07 March 2010

PR tip 1: Look it up

There's an increasing tendency to send out forms asking for an amazing amount of detail about both writer and publications. While I accept there's a lot of conning in this business (and I've certainly heard many a funny and outrageous story) and applaud your attempts to avoid pointlessly assisting con-men or those who are not genuinely writing for anyone of any significance, please remember that your fee is likely to be considerably more than mine. Leave the text and negotiations with editors to get the piece placed and published to me. Please deal with the commercial angles yourself.

In particular, questions about rates and circulations, such as attempts to quantify the cost equivalent of buying the same amount of advertising space as an article covers, should be something you have to hand in rate and data manuals. I'm a writer, and not involved in any way with the business of the ad rates of the publications for which I write, nor do editors want me to bother them with such questions.

So what do I do? I Google the name of the publication and "rates", and put down on your form what I discover. You do have Internet access in your office, I think? Do you check my figures? Well, shouldn't you be doing so? And if you are doing so, couldn't you quite simply look them up yourselves rather than asking someone who has less of a clue than you ought to do?

Of course, published rates don't tell you a great deal about what you can actually negotiate, or what your agency might be able to negotiate for you before adding artwork, concept, and copywriting costs to the bill. In short, what either of us look up on the Internet isn't really much of a guide to any real-world costs, nor does it say much about the relative persuasive value of an independently written piece versus a paid-for advertisement. I suppose I can only be glad you're not asking me to work all that out for you, too.

But if you must use this only faintly relevant measure to assess whether a project is worthwhile you really will earn some good will by simply looking up the figures yourselves.
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