Interview with a publicist

It's interview time! This week I speak to Helené Coetzee about what it's actually like to be a publicist in trade publishing, the value of comfortable shoes, and blêrrie good books. Enjoy!

Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us how you landed up in publishing.

I am a professional bookworm with over a decade of working in the book industry on my CV. I’m from the Eastern Cape originally and would return in a heartbeat if I could, but publishing lives in Cape Town so here I am. My first job out of university was as a jack of all trades at a small, independent publishing house. From there I landed a gig as a book blogger and social media wrangler for various publishers at a company owned by Sunday Times. Books LIVE, as it was known then, was at the forefront of the digital wave in a time when in-house social media managers were not even a concept. Then I heard about an opportunity at NB Publishers to join the team as a publicist and now it’s been just over 7 years of doing this tremendous job.

You’re a publicist working at a big trade publisher - what does a typical day look like for you?

Every day looks a bit different, but the same: It’s essentially an office job with lots of emails. So many emails! And then every so often I’ll be out on the road, travelling to book launches, attending literary festivals, and making sure our authors are happy and taken care of.

A publicist serves as the go-between for an author and the rest of the industry (media, festivals, booksellers, even readers) and our main task is to spread the word about the book – albeit through events, word of mouth, social media, media representation or advertising. This entails a lot of back and forth to iron out the details. On any given day I will also be tasked with writing creative copy to entice the end user, translating, and interpreting various needs and managing expectations on different ends. I also engage with the content of the books I am working on to be better equipped to punt it to different people.

An indispensable part of any typical day is coffee and comfortable shoes – without that a publicist, at least this one, can’t function!

What’s your favourite part of being a publicist?

The only career goal I could ever come up with was that I wanted to help people tell their stories. This was solidified during my time at university and over the years it’s become my raison d’etre. It’s so cool that I get to wake up every day, put my lipstick on and do exactly that.

Give readers your top three tips for being a killer book publicist.

1. Keep digital track of everything you promise, have done and must remember and make sure you can access it on the go.
2. Keep everybody in the loop.
3. Always remember that you are working with the biggest thing to happen to someone – authors dream their whole lives of writing a book or come into the process after going through major things, and that is a precious thing. When the going gets tough it’s because they are protecting and trying to live that dream and you get to be a part of that and that’s a privilege. So, smile and wave and do your best.

And a bonus tip: Hydrate! All that coffee needs to be balanced by some H2O.

What are you reading right now?

I always have a few books on the go … On audible: The Collected Regrets of Clover by Miki Brammer. It’s about an eccentric thirtysomething who works as a death doula (someone who provides emotional and practical support to people at the end of their life). It’s such a great story. On my e-reader: Sunshine and Shadows by Joburg author Busisekile Khumalo, coming out in September. On paper: The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley. I’ve been savouring the last of this epic series because I don’t want it to end!

What’s the one book that made you fall in love with reading and publishing? (Unfair, I know!)

It’s hard because I can’t remember ever not reading or loving books. It’s probably Harry Potter ... I remember pre-ordering it as a kid from the closest bookstore, which was a two-hour drive from home. And then the Afrikaans came out and the excitement to read it in another language had me giddy. And then when I was studying French I got the tip to read something I love in that language and it worked because I knew the story so well by then.

I think the first actual book that made me drunk on the possibilities of language and writing and to a degree publishing was Alfabet van die vo?ls by SJ Naudé which came out in 2011 and was translated to English in 2014. It’s such an excellent book by a wonderful writer and it blows my mind that I get to be his publicist now in 2023 with his latest book (Of Fathers and Fugitives & Van vaders en vlugtelinge).

Last question: what book should we be reading? Don’t be shy – bewitch us with your publicist magic!

Everybody is talking about Lost Property by Megan Choritz and for good reason. Get it and you will see why. It’s a beautiful, beguiling novel set in Woodstock, Cape Town about a terrible, dark and devastating secret that ends a marriage. The writing is excellent and does not feel like a debut at all, which is understandable because the author has been working in theatre for a long time.

And if you understand Afrikaans you have to read Onder ‘n bloedrooi hemel: Liefde en geweld in Suid-Afrika by Annemarié van Niekerk. A moving, brutally honest memoir exploring love, violence, and complicity in South Africa. The author returns from Europe to bury her gentle friend Ruben, murdered in a vicious farm killing. This triggers memories of earlier journeys, with her deeply conservative father, and her forbidden black lover. Even here, violence intruded. I feel like this book changed something in my soul and I wish everyone I know could read it to see what I mean.?

Thanks for reading, friend. Until next time - may you read only beautiful words.