About
OVERVIEW
The publishing landscape has changed dramatically in the last two decades, the last five years, and nearly every day since. And with these changes, published books (and potentially complimentary products and services) play a much more impactful and diverse role in the business models for authors, publishers, and professionals.
Concurrently, publishing has never been more accessible. This means that the market has never been more flooded with books, making the competition for readers, consumers, and customers reach an all-time high.
This necessitates that everything from your publishing model and business model to your marketing plan and execution strategy is customized, targeted, strategic, and creative. This is where we come in.
The moment you want to capture any level of value from a book you bring to market, whether that value is financial remuneration, credibility, contacts, networking, or something else, your writing goes from hobby to profession. And you would never think of engaging in any other profession without a clear business model, project/marketing plan, and execution strategy. Unfortunately, the reason so many books and publishers fail is that they skip these critical steps.
PROCESS
From single-book authors to bestselling novelists, to small and large presses, to professionals seeking to create and/or market a book to enhance their career, we take a personalized, three-step approach to address our clients’ goals.
Define.
The first question we always try to address is your needs and wants. This is wide-ranging and multi-layered. You could have an idea for a book and want help fleshing out the idea or having it ghostwritten. You may have an unpublished manuscript and want to determine the best publishing and distribution models. You may be a large or small press publisher that wants assistance implementing a uniform and scalable marketing plan for your titles and an individualized plan for targeted titles. Or, you may be a professional looking to use a book as part of a larger model for growing your brand and business. We help define your goals, educate you as to your options, and broaden your options. This becomes your macro and micro business model.
Create.
Once your goals are clearly articulated, we customize a strategic plan to address each step necessary to complete each stage of the business model. This includes activities, processes, budgets, benchmarks, timelines, CTAs, and more. This becomes the cornerstone of your project/marketing plan.
Execute.
Project/marketing plans tend to have quite a few moving parts. When done correctly and in concert with one another, the process can be smooth, efficient, and fruitful. We execute activities in a cooperative and strategic manner, allowing activities that compliment on another to run concurrently.
DEFINE. CREATE. EXECUTE.
Following this process ensures clear communication and clear expectations, and puts our clients in the best possible position for success.
WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE
We are not just book promoters.
The reality is that nearly any publicist can acquire book reviews, get your book listed on blogs, get radio and TV interviews for an author, and so forth. And the other harsh reality is that most books fail to reach their potential. This is because most marketing efforts are generic–focused on how many “gold”, “Silver”, or “bronze” marketing packages they can sell, and not on the success of customized packages.
For more than two decades, we have worked with authors, publishers, and professionals of all sizes and levels of experience to craft and execute customized plans. As a boutique firm, we pick projects based on three criteria:
- The quality of the project and principles. Is it a great idea? Is it unique? Is the message and author/professional authentic?
- Can we add value? Can we help define your business model, create a clear project/marketing plan, and effectively execute it?
- Are we passionate about it? We will often be the first contact when connecting with vendors, readers, customers, media, etc. on your behalf. We want to be passionate about what we do on your behalf.
We are unique in several distinct ways.
First, our activities are personalized and choreographed and catered to your specific goals. We work with you to identify your overall business model and your micro models, including platform development and where your book and other efforts fit into the process, and plan, and execute efforts accordingly.
Second, we are experts in the book industry. There are plenty of capable publicists out there who can garner exposure for you and/or your book in various ways and offer services that look good on paper. However, our comprehensive knowledge of the entire book industry, from inception through promotion, allows us to work with you to properly align you with the ideal business model and subsequent publishing and distribution model(s) to effectively pursue ideal ROI goals.
Third, unlike most publicists, you do not pay us a retainer fee for our time where we passively respond to incoming queries, blast press releases, or simply blind mail copies of your book hoping for positive results, or print postcards, media press kits, and bookmarks that go nowhere. Our activities are performance-specific and our consultation is purpose and results-driven. We complete our tasks regardless of the amount of time they require and many of our activities have minimum guarantees.
Lastly, our engagement process is personalized. Nearly every contact we make on a client’s behalf is individually done, personalized, and maximized. While this is far more time-consuming, it nets a far greater number of positive responses and increases the likelihood of multiple impressions and relationship building with each positive contact garnered, and does not waste your product or our time.
Jared Kuritz is the President & CEO of STRATEGIES Public Relations, Since 2001, STRATEGIES has worked with domestic and international authors, publishers, and professionals on literary and publishing development, business modeling, and public relations and marketing.
For 16 years, Jared was the director of the La Jolla Writers Conference—an annual, three-day immersion that educated attendees about the art, craft, and business of writing and publishing. Jared is a regular contributor to programs and events including IBPA, APSS, Tucson Festival of Books, San Diego Writers Festival, and more. Jared enjoys sharing his expertise and creativity with members of the writing and publishing community.