Posted by Maleeha Mir on 24 May 2024, in Event reports, News
Photos by Daniel Solomons and Alex Shaw, Words by Chris Russell
You can listen to an audio recording of this event via this link.
Byte The Book returned to its roots on Monday 20th May for an evening at Covent Garden’s Ivy
Club, where the very first Byte event was held in 2012. The panel discussed the perennial topic of
how authors can best reach their readers, and comprised journalist and author Nichi Hodgson,
literary agent Anna Pallai and founder and chief product officer at Shimmr AI, Searsha Sadek.
Our panel from left to right: Nichi Hodgson, Justine Solomons, Anna Pallai, and Searsha Sadek.
The event kicked off with a fundamental question from Byte founder, Justine Solomons – why is it
important that a book has good PR? Anna responded with a list of the various elements that,
traditionally, make up public relations campaigns in the publishing world. “PR is essentially about
creating opportunities for people to hear about your book,” she began, “so that’s print and online
media, festivals, radio slots, magazines and word of mouth”. She added that publicists can also
provide objective input on what your book is actually for. “They’ll help you identify what it’s
about,” she said, “and figure out which parts should be tailored to which audience”.
Anna Pallai sharing her insights on the logistics and realities of book publicity in today’s media landscape.
Nichi pointed out that there’s a difference between getting your book read and getting it sold, and
both are valuable in their own way. “Of my first two books, the one that didn’t get the PR support
actually sold more,” she revealed, “but the book that did receive PR support has had more impact,
more longevity”. In turn, that longevity has translated into additional sources of revenue for Nichi,
as well as raising her profile across the industry.
Nichi Hodgson detailing her experiences as a writer and how she up-skilled herself as an author to gain a better understanding of publishing.
Next, the panel considered how technology is changing the PR landscape. Searsha Sadek, whose
tech company Shimmr AI has been described as “advertising on auto-pilot”, spoke of the ways in
which AI is taking the leg-work out of finding an audience. “Shimmr is essentially made up of three
machines,” she explained. “The first analyses the DNA of your book, pulling out its values, its
marketing hooks. The second generates adverts from that information, A/B testing them against
each other to find the most effective. The third identifies niche audiences for the book by pushing it
out through Google and Meta, in a granular search for readers”. It is this aspect of the publishing
experience – identifying audiences, amongst all the noise, and then communicating effectively with
them – that AI is poised to truly revolutionise. “Half the problem is finding your people,”
summarised Searsha, “and the other half is saying the right thing to them”.
Searsha Sadek sharing her expertise in the world of book advertisements at Shimmr AI, and her invaluable advice for authors using AI to optimise their online profiles and Amazon Book Listings (Shimmr AI's Optimize Your Amazon Book Listing Guide can found here)
In a less flashy but equally illuminating example of how technology is updating PR practices, Anna
spoke about her husband, Sam Delaney, presenter of The Reset Podcast, who came up with a
creative way of globalising the book signing experience. It’s notoriously difficult to attract
audiences for book signings, but this is often less to do with absent demand and more to do with
geography, so as a workaround, Sam made an arrangement with his local bookshop: fans could
message the store with their details and receive a signed copy of his book, posted directly to them.
This led to many hundreds of signed copies being dispatched, a boon not only for Sam, but also for
his readers and the shop itself.
The panel sharing their individual tops tips and insights for authors to upscale their current skills.
The discussion drew to a close with tips from each panellist on how authors can attract more
readers. Nichi, who in addition to her publishing accolades, has experience as a professional
dominatrix, talked about the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone: “Use your
community, and don’t feel awkward about asking people to share your book news. If you hold back,
you’ll regret it years later”. Anna extolled the virtues of being clear about what you want to achieve,
and remembering that publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. “See it as a long game,” she advised.
“For the majority of writers, this business is not about instant success”.
An attendee asking the panelists questions about book PR and advertising and what they can do to expand their knowledge as a beginner.
Searsha, meanwhile, underlined the benefits of lateral thinking, counselling authors to think beyond
their genre and consider the sub-themes of their book. “Is your work about family, for instance, or Sweden, or canoeing? Identify your sub-themes, and you can find a new audience”. Large language
models such as Claude, she added, can help you with this, making relatively light work of the
process.
Finally, in a time-saving piece of advice that drew a collective sigh of relief from every writer in the
room, Searsha concluded: “Stop trying to be everywhere at once … and get specific”.
Thank you to Shimmr AI for sponsoring our event! You can find Shimmr AI's Optimize your Amazon Book Listing Guide here.
You can see more photos from our fantastic photos from 'Reaching Readers – How to Get Your Book Read by People (other than your mum)?' event here!
