You need a PR folder

A long time ago, in another lifetime, I worked as the social media manager for a mid-sized children's museum. One summer we had an amazing program where we worked with a publisher to have children's book authors doing readings almost every single day during the summer. This was an awesome experience in every way, except that it was nearly impossible to promote some of the author's events. Of the over 100 authors we saw in two months, maybe 15 had all the items I needed to promote their visit available when asked. And I'm talking simple things: an author photo that wasn't less that 50 pixels tall; an author bio that wasn't a full page; a description of the book they were going to read that sounded fun. It was tragic, and made that summer a lot more work than it needed to be. And those 15 authors who had all those items? They got more promotion of their events because I could spend less time tracking down, or rewriting their materials, and more time getting the word out about their books.

"But I'm not published," you say, "surely I don't need any of that yet?" Will you publish soon? Are you submitting your work? This is the same group of materials you'll draw from to send to an anthology, or conference program, or a writer's workshop once you've been accepted. And those requests have short deadlines when they do come. It's much easier to reach into a prepared folder for things on hand than scramble to find them all when you're surprised by your first speaking gig or anthology acceptance.

Cut to a few years ago, and I'm planning to attend a convention because two of my favorite authors are the guests of honor. Cut to my author friend calling a few days before the convention and saying he's recommended me for a panel because someone dropped out and they need my author info asap. Cue panic because, despite my prior experiences, I don't have my own author info prepared. Spend several hours putting together everything in a rush because you don't have anything prepared. Long story short: don't be me and throw these things in a folder now.

So, what do you need? The basics are: your author's photo (which can be any photo of you that you don't hate), your author's bio, and the cover of your book if you have one out or about to come out. That's it to start. Anything else is icing, but if you have them available it makes you look professional. And professionals get called back because they made the organizer's life easy.

A PR folder should include all the items someone else would need to promote your book.

• Your Author Photo* in .jpg format (at least 1.5k pixels in one dimension, because that's what's needed for high quality printing, the person making your flyer can make your photo smaller, but they can't make it bigger)
• Your Author Bio* no longer than 150 words. More on these in an upcoming post, but to start, go read the bio at the back of your three favorite books, and copy their formatting. It's OK that you don't have six books to list or a ton of prior magazine credits. Everyone has to start somewhere. Do include where people can find you on social media, or your website link if you have one.
• Book Cover Image .jpg format (at least 1.5k pixels in one dimension, see above regarding making the life of the flyer-makers easy)
• The Illustrator's Bio and/or bios of any other major collaborators, if applicable.
• Book promo text and blurbs if available. Put these in a separate .docx file and call it BooktitlePromoText or something obivous.
• A press release, if applicable (more on these in a few weeks, subscribe to get that in your inbox if it's something you're interested in).
• The name of your agency and contact info of your agent, if applicable, otherwise a way to contact you directly that you would want a stranger to use to ask you questions about your work.
• A list of your other works, where to find them, and any awards they have won, if applicable, in .docx format, with links if possible.
• If a children's book or comic book, an interior image if you think it will help sell the book. Splash pages are especially helpful, or isolated character images with transparent backgrounds.

Did I leave something out? Let me know in the comments. Want to know more about a specific topic? Put that in the comments too. But seriously, go make that folder now, you'll thank yourself later.

Photo Credit: via Library of Congress. "The Wick fancy hat bands. Cheer up - show your colors." https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94510051/ Image cropped and converted to black and white.