My life as a publicist has evolved over the years often being guided and shaped by the unique needs of my clients. For the last year, I’ve had the great fortune to work with a variety of authors and teachers steeped in the new consciousness arena. They are thoughtful, creative, generous people who I am privileged to know and support.

My career has had a strong literary component beginning with earning my bachelor of fine arts degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College in Boston, MA. I was a story analyst for film companies in Los Angeles, a freelance writer in Austin and always a publicist in some way or another. The thread throughout has been a deep passion for storytelling. Later I was a founding member of Texas Writers Month and was the PR Director for the Texas Book Festival founded and chaired by First Lady Laura Bush.

So when my clients started asking me to help with shaping their book ideas and editing book proposals I found myself being drawn into a new area of business that has quickly become a passion. But what would I call myself? An editor? A ghostwriter? A writing consultant? Nope. My forte is helping authors get to the top of their personal literary summits– helping writers with books that have been climbing for months, sometimes years. Like a sherpa, I come in when you have a concept, ideas, notes and the willingness to do some focused work for two days. So what am I? I am your Book Sherpa. Here’s what you can expect:

- Two days focused on discussing your book idea, reviewing your pages and notes and developing a book outline

- I will interview you based on this outline and your responses will be inputed into dictation software which will become the basis of your first draft

- We will work together to complete a book proposal ready for agents and/or publishers

So, do you have a book in you just waiting to come out? Are you a teacher, an expert, or do you have an extraordinary story to share? Let me help. I’ll be your personal guide to climbing that creative mountain path. Give me two days, and you’ll walk away with the beginning of a new chapter, and the perfect view!

This month marks the 20th anniversary in my my PR career. Twenty. I’ll be posting some lessons, highlights (and lowlights) of a career spanning Boston, Los Angeles and Austin, TX. For now, here is a video featuring Edward Bernays. He was already in his 90s when I met him for the first time in his opulent Cambridge home when I was a student in Boston im 1989. I was in my first PR job promoting movies for Paramount Pictures on college campuses in Cambridge and Boston and I had the chance to be a part of a small group who visited him to hear stories and ask questions.

Bernays was a legend in the PR business and many called him the “Father of Public Relations.” People loved him because he was such a master storyteller and an incredible witness to and participant in the history of the 20th century. People hated him because he began a culture of emotional spending and consumerism the likes of which society had never been seen before. He was Sigmund Freud’s nephew and used the work of his uncle– mass psychology in particular– to hone in on people’s emotions to motivate them to buy and become loyal to products.

A propagandist? Yes. A genius? Arguably, yes. Decide for yourself.

Everyone is always asking me what vendors publicists want their clients to start using before launching a PR program . I believe sharing a list like this is one part helpful info, and one part insight on strategy. I’m also admitting here that PR people do not have the market cornered on all activities related to the success of an overall communications plan. Particularly for entrepreneurs, small business, authors and artists– these are vendors you need to use in with your PR person.

1) Web designer: While there are endless vendor possibilities for this one, it is extremely important that you are dealing with someone who is having YOU ask the right questions before you get started. Do you need your website to function as a blog? Do you you already have a designer? Do you need a shopping cart? A wonderful example of a good client questionnaire can be found at http://www.websydaisy.com/contact.html. And why does a PR person need you to have a decent, well thought out website? She won’t want to pitch journalists unless there is a nice place for the reporter to visit. Your PR person will be working with your web designer to create a page for media to visit in case the content of your website is a bit lacking. For some clients if the site is extraordinarly user-friendly and well-organized, a media room may only have basic PR contact info and an electronic press kit. Depends. Please note: never have journalists sign in to get into a media room. Make it available, accessible and transparent.

2) Video Production Company: PR people will always want decent b-roll (general footage of your company or interview with you) to be able to post on the site or on video-sharing sites like YouTube. Press releases are often accompanied by other media in order to generate more interest from reporters. If you’re an author, do some research on book trailers and other short promotional videos. If you’re a company, know that video on your website is becoming the rule, not the exception.

3) Photographer: PR people will need excellent head shot of you, perhaps some candid shots of your company, and product shots if necessary. Please don’t use your digital camera!

4) Graphic Designer/Branding Company: Certainly this depends on the scope and type of business you have, but your PR person wants you to have invested in a nice graphic identity before introducing you to the world. Hire a real designer or a real agency. If you simply do not have the budget for that, check out low cost online tools like www.logomaker.com. Anything is better than using a standard font.

5) Press release distribution service: You should invest in setting up an account with one of the following distribution services– PR Newswire, BusinessWire, MarketWire or PRWeb. All offer different price points and services, as well as levels of measurement so you know where your press releases appear.

Publicists are strategists. A primary component of their value is the ability to think and act strategically on behalf of clients. We take a lot of things into consideration when making our pitches to the media including:

• Is the media outlet appropriate?
• What is the size and scope of the audience?
• Has someone or something else similar to this client recently been featured? Depending on the situation this might be a good thing, or a bad thing.
• Is the client ready to be on  camera? Starting with local media could build confidence and experience.
• Should we focus on TV, radio, print or new media outlets? All of the above, some of the above, etc.? If so, why or why not?
• Is this the right time? Are we coming into seasonal challenges, or does the client have a stronger story happening a couple of months down the road? Are people overwhelmed with stories like these already?

So, these are typical strategic questions that most PR people will consider before pitching a client. But what about just plain, old-fashioned intuition? Does instinct and gut reactions figure into this? Absolutely. As in any business, sometimes you just need to go with what feels right. More often than not, your gut will tell you to dig someone’s name up from your media lists, or to consider a totally new show or outlet. It’s hard to explain to the client, sometimes, exactly why you’re pitching this show, instead of that. But more often than not, your intuition is guiding the pitching and only later will you realize that it all made perfect sense.

Even if the pitches don’t come through, you might walk away with a clearer understanding of how your pitch does or doesn’t resonate. This information is invaluable and will save you a lot of time and energy and certainly will influence the trajectory of your pitches.

But when they do come through, watch out! You’ve logically considered all of the viable options, but you succeeded in managing to cut through the noise (as well as the noise in your head) and your instincts were right. Maybe your client was dead set against radio because of one bad experience, but you urged them to do just this one show and voila! It was the best interview ever.

So do your homework, but also trust your intuition. Maintaining a balance will yield great results.

Just came across this great post on Brian Solis’ blog talking about the new “Top Media Outlets” complete with circulation numbers. What’s cool is that it includes top magazines, newspapers, blogs and more. Read about it….

Call me a dreamer, but I really do think I can do everything I need to do and keep up with this blog… really. Why have I been so remiss? Well, my business is changing– has changed quite a but in the last few months. I’ve stopped offering certain services, and gone back to old favorites. Strangely, not so much because of supply and demand, but because of my own personal interests and direction. I figure, if I am passionate about what I am working on, I’ll do a great job. And I do.

One of the reason I was on a mini-hiatus from my blog (not my job, just my blog) is because I have been spending some very productive and happy time on the other side of the fence. I started a new media company called Soul Lab which is both a blog and an internet radio show. This is where I get to share my personal interests, talk to really fascinating people, and keep my journalistic muscles fit and lean. Like most PR people from my generation (30-40), we started out as journalism majors. In fact, there were no real formal degrees in PR when I went to Emerson College. I think I prefer that, because what you need to know about PR comes from being in expert in a field you believe in, and actuallt working as a journalist. So check out Soul Lab Blog and Soul Lab Radio if you are into everything from pop culture to spirituality, from parenting to art. You’ll dig it.

In the meantime, check out a handy new range of services:

Digital Media Strategist and Writer Nettie Hartsock and I have begun to do free monthly workshops on blogging for those who either do not have the slightest clue about where to start, or they’ve begin and now just don’t “get” the whole social networking thing or how to take their blog global. We are calling our series “B” is for Blog and we are really interested in empowering business owners to take control of this very powerful and ultimately cost effective suite of tools. We want to demystify the process, and make it simple and fun. So far, we’ve had an amazing response…  just incredible. I’m glad that entrepreneurs are getting out there and discovering what it’s like to be a part of a dynamic online community.

Great post from my friend and colleague Nettie Hartsock answering the question, “Can Blogging Kill You?” in response to M.J. Rose in her article “Is Blogging Right for You?” recently published in Writer’s Digest.

I’m a big advocate for sending out additional media with press releases including images, a video, some audio, or whatever else you have on hand to pump up the content and interest. If you are an individual or CEO trying to boost your personal brand, it’s important to make sure that you have some decent video on hand for producers so they can get a sense of how you might appear on camera. Check out www.bizbuzzvideo.com for very affordable video production by a former CNN videographer with two Emmys under her belt. Oh, and make sure your headshots aren’t from 1991.

The answer is a big fat “no.” Whenever I get approached by someone who would like to hire me and propose that I be paid based on what “hits” I get for them during my outreach, I kindly walk way. Why? Because most really savvy clients understand that achieving results is based on forging relationships, developing strategies and discovering a variety of paths to creating awareness above and beyond a mention in the local daily paper. And most people know that getting media hits is considered earned media, not paid media. For as much as someone can put into pitching a client, there are never any guarantees. So it simply would be not be a fair proposition to expect a professional to engage in work with no guarantee that they will ever get paid. It may work for realtors or personal injury lawyers, but not for publicists.