What We Offer

Seven points, taken together, set Spence Media apart from all other publicity firms.

Fair price
Many publicists argue that it is “difficult” or “not possible” to assess the sales value of a media campaign. We disagree. With Nielsen BookScan and our own sales data, we can estimate the sales value of media placements, and we charge a flat fee for each, regardless of venue, based on this value. Our current fee is $90 per placement, far less than other publicists charge. And because all of our clients pay the same fee, independent publishers and individual authors receive the same attention and effort that larger clients do.

Pay for performance
Clients pay monthly for bookings made during the previous month—for what we have actually achieved, not for the promise of our "best effort." We do not charge a retainer or any other fees, nor do we charge more for a "national" media campaign. Moreover, we will not accept clients or projects that we do not believe will benefit from our approach to book promotion.

Cost control
Our service is scalable in two ways. Clients may employ us for periods of one to twelve months, though we recommend three-month campaigns for most books. Clients may choose, alternatively, to purchase a fixed number of bookings, though we recommend no fewer than fifty. We will also accept long-term contracts from publishers, authors, or organizations that seek ongoing representation.

Speed
We have successfully launched media campaigns in as few as four business days, though we prefer a four-week lead on most projects.

Intensity
Our efficient system allows us to carry out our work at about twice the pace of the typical firm. Our competitors promise two to four dozen bookings over six to eight weeks. For the campaigns Spence has conducted for its clients, we’ve scheduled 100 interviews during that same period—two to four times as many.

Depth
During the frontlist promotion of their books, our own authors give a median of 156 interviews, 20 to 25 percent of which are broadcast nationally. Half of their interviews take place either on a nationally-broadcast show or in a top 25 Arbitron radio market. Authors of our active backlist titles do a median of 40 interviews a year.

Effective book publicity requires not only “single triggering events” but “small but very extensive interactions in the network of buyers.”[*] Our own studies show that 40 percent of our sales come from outside the top 25 markets and 15 percent from outside the top 100 markets. In addition to pursuing national and major-market media placements, therefore, we focus on securing a large number of bookings on local and regional shows.

Precisely because we are aware of the interests of the producers and hosts we deal with, we do not limit our efforts by asking which producers and hosts to present our books to, but amplify them by asking how we will make a book compelling to a broad range of producers and hosts. We have successfully promoted our own titles to the full range of media, secular and Christian, conservative and liberal, special interest and NPR. View the results of typical Spence campaigns or see a partial list of our media placements.

Understanding
We know, as no other book publicity firm possibly can, the challenges that small imprints, independent publishers, academic presses, and authors face in promoting their books. Our clients receive, not merely the promise of our “best effort,” but the very same caliber of promotion that has led to success for our own books.

Those who wish to read in depth about some of the ideas behind our business model will find a bibliography of research and commentary here.