During lockdown, I embarked on getting to know the wonderful people who work tirelessly behind the scenes at publishing houses across the UK. I titled the blog page, Meet the Gatekeepers. I thought, after nearly four years, it was time to revamp this and meet familiar friends and introduce new ones. Today is the sixth in a lengthy series of guests featuring on My Shelves Are Full!
Meet Graeme Williams, Freelance Publicist
How did you get your start working in publishing?
I was fortunate to have a supportive family who wanted to help me get started in publishing. This meant letting me live rent and expense free while I searched for two-week unpaid work experience posts with publishers. I ended up doing these for months at the likes of Transworld, Puffin, Faber and Virgin Books, sleeping on the sofa of my second cousin who lived in London at the time before I got my first paying role. All the work experience paid off in the end but I’m glad it’s something that’s more frowned upon now. Internships should be paid and I’m glad that’s more common practice these days.
What are the highlights of your job?
I’ve always liked the challenge of a marketing campaign. Each book is a puzzle, how to take it and condense it and get the feel of it across to readers as succinctly as possible so you reach the right people and get them a book they enjoy, and even after almost twenty years in publishing the thrill has never gone away. Also, free books!
What are the challenges of your job?
I think the hardest thing can be when a book doesn’t sell. You can do everything you can, everything you can think of, it might even be a similar strategy to another book you’ve worked on that did really well, and still the book doesn’t sell. The readers don’t connect, the influencers don’t take to it, people would just rather read that book over there. It can be sad and frustrating for everyone involved. In the end, the quality and premise of the book are still all-important, which is a comfort in a way!
Describe a typical day- or are no two days alike?
Being a freelancer, no two days are alike. I’m bouncing between clients and genres all the time. In the morning I might be working with a designer to get a national rail poster campaign designed for a bog biography, then in the afternoon I’m wrestling with a Facebook campaign for a thriller, making sure that the interest targeting is as good as it can be. The next day I’m emailing bloggers offering copies of a new popular science book I’m working on, followed by negotiating with a hotel chain, trying to get them to give me a two night stay to offer as a competition prize for a literary fiction novel. A boss once told me that ‘99% of marketing is getting other people to do things for you’ and he was right! I’m always emailing people asking them to do things, designers to ‘just move that line up a bit’ and ‘please, influencer, read this book’ and then ‘please Waterstones, host this author video on your socials’ (that I got the author to film on their phone). It’s never boring!
Any tips for book bloggers?
Always ask. If you’ve been offered a book and it doesn’t arrive, it doesn’t mean the publisher changed their mind. It usually means that they asked for a copy to be sent out and the warehouse lost the order and there’s so many books coming and going it’s impossible to keep an eye on every order. So if you haven’t got your book yet, raise your hand. We’ll be glad you did.
Also, make sure to flag all the channels you post your reviews to across all your channels. Link trees are brilliant! Sales like to know how many people we’re reaching, how big follower numbers are, and the easier you can make that for us, the more likely we are to get in touch offering a book!
What book are you most excited about for 2025?
Ugh, too many to count! I’m going through a bit of an SFF phase at the moment. At the time I’m writing this, the new Jennifer Saint hasn’t been announced yet so can’t tell you what it’s about but I’m really looking forward to it. There’s The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey. I also read The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite, this year. I don’t even know if she has a book out in 2025 but if she does I want it!
My Shelves Are Full 