| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: Celebrity Publicists |
Topic: Celebrity Publicists
| Author | Message |
| Newsy | Posted – 8/14/2007 4:53:14 PM | show profile I'm new to this, but I'd like to try and land an interview with some well-known people. How do you all go about finding stars' publicists? Thanks in advance! |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 8/14/2007 4:57:09 PM | show profile www.WhoRepresents.com |
| Newsy | Posted – 8/16/2007 12:27:05 PM | show profile Are there any free sites....$12 a month is a bit too high and I don't think I'd use it all that often for it to be worthwhile. |
| maphop | Posted – 8/16/2007 2:00:49 PM | show profile Newsy, you say that you're new to this but I'm not sure I understand what you're new to...freelancing? doing interviews? contacting celebrities? There have been innumerable posts on this subject - including a whole lot of comments about what a lousy site/service www.whorepresents.com has become in the last few years - but it's also the very cheapest that I'm aware of. To be honest, unless you're already doing celebrity profiles on a regular basis or have a couple of national magazines asking you to do them, you're going to want to wait until you can afford a whole lot more than $12/month to build a contact list. It's one of the hardest arenas to break into as a freelancer, 95% of the time you're going to strike out as a newby when requesting interview time and a publicist won't even talk to you if you don't already have an assignment lined up with a major. I'm actually not trying to be discouraging so much as realistic; this is going to be a tough row to hoe if you don't already have this stuff at your fingertips. Perhaps a good way to break into this over time would be to focus on doing interviews with local authors or experts in a particular field; as you develop clips showing that you have superior interview skills, it will come easier. And I do realize that this number will seem absurd to someone new to freelancing but between all the various databases that I use, I pony up over $7500/year. Not everyone needs to do this - and a brand new freelancer absolutely shouldn't invest in much more than maybe Writers Market (the database, not the book) and the time it takes to research magazines, newspapers, editors and start dialing. BTW, I'm not necessarily recommending Writer's Market for you but if you're genuinly brand new and don't know where to start, for something like $3/month, it will at least give you editorial contact info and web links. |
| Newsy | Posted – 8/16/2007 2:48:17 PM | show profile Hi there...thanks! I meant that I'm new to interviewing celebs. I spoke to a publicist of a well-known celeb and he said that if I get an assignment from a major glossy, then they'd be happy to grant me an interview. Promising, no? |
| lenagrove | Posted – 8/16/2007 4:35:54 PM | show profile It may not be that promising. Really, you're just doing the publicist's work for him if you try to get his client into a national glossy. As another poster said, I'm not trying to be discouraging, but I once worked my butt off on a similar promise. I hope your situation works out better. I'm sure some people have better luck with celeb pieces than I did, so maybe you'll be one of them! |
| WritingSoul | Posted – 8/16/2007 10:52:07 PM | show profile So what are the more expensive celebrity contact lists and things like writer's markets, out of curiousity? |
| maphop | Posted – 8/17/2007 9:38:09 AM | show profile Newsy, the good news is that you reached a publicist (I'm rather assuming it was to a B-level celeb but who knows) but, hell yeah, he or she will talk to you if you come up with a national placement! That's what they're earning their $7K - $20K/month retainer fee for! You will be, essentially, doing their work for them. It's not fair but it's true and, unfortunately, it doesn't mean that you'll be treated with any respect. There are two other things for you to think about if you continue to pursue this particular field of writing - if you aren't a known entity to nationals, they MIGHT consider a spec piece but will probably not issue a formal assignment letter until they know you better (which means that the publicist probably won't go for it) nor pick up any travel expenses to the source of the interview. That means either you're going to go out of pocket for a spec piece (don't ever, ever do this) or you're going to wind up doing a telephone interview. Newsy, start out with authors and artists visiting your current locale and earn some terrific clips and then worm your way up. You'll get paid more, you'll be more likely to score the interviews you want and you'll have editors helping to make it happen because then you'll have value to them. Editors get hundreds and hundreds of celebrity pitches each week, almost always from those who are just starting out in the business but think there's a glamour quotient to doing celeb interviews but don't have the credentials. By this time next year you could stand out from that crowd by having done the prerequisite stuff now. |
| princess | Posted – 8/17/2007 10:07:42 AM | show profile It's just common sense. If the celeb is on a show, you contact the network PR rep for the show. Those folks are usually pretty cooperative since a placement for the celeb is also one for the show. Music - contact their label Film - if they're in something in current release or you know what they're in production in at the moment, contact the studio for the project rep. You can also contact SAG - they will give you up to 3 listings at a time for celeb's managers, who will then usually direct you to the PR if they have one. Good luck |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/17/2007 10:10:25 AM | show profile It really depends. If this is a celebrity the magazines are dying to put on their covers (Tom Cruise, say), then access alone will sell it. If its a well-known celebrity but not someone whose face is going to move copies on the newsstands (Anthony Hopkins, say), it will depend on the pitch. (Anthony Hopkins is a walking enthusiast, so he'll be a great hook for a walking story in your fitness section -- and I can get him to talk about his love of walking.) You get the point. You have to remember, getting access to an OK celeb may be a big deal to you, but not necessarily to the magazine because they can get access to the same celebs easily enough. --Hi there...thanks! I meant that I'm new to interviewing celebs. I spoke to a publicist of a well-known celeb and he said that if I get an assignment from a major glossy, then they'd be happy to grant me an interview. Promising, no?-- |
