2015
Publicity Campaign of the Year SPONSORED BY: THE PUBLISHERS’ PUBLICITY CIRCLE
25
[ HIGHLY COMMENDED]
WINNER: RUTH WALDRAM (JONATHAN CAPE) FOR H IS FOR HAWK BY HELEN MACDONALD
FALCONRY, GRIEF AND an unknown author hardly seemed like promising ingredients for a new book. But Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk became one of the most talked-about non-fiction books of 2014, and a large chunk of the credit for that must go to its publicity campaign.
Big prizes, including the Costa and Samuel
Johnson, undoubtedly helped. But Ruth Waldram had fired up sales long before they were announced, with strategic media coverage generating enough sales to get the book into the Sunday Times bestseller lists on publication. From there, newspaper interviews and radio appearances produced more noticeable spikes
KEY STRENGTHS
in sales. And when those awards started rolling in, Waldram responded nimbly to keep the momentum going. Her work was underpinned by an obvious passion for the book, and included a tenacious pursuit of media and retailer interest, and a long slog arranging and attending events with Macdonald. Timing is everything in publicity— and here it was perfect.
“The campaign didn’t just set out to shift a lot of units but to build an author and bring nature writing to a bigger audience,” said The Bookseller judges. “The book could have been a very hard sell, especially on a small budget. But what has been achieved with it is incredibly impressive.”
Generated exceptional hardback sales for a little-known author Retailer support and endorsements secured by pre-publication work Co-ordinated extensive media coverage and several dozen events Followed up major award wins with further imaginative promotion
Georgina Moore’s campaign for The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh (Tinder Press) could be a case study for any publicist faced with an author with low sales and no apparent taste for promotion. Print and social media coverage played brilliantly on the book’s themes and made it a big summer read. “The success of The Lemon Grove was pretty much entirely down to this campaign,” said the judges.
[ TH E S HORTLI ST ]
Annabel Robinson and Tania Vian-Smith (FMcM/Penguin) created a distinctive new personality in YA fiction for Sally Green’s Half Bad
Emma Knight sensitively handled the campaign for There’s Something I’ve Been Dying to Tell You by Lynda Bellingham (Hodder & Stoughton), playing to the book’s higher purpose
Four Colman Getty’s campaign for Foyles 107 Charing Cross Road launch built anticipation for the retailer’s new start into a frenzy on moving day
Sandra Taylor stoked massive public interest in The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Picador) through extensive media coverage and events. In another year, this could have won
For over 50 years the Publisher’s Publicity Circle has enabled book publicists from publishing houses and freelance PR agencies to gather and share information on a regular basis. Monthly meetings are held in central London to provide a forum for journalists, television and radio researchers and producers to meet publicists collectively. Representatives from the media are invited to speak about the ways in which they can feature authors and their books, and how book publicists can most effectively provide relevant information and material.
www.publisherspublicitycircle.co.uk
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