Coming soon: Pine State Publicity

a book publicity & marketing newsletter

Starting with my old DIY blogging days, I realized there’s a hierarchy in publishing. I got big four books I never asked for in media mail packages to my doorstep daily. I had piles of books I never intended to read all because the number of subscribers on my blog was a number they liked.

We all know the tale of the mid-list author, or wonder about how a book becomes a lead title & some of us are riding on the hope that the money up front (or lack there of) doesn’t determine the marketing, audience, or inevitable success of our book and hard work. Some of us don’t want to create Amazon ads, some of us won’t ever get seen on a Buzzfeed booklist, and for some of us just getting in that one library or on that one podcast would make a difference. And what about poets? That’s where the real cynicism lives whenever I tweet about poetry marketing.

I’ve always been a fan of the hustlers, those scrappy publishers and writers who are out there pulling together a string of lights. It is always my hope that the best books rise to the top anyway, but that doesn’t always happen. I started my publicity business, Pine State Publicity, to create a more level playing field for indie publishing that looks & feels different from conglomerate publisher marketing, but reaches an author’s audience with the same success.

I want to take you along for the ride.

This newsletter will contain publicity tips & tricks, book news, book and marketing case studies, mistakes I’ve made (or am making) along the way, advice, success stories, interviews with writers and publicists (maybe!) and whatever else I can think of (or comes recommended) that’ll help the writing community market their stories.

When I started this publicity business, I drew that little tree up in my notebook looking at a sketch of a pine tree on Google. I colored it with Adobe Photoshop, which I still had free access to for a few more weeks through my MFA program, and I tried to name this company. I wanted the name of whatever I was doing to feel like home, to feel something like Bull City Press, (Ross & Noah took a chance on me to do publicity for them when they had no reason to, and I will forever be grateful). I came up with Pine State Publicity (shout out to Pine State Flowers, my favorite local flower delivery too!)

I want to keep that feeling of home while I do this work, wherever your book lands, it should feel at home there. Let’s get to work!