Age: 36

Location: Harlem, NY

What are you working on now?: Been at Planned Television Arts, the country's biggest independent book publicity firm for almost six years now. We're owned by Ruder Finn, which has the biggest NY presence of any PR firm.

Three-quarters of our clients are either publishing houses or authors. We do all kinds of publicity for them - morning drive radio tours, satellite TV tours, multi-city road tours, national print and broadcast campaigns and more. The remainder of our clients tend to be non-profit groups and/or Web sites.

What's the worst career advice you ever received?: I was once told to always lie and inflate my salary when going on job interviews - thus, insuring greater salary bumps. But a recruiter once told me that your salary is one of the easiest things for an employer to check - making it really easy to uncover that lie. It could kill your chances of getting hired, as well as burn bridges with recruiters, who might not want to work with someone they don't trust.

Based on what you've learned at your job, what are some basic things authors can do to promote their books if they're with a small press/self-published and have to do their own legwork?

Self published authors or those published by a small publishing house with a bare bones publicity department may wish to consider hiring an independent firm or a freelance publicist. Mediabistro.com and Craigslist would be good places to start. Those in the PR field have access to huge media databases; without these, an author would have to spend days scouring the web and making calls to find the appropriate media people to pitch themselves to. Give weight to referrals when evaluating a firm or individual's reputation.

Edit your press materials down to the all important "one sheet." Morning radio and TV producers are finishing their workdays when you contact them at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning; they've been there since 4:00 a.m. and are exhausted by then. A lengthy press release or multiple component press kit is going to make their eyes glaze over. Scour all your promotional materials and make the best statements cohere into a pitch that can fit onto an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper. Remember: your goal may be to sell books, but that's not what the producer's goal is; he/she's trying to make a good segment. A good pitch is one that simply communicates what an author can say to viewers/listeners that will be entertaining, informative and concise. (Bullet points are very helpful; remember, the producer is pretty tired by the time he/she's going to see your pitch.) If you're cutting/pasting into an email, make sure you're not including any JPEG images or anything else that will show up as an attachment. Media companies' SPAM filters are ruthless and may prevent your pitch from going through.

Being able to relate your material to current events or lifestyle trends is helpful. Be able to tie your pitch into the stories that are already getting ink and airtime. Don't make a producer ask you, "Why do I care about this?"

In today's 24/7 media universe, it's impossible to read +/or watch everything out there, but reporters and producers do appreciate if you are familiar with stories they have recently done. Being able to say, "I saw you did a story a few weeks ago about X...I can help you tell a story about topic Y, which may interest those same readers, because..." is both flattering and practical to members of the media.

Never call a producer right before or during airtime. But do call immediately after the show. Most producers take off shortly afterwards.

Sending your pitch via email and then following up with a call is a strategy I like to employ. Everyone will tell you something different, re: leaving a message if you get voicemail. I like to leave them - give your name/# at the top, tell your pitch in 30 seconds and close with your # again.

Wearing a smile communicates through the phone. Have fun and make it about building personal relationships with your media contacts. PR gets a lot easier when you're able to go back to people you've had successful dealings with. Remember: people in the media may be busy and important, and you may feel like you really need their help to get your book out to the public, but the media needs PR people just as much. A bad publicist is nothing but a nuisance to producers/reporters, but a good publicist can make their jobs a lot easier by presenting them with bookable guests without them having to do all the hunting/research themselves. Approach your outreach from this position of confidence.