Kate Hilton, author of The Hole In The Middle, dishes on how her publicity campaign gave her book a “spring makeover” post-publication.
I love spring. I love it even more than I hate winter. Every year, when the days start getting longer, I am filled with energy. I open the windows and wiggle out of my track pants. I survey the landscape.
It’s time to renovate – not my house, although I’ve done that too. It’s time to embark – on new relationships, careers, projects, life stages. I’ve broken up and fallen in love in the spring. I’ve birthed babies in the spring. I’ve quit and started jobs in the spring. I’ve taken stock and found things wanting in the spring. I’ve dreamed and hoped and risked and launched myself into the unknown in the spring.
I’m a little dangerous at this time of the year. Anything is possible. Obstacles shrink in the face of my springy optimism. This isn’t the time to tell me what can’t be done. I don’t want to hear it. Save it for winter.
This year, I knew immediately what part of my life needed a fresh new look for spring: the PR campaign for The Hole in the Middle, my debut novel.
The Hole in the Middle had already been a bestseller in Canada the year before. I worked with my US publisher to position my book baby for a healthy arrival in the American market. I lined up bloggers and online advertising. I secured glowing reviews from some extraordinary and bestselling women’s fiction writers. RT Book Reviews chose it as a Top Pick and gave it their highest rating (4.5 stars). I was ready to repeat my Canadian success south of the border.
I think you know where this is heading. Release date came and went. I posted on Facebook. I tweeted. I sent newsletters. I checked Amazon obsessively. The silence was deafening.
I was utterly downcast. I lost sleep. I ate way too many chocolate almonds. I wondered aloud to anyone who would listen (mostly my agent and my author friends) why I had ever decided to write a book in the first place.
And then it was spring. I put the chocolate almonds away and decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something more constructive. But what?
I logged on to my Women’s Fiction Authors group on Facebook and posted the following message: “What are people’s thoughts on hiring a publicist? Some of you have used BookSparks. Were you happy with them?”
Well, yes, as it turns out. People were very, very happy with BookSparks. BookSparks were geniuses. The women’s fiction community (and they can be an effusive bunch to begin with) couldn’t say enough good things about them. And now I was extremely downcast, because it was clear that I ought to have called BookSparks months earlier.
Still, I thought, it was worth a conversation. I set up a call with Crystal Patriarche, BookSparks mastermind and self-described originator of brilliant ideas. I told her my story. Crystal felt my pain. She’d heard it all before.
“Tell me the truth,” I said. “Is it too late?”
“No,” Crystal said. “It is absolutely not too late.”
“When do we start?” I asked.
“We start now,” said Crystal.
Within 24 hours, Crystal, Caitlin Hale, and the rest of the BookSparks team were pitching The Hole in the Middle. Within two weeks, they had secured coverage at Redbook, The San Francisco Book Review, and Parade. Within a month, they added PopSugar and Coastal Living. They performed other amazing feats of PR, which they will tell you about themselves in their Case File. I jumped up and down. (Literally. I did that.)
And the story isn’t over yet. It’s now three months after release date. According to traditional publishing wisdom, The Hole in the Middle should have vanished weeks ago. But instead, it’s appearing on Spring Must-Read lists, thanks to my new BFFs at BookSparks.
How’s that for a spring makeover?
About the Author:
Kate Hilton is the author of THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE and JUST LIKE FAMILY (2017). She also co-authors a non-fiction blog, THE PEN PAL PROJECT. Before turning to fiction, Kate worked in law, higher education, public relations and major gift fundraising. She has an English degree from McGill University and a Law degree from the University of Toronto. She lives with her family in Toronto, where she is working on her third novel.
About the Book:
The heartfelt and hilarious, international bestselling debut about having it all without losing your mind.
Sophie Whelan is the kind of woman who prides herself on doing it all. In a single day, she can host a vegan-friendly and lactose-free dinner for ten, thwart a PTA president intent on forcing her to volunteer, and outwit her hostile ‘assistant’ in order to get her work done on time.
With her fortieth birthday looming, and her carefully coordinated existence beginning to come apart at the seams, Sophie begins feeling like she needs more from her life—and especially from her husband, Jesse.
The last thing Sophie needs is a new complication in her life. But when an opportunity from her past suddenly reappears, Sophie is forced to confront the choices she’s made and decide if her chaotic life is really a dream come true—or the biggest mistake she’s ever made…
Get The Hole In The Middle today!
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