A Day in the Life of an In-House Publicist

Pamela Spengler-Jaffee is Avon’s publicist extraordinaire.  It’s not all about planning parties and drinks with the media …as she’ll share with you a day in her life…

5 a.m.

• Alarm sounds. Do I want to get up?  
• Having middle-of-the-night agita about New York ComicCon booth set-up.  Might as well.
• Roll out of bed. Try not to step on cat. 
• Remove the remnants of makeup–crashed out without hittin’ the ponds wipes again.
• Go downstairs and have a red-eye; first of many.
• Blackberry’s blinking–40 new emails arrived overnight. (Do my colleagues ever sleep?)
• TWEET! Tout de suite!

8 a.m.

• Get kids to school.
• Whoops, forgot to exercise.
• Hit the train-start a new manu (one a day – ok, sometimes one every two days, without fail.)
• At desk, redeye #2 steaming, at 9:10.
• Somehow, another 50 emails have arrived in an hour…reply, reply, reply!

10 a.m.

• Meeting.
• Tweet! (Ooooh, a good review to re-tweet)
• Hit Facebook–what can I do to make the Avonites start discussing?

11 a.m.

• Meeting. 
• Tweet!
• I should at some point do something about our Facebook page.  More thought on that…

11:45 a.m.

• Contact online reviewer, try to tactfully request that they post a spoiler alert on a certain review.
• (Hope not to spurn a host of angry Tweets or blog postings from said action.)
• Churn out press release, route for approval.
• Stalk media.
• Stalk sales force (any new and exciting opps for our authors?).
• Stalk editors. Haven’t heard back from authors.

12:30 p.m.

• Meeting.
• Tweet!
• Coffee.
• Marketing budgets.  Why are they so hard to maneuver???
• Eyeball excel budget grids. Close file, resolve to review again later in day.
• (Keep resolving for a few days, until marketing director threatens me with severe fiscal ramifications.)
• Stalk media.
• Stalk authors.
• Review press materials and media lists compiled by team members. Route.
• Diet coke.
• Oh, wait. It’s…

2:30 p.m.

• Hungry.
• Run out, get lunch. 100 new emails. Todays running total =500, so far.
• Think about Tweeting, but realize that I haven’t yet finished my ComicCon paperwork.  Do you know how much it costs to outfit a 10×10 booth?? Egads.  I could really go to town at Pottery Barn with that kind of fundage.
• Order 4000 books to sample at ComicCon.  (You *really* want to swing by our booth #2326, for your reference!)
• Oh heck. RWA New York.  I have to get a cocktail party venue before every good spot in the city books up with weddings.  More phone calls and emails.
• Finalize Liz Carlyle’s charity blog tour for “One Touch of Scandal,” her Avon debut.  We have 10 fabulous blogs now signed on and confirmed to help us raise $3000 for the author’s favorite pet rescue charity; Cat Angel(visit us again on Septemer 28 for details!).

3 pm 

• Run to meeting; skitter in late. Oh yay! There’s Diet Coke.

4 pm

• Editorial meeting.  Sneak in 50 pages of the C.L. Wilson “Crown of Crystal Flames” manuscript.  It’s sooooo good. I can’t wait to finish!
• Back to desk; send out email blast, pitching author interview.
• Torment online marketing director (OMD)–let’s do a Tweetup!  Can I rehaul our FB page? Oh wait. You want me to post to the Avon Blog?? I can do that – Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s “It Had to Be You” was just declared by the Chicago Tribune to be the perfect book for football fans (who said football and romance don’t mix???). That’s cool news!
• Remember that it’s the day to post new sweeps and poll on our website.
• Log into internet toolset; scream at toolset for not cooperating. Call OMD to vent.

4:45 p.m.

• Good, it worked. Stuff posted.
• Coffee.
• Call possible event venue to pitch author appearance and strategize media outreach.
• Brainstorm Virtual event possibilities with publicity team.

5 p.m.

• How did that happen? 
• Phone rings, pick it up–media calling back to book interview. Hallelujah! (It’s a national, so doubly exciting)    
• Firm up details with phone pressed to ear, while lobbing out another 20-30 emails.

6 p.m.

• RUN for train, working blackberry the entire time. (Every second counts)
• Try not to get hit by a bus.
• Send out a couple pithy Tweets from blackberry, settle in to read manuscript, review press release and eyeball press list. 30 minute ride goes awfully fast.
• Go home, feed family, bathe kids (sometimes!), watch X-Men, Sponge Bob, Disney or Justice League, then  pack kiddos off to bed.

8 p.m.

• Glass of wine. Contemplate having two. Tell myself to behave.

8:25 p.m.

• Whip out blackberry. Only 40 new messages-not bad; half are spam. (Can’t even calculate running total for day.)
• Ooooh. The boss is online, emailing while catching the premiere of Glee.  Grab him to discuss a couple of issues that arose during the day.

10:30 p.m.

• Fall asleep, blackberry in-hand (possibly mid-email), while husband cues up the TiVo to watch True Blood (or Boardwalk Empire.  He’s got a thing for HBO).

12 midnight.

• Trudge upstairs. Trip over cat. Why do I have so many cats?
• Forgot to take off makeup again.

5 a.m., next day

• Wake up, start again.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue the series, “A Day in the Life of…”