There was once a fellow with whom I had grown up with in the blue sky, sunny, valley days of our one high school town. Our families were close. There is a 1924 photo of our fathers together as they were kids playing on a railroad flatcar in the Sierra lumber camp known as Sugar Pine. We probably had sneaked sips of Lucky Lager at barbecues, and looked for nut grass to eat as we played hide-and-seek in his dad’s cotton field. The bolls were still green. Then, as happens many times, we drifted apart as college, jobs, and work forced different demands on place and location. What I do remember is that my friend worked as a “PR” man for many years in a different state. I do not know for which company.
When I think of “PR” – public relations, I also think of the Jack Lemmon movie Days of Wine and Roses where he is the PR fellow for a company. There party promoting entertainment guru for his company loses everything because of drinking. I often wondered how guys in real PR jobs thought of that portrayal. I realize that many things have changed about PR with companies, and ever more so, in the “dot com” era since the ‘90s. I have in my hands a 2003 paper back about published author’s promotion. As the title implies, there is no assumption of a PR support from one’s publisher, and the subtitle for this anthology is “Marketing Tips by Published Authors.” I think I bought it in 2004 or 2005, but I am trying to see if it is in an ebook or on line someplace, in order to give reference, before I write the actual title here.
More later, on the various points in this PR book, but as a thought, how is your professional “self PR” going?
Timothy J. Desmond
Tim’s Amazon author page at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00694KQQO
Writing site at: http://timsfiction-art.com
Art site at: http://artbydesmond.com
Tag Archives: authors
Author Roles
In a recent blog it was said that self publishing and the changing marketing of print books in and by the publishing industry has caused a change in roles of authors. My comment was, “Good piece on growing changes in publishing, authorship, marketing and promotions. If there was a different perception in marketing print books compared to e-books – that now appears to be an illusion. Both versions need the same thing, and that is chatter, access, talk, presence in the blog-i-sphere, social audience and in the multi-media world of the industry we are working in. Keep it up here and on other sites. Thanks again.”
See that whole blog by Jerry D. Simmons here: http://www.writersreaders.com/changing-role-of-the-author/
It seems to me that with one’s new stories, books, or articles, one still must be out there pitching to agents and editors. Self publishing may be a growing role, and carries with it a huge learning curve of what larger publishers deal with and all their needs and problems. What do you think? Do you still need an editor and an agent?
Timothy J. Desmond
Tim’s Amazon author page at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00694KQQO
Writing site at: http://timsfiction-art.com
Art site at: http://artbydesmond.com