Q&A With Megan Beatie / The Book Decoder

I have the honor and pleasure of doing this Q&A with veteran publicist, President and CEO of Megan Beatie Communications (MBC) which is a book publicity and marketing agency! Megan and her team have connected me with so many authors for Q&As! Two of them were New York Times bestselling authors Rebecca Hanover and Christopher Reich to name a few! 

Q: Megan, I find it impressive you’ve been a publicist for almost thirty years! What is your favorite part about being a publicist? 

A: There are so many things I adore about my job that it’s hard to choose one. But I’d say number one is this: I’ve loved books and reading all my life. To have a career in which I’m reading and talking about books is the absolute dream. I get to read for a living, figure out what’s special about the books I’m working on, and then write about them in what’s hopefully a compelling way to get readers with influence excited about them. Those are people who have platforms, columns, podcasts, shows and can reach wide audiences by talking or writing about a book. 

Q: What made you want to go into being a publicist and working with so many authors? 

A: All through my childhood and teenage years, I was a constant and passionate reader. I read every moment I could – under the covers with a flashlight after I was supposed to be sleeping, and in the car, so that when I got my driver’s license at age 16, I had no idea how to get around my hometown. My nose was always in a book! I attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course after college, and when the head of publicity for Random House came to the course for a lecture and talked about what she did, it was like a lightbulb went on over my head. I knew that was the perfect job for me. 

Q: I know some publicists went to college and others applied for internships. Did you have to go to college to become a publicist and what was that experience like?

A: I got an English degree at Middlebury College, so I read A LOT of top literature and wrote many critical papers. I didn’t learn the nuts and bolts of book publicity till my first job as an assistant to the executive director of publicity for the Putnam Publishing Group. But I had the essential skills in place thanks to a good education. In addition to being a strong writer and a fast reader, I knew how to prioritize (in publicity, there are many things that must be done, so you have to figure out which is urgent and which can wait). There are also many necessary talents that are more innate—being creative, being unflappable in a crisis (I am still a work in progress with this), problem solving, being persistent, and being NICE.

Q: What advice do you have for authors who would love to have you and your team represent them?

A:  I’m lucky that more business comes to me than I can take on. Every MBC project I work on personally, assisted by my two wonderful publicists Stephanie and Olivia. But that means I do get booked up often a year in advance of the books’ release dates. I also don’t take on self-published books. It’s challenging enough to get the attention of a book published by a major house these days. 

My advice for any author looking to hire an independent publicist is to do your homework. Look at their websites and see what other books they’ve handled. Make sure they have experience in the genre of your book. And do a face-to-face Zoom-style interview with them so you have a real sense of what the person is like. The publicist-author relationship is very trust-based so you need to be sure the chemistry is there. 

Q: Would you like to tell the readers of the blog about some of the many authors you represent?

A: I wish I had time and space to talk about all the many wonderful authors I’m working with and have represented in the past. What’s important to know is that every book I represent, I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. I never take on a client if I haven’t read their book first. So, whenever I pitch a book to a media contact, I’m very sincere in what I say about it.  

Q: If you became an author yourself, what kind of book would you write? Would you represent yourself as your own publicist? 

A: Hmmm. I’d want to write the kind of book that I love to read—a novel that’s twisty and surprising and totally unexpected. Maybe I’d write a publishing insider novel—I have so many juicy stories from my early years in New York City publishing! And I’d definitely want someone else to represent me for publicity.  It’s hard to talk about your own work, as so many authors know.  I’d do my best to be both grateful and helpful to my publicist, as I know how hard the job is!  

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About Megan Beatie

Megan Beatie is a veteran book publicist with almost 30 years of experience in publishing. As the president and CEO of Megan Beatie Communications (MBC), a book publicity and marketing agency based in Los Angeles, she has represented books by many bestselling authors, including Linda Ronstadt, Tess Gerritsen, Robert Dugoni, Lee Goldberg, Marcia Clark, Amina Akhtar, and Maureen Johnson. She’s a fifth generation native Californian from a Ventura County farming family. 

For more information, visit her company’s website at www.meganbeatie.com 

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