hi my name is beth and i'm the children's publicity manager at faber
hello and welcome back to my channel in this week's interview we have bethany
carter who is a publicity manager at faber children's hope you find it useful and enjoy
so a motto i live by is that if you don't absolutely love a piece of clothing in when
you first see it or um when you first try it on or when you're in the shop then you just
won't love it further down the line um and you definitely won't wear it i think there's every
single time i go shopping and i think it's also quite relevant when it comes to um for example
when editors send acquisitions round um for the team to consider which is something that happens
quite a lot in our children's team because we're so small if it doesn't pull you in uh if you don't
love it then and if you're not desperate to read the whole thing then you know it's not for you
so i'm the only publicist on the children's team but worked very closely with the
children's marketing manager to deliver our campaigns and as there's only two of us working
on the children's list there's a lot of crossover in terms of what we do such as social media uh
newsletters announcements and things like that in a nutshell it's my job to get press coverage for
our books and our authors um this could be coverage in newspapers magazines tv radio pretty
much any opportunities we can find will will go for them so it's also my job to schedule events
and festival appearances for our authors submit books for awards and also work closely with book
bloggers to promote our books on social media i'm sure every publicist says this but no day
is ever the same one day i might be pitching for coverage or arranging interviews another
i might be submitting for prizes or planning events obviously at the moment the event side
of things is a little up in the air and very much all digital and in a normal world i could
be going on tour with authors or accompanying them to festivals and it can be pretty hectic
but it's there's never a dull moment in publicity which is why i enjoy it so much
one of the things i absolutely love about working in publicity is the opportunity to work
closely with incredible authors and illustrators and the faber children's authors and illustrators
are so so talented hugely passionate about what they do and just really wonderful people
it's a real privilege to be able to get to know them and be a champion for their books sadly this
last year has put paid to one of the other things i love about my job which is the opportunity to go
to events and festivals um you know in a normal world a book publicist would be traveling up and
down the country with their authors visiting bookshops festivals libraries schools um it's
usually one of my favorite parts about the job especially seeing kids meet their favorite
authors and getting their treasured book signed and just asking the most ridiculous questions
this year has been a real learning curve and everyone's had to get their heads around
virtual events um it's never the same particularly for children's authors but we're lucky to
to have this alternative way of reaching readers and i should say uh also that one of the most
satisfying parts of the job is when you get a really incredible and juicy piece of coverage
whether it's a tv and radio tv or radio interview a national press feature or just a really really
great review it's really rewarding and i love seeing our books get the attention that they
deserve so one thing that people may or may not know about faber already is that we have the
faber archive um it was created in 1975 to mark the 50th anniversary of faber and is an absolute
treasure trove of literary gems it's not open to the public unfortunately but everyone gets a
tour of the archive when they start working at faber so i spoke to robert the faber archivist
um and asked him for an interesting fact that people might not know and obviously faber is
hugely well known for its poetry list and this is without a doubt the best documented part
of the archive and includes poets like t.s eliot ted hughes ezra pound sheamus heaney
but apparently and rather interestingly in the 40s and 50s faber had most success with its
books on nursing which in turn allowed elliott to take risks and commission
writers who at the time were young and unknown and now are some of the best known names in poetry
one of the biggest challenges about working in children's publishing specifically is that despite
the fact that children's books make up a third of the market they only account for just under
five percent of review space in traditional media um there are some really incredible journalists
that cover children's books they do so much with the space that they have and a huge champions for
children's books online um but it just means that competition to get coverage is insane there are
so many incredible children's books out there but simply not enough space in the mainstream
media to cover them all which means that some books just don't get the coverage or attention
that they deserve this means that publishers have to look elsewhere um and is why we rely
on book bloggers so much and books to grammars and booktubers they play such an important role
in the industry um and i'm not sure what we'd do without them their passion and enthusiasm for
children's books is so amazing to see and they're always such a delight to work with so thank you
this is a really interesting question actually because i've seen quite a few people
head in very different directions um the obvious career path is from publicity assistant all the
way up to publicity director um and it can get a little complicated in between uh because some
publishers use different terms like press officer or publicity executive for what i
think are quite similar roles and levels another route that some publicists take is the move into
freelance so you know joining a pr agency or setting up their own um a lot of publishers
hire freelance publicists for lots of different reasons so if you like variety then that can be a
fantastic route to take and lastly i've seen some book publicists move into completely different
industries where salaries can often be higher like medical or finance
pr so there's not there's not one straight route i think in the world of book publicity
so one of the first books recommended to me when i started working in publishing
was a little life by hanya yanagihara it's an incredible epic powerful and really profound
novel about um this for young men living in new york do brace yourselves because this is
by no means a cheery recommendation um and i say this speaking from the experience of
someone who literally sobbed whilst reading this on the train it's a brilliant novel
and if you're in the right kind of mindset then then do add it to your list and it's the kind of
book that really stays with you long after you've finished reading it hope you found that useful
and learn about what a publicity manager might be doing in the book publishing industry