Podcast Episode: Book Promotion - Part One w/ Publicist, Kathleen Schmidt
Kathleen Schmidt has worked in the publishing industry for 25+ years. She’s been a literary agent, editor, ghost-writer and publicist, including being a Publicity Director at Skyhorse Publishing (WOW) and creating unique book marketing ideas for the best-selling book, YOU are a BADASS, by Jen Sincero. Kathleen owns her own publicity firm, KMSPR, and writes about publishing and her experiences to help authors, newbie and seasoned, to understanding publishing and do right by their books on her Substack at KathleenSchmidt.Substack.com.
She offers listeners the opportunity to reach her directly at publishingconfidential@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like to chat about hiring her as your publicist.
In Part One, of our two part podcast interview, Kathleen shares…:
…the goal of her fabulous Substack: Publishing Confidential - where she writes about current publishing news and how the publishing industry works - in terms everyone can understand. Her substack is VERY generous and her personal recommendations - books, movies, tv, sorbet - are fantastic and fun.
…how she as a publicist works with authors
…what book promotion ideas translate into sales
…a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing business including a publisher’s p&l and the reasons behind the author’s advances and their catalog.
Kathleen has 25+ years in the book publishing industry. She is president of KMSPR, a strategy, marketing, PR and branding firm focusing on authors, publishers, and publishing adjacent entities.
I found Kathleen by searching “book promotion” on Substack and found a post that mentioned Jon Hamm and that was it for me… It is titled What Book Publishing Can Learn from Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Confess Fletch. Have a notebook by your side as you read her substack because each post is chock full of great information, resources, book recommendations and other fun stuff.
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Part Two of this interview with even more book promotion advice with Kathleen!
You can contact me with any questions at wjcwolk@gmail.com.
Finally, a reminder for writers out there who are ready to start to write their book! Now is the time to Sit & Write!
The Annual Sit & Write Course, with Kate Brenton (Rebirth, The Golden Thread) starts Sept 7th with an early bird discount due date of August 31st… learn all about it at the link. If you are ready to get started on your book and learn a bit about book marketing as you write to get ahead of the book publishing and sales game, follow the link to sign up today.
What A Publicist Can Do For Your Book, Pt One