“You have to start at the D-list media to get the interest of the C-list, then B-list, then A-list.”

A long-time PR pro on sticker shock, enjoying the marketing stage, and the number-one thing authors can do to earn their own media coverage

Hi! Before we get into today’s (detailed, insidery, excellent!) Q&A with a professional book publicist, I need to have a little scream:

THE LAST FERRY OUT comes out Tuesday AHHHHHH!!

If you’re thinking about buying it, please get that preorder in! Want me to send you a bookmark and signed bookplate (anywhere in the US)? Done. Want me to make a video for your book club meeting? You got it. Just get those orders in!

You too could be holding it in your hands and grinning!!!

Y’all know I’m nothing but brutally honest with you in this newsletter, and how this book sells will quite literally determine (at least in part!) the future of my career. Sales matter, bigly! (Requesting it from your library—in hardcover, audiobook, and, hell, large print—is also awesome because libraries have to pay more for it!)

Apple just selected THE LAST FERRY OUT as a best book of May—they call it “inventive and atmospheric” and promise “Mystery fans, you’re in for a treat with this one.” A hardcover is $30 (less for audio- and e-book!) for, like, 8+ hours of entertainment (and years of my life). What are you waiting for?

You can buy a copy from Bookshop.org, and other buy links are here; if you’d like a signed copy, order from Books Are Magic before my launch there on Monday. THANK YOU, whew, and let’s get into today’s candid convo!

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Kourtney Jason is the president and co-founder of Pacific & Court, an award-winning Brooklyn-based book publicity and digital marketing agency. With more than 15 years of experience as a publicist (in-house and independently), she had so much wisdom to share about what authors need to know—and do!—to get their PR and marketing right. And lucky for us, she was willing to share her secrets with the Get It Write community!

Big thanks to Kourtney for the candid advice and behind-the-scenes intel—authors, you don’t want to miss this one! (If you’re interested in learning more, check out my past posts on book publicity, including how as an author I’ve muscled my books into Marie Claire, CNN.com, and more.)

Me: Good morning, Kourtney! How are you??

Kourtney: Hi Andi! I'm doing well, and yourself?

I'm doing really well! Excited to be chatting with you!

Same here! I love this feature in your Substack :) I feel honored to be included!

Love it. Let's jump in: Can you share a little about how you work with authors (including your ballpark rates, if possible)?

Of course! I am the president and co-founder of Pacific & Court and we work with independent publishers as well as as authors on PR and digital marketing campaigns.

we work with publishers on a set number of titles per year (typically longer-term contracts), and then indie authors hire us directly as well. they could be traditionally published, hybrid or self-published and they are often eager to make sure they are supporting the launch of their book. each publisher client has its own contract with us -- some could be 3-5 book campaigns/year, some are up to 15 campaigns for the year. So it varies by publisher.

we focus on non-fiction, as that's been my background having working in-house at publishing companies previously, though we do work on the occasional novel or two per year.

Rates for a full-time PR campaign are…