publicity is, or what it entails.

(TBH, I had no idea what it was either before I started my career. It definitely wasn't a major I'd ever heard of).

To make things even more confusing, publicity is a subcategory of PR (public relations), which is another career umbrella that most people only kind of understand.

So, a quick lesson: publicists work to obtain something we call "earned media." That means any sort of feature (whether in a newspaper, podcast, magazine, radio show, TV program, social media account, etc) that you did not pay for. Rather, the media opportunity is earned by convincing the journalist/producer/influencer that your book deserves to be shouted from the rooftops.

How exactly do I that? Well, let me walk you through it.

A day in my life:

8:00 AM - Leave the house (Ew, commuting. Yay, reading on the subway!)

9:00 AM - 11:00 AM - Arrive at the office and jump into meetings. As my team is mostly based in the UK, I generally have meetings straight out gate so we can get them in before our UK colleagues need to head home.

Each day of the week is different: Mondays and Tuesdays are generally for acquisitions meetings (where we decide which authors we'd like to offer contracts to), Wednesdays and Thursdays often host ideas meetings (where we brainstorm new book ideas based on trends we're seeing), and then there are the general campaign and sales team catch-ups where we make sure everyone in our imprint and our distributors are all aligned.

12:00 PM - Now it's time to crack into my inbox. I once had a boss who joked that Ken's job is Beach, and our job is Email. I'm constantly sending pitches (more on that later), and thus am constantly receiving replies. I try to get all incoming requests (such as mailing books, sending PDFs and images, scheduling interviews, etc) tidied and out of the way before moving on.

1:00 PM - Lunch break! I have the distinct privilege of working in Upper Midtown, Manhattan, which means Central Park is just a three-block walk away. I often like to take a book with me as I eat, or just sit and people-watch.

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM - Pitching time. "Pitching" someone (i.e. journalists/producers/influencers) means sending them a really persuasive email (or calling them, if you're a bit ambitious) declaring why-oh-why [X Book Name] or [X Author Name] is something they need on their radar, stat.

In this time of year, a lot of my pitches are holiday-centric (yes, I know it seems far away, but editorial calendars are often planned months in advance, if not more!). For example, I recently sent out a compilation pitch with our most gift-worthy CREATE titles for the crafty person on your shopping list to a list of magazine commerce editors. Other pitches need to be a lot more tailored to the book I'm promoting or the journalist I'm emailing. I will often schedule my pitches to be sent out the next morning.

*Mid-Afternoon Break* - One of my favorite mid-afternoon breaks is taking myself on a "take shelf" tour. At PRH, we have various bookshelves filled with surplus copies (often ARCs of books that have already been published and can't be sold) that employees are encouraged to take home. They're spread throughout the building, and so it can become a bit of a treasure hunt to go find something you're interested in.

4:00 PM - I often close my day doing various kinds of research. As a publicist, getting media coverage is only part of my job. The other half includes fun things like coordinating brand partnerships, reaching out to bookstores to plan signings, and planning PR events (such as a press dinner to celebrate an upcoming cookbook).

5:00 PM - Pack up my tote and get ready to go!

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Unsolicited Manuscript is an independently-run newsletter. All opinions are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer, company, or any other organization.

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