{"id":11848,"date":"2018-08-28T14:07:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T18:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/?p=11848"},"modified":"2018-08-28T14:11:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T18:11:23","slug":"industry-chat-interview-with-samantha-devotta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/industry-chat-interview-with-samantha-devotta\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry Chat: Interview with Samantha Devotta"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Word On The Street Festival is a great opportunity to get to know Canadian authors and our literary landscape. But the festival is also a fantastic way to get to know the professionals who keep the publishing world turning! We sat down with Samantha Devotta to talk about getting into PR, YA lit, and what advice she has for budding publishing folks in Toronto.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WOTS: Welcome to WOTS Talks, Samantha! First off, can you tell us a bit about the day to day at Penguin? What\u2019s the day in the life of an Associate Publicist like?<\/b><\/p>\n

Samantha Devotta: <\/b>Thanks for having me! My day starts off with checking my email and making a to-do list. Once that\u2019s done, I don\u2019t really have a specific routine\u2014it often depends on what season I\u2019m working on. I look at different ways to talk about \u201cmy\u201d books, whether it\u2019s pitching an author for an event or mailing out review copies. Sometimes I get to see my authors in person for a brainstorming session over coffee or a TV interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the books we publish here, I\u2019m also the Canadian contact for Penguin Young Readers US. So occasionally, I get to chat with US-based authors and figure out how we can bring them over here, or I look at what kind of Canadian media outlets would be interested in those books.<\/span><\/p>\n

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WOTS: And let\u2019s talk about the flip side! What does it look like for a publicist to work with the authors they represent? What can new authors expect when they finally sign that first book deal?<\/b><\/p>\n

SD:<\/b> As a publicist, I\u2019m one of the last people that the author meets. By the time we\u2019re introduced, they\u2019ve already gone through the whole editorial process and are excited to finally get their book out into the world\u2014and so am I! I usually meet them about a season before the book comes out so that we have plenty of time to start planning. We talk about what they\u2019re comfortable doing and what their expectations are\u2014do they want a launch? Are they interested in school visits? Is there a list of contacts who should be receiving their book?\u2014and then I start working on those wish list items. It can take a while sometimes for a book to start getting some traction, but it\u2019s so rewarding to see reviews and mentions popping up and I\u2019m always thrilled to be able to share good news with my authors.<\/span><\/p>\n

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WOTS: You work with YA and YA authors\u2014and we all know how much YA has grown into the book industry over the last couple of decades. What\u2019s your favourite part about working with Young Adult lit? What kind of stories are your favourite to work with?<\/b><\/p>\n

SD:<\/b> I\u2019ve always been such a big fan of YA (from about middle school to now) so it\u2019s been\u00a0<\/span>amazing to watch it grow in popularity. I love the fact that I get to work with the books that I\u00a0<\/span>actually spend most of my time reading, and the authors who create them. I don\u2019t get to read\u00a0<\/span>every book I work on (especially the US titles), but I try to read the ones that attract my attention the most so that when it comes to talking about them and getting other people excited, I have a more personal connection. I tend to read a lot of contemporary YA, so that\u2019s probably my favourite genre to work with.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I work with YA novels a lot, the other part of my job involves picture books and middle\u00a0<\/span>grade novels, and I love them both so much. People get very excited about beautiful art and\u00a0<\/span>Tundra Books has such a gorgeous selection list, which makes it (relatively) easy to pitch the\u00a0<\/span>picture books I\u2019m working on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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WOTS: Can you tell us a bit about the difference between marketing and publicity for books?<\/b><\/p>\n

SD:<\/b> Marketing can include advertisements, social media, and promotional items (bookmarks,\u00a0<\/span>posters, etc)\u2014things that our audience interacts with. Publicity is more author-facing\u2014I\u2019m the\u00a0<\/span>one who has a direct line to the author. I also organize events and work with the media, whether it\u2019s pitching someone over email or mailing out a review copy. At Penguin Random House Canada , we have a small marketing and publicity team that focuses on kids\u2019 books (there\u2019s four of us in total\u2014two in marketing, two in publicity), so sometimes there are opportunities for our jobs to overlap which can be very fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WOTS: When prospective industry professionals think about getting into publishing, they often think about editing first, and other departments later. How did you get into publicity, and what are actionable things prospective publicists can do to make themselves competitive applicants?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

SD:<\/b> I actually thought about editorial at first but was also interested in marketing. I was an\u00a0<\/span>editorial intern at Tundra a few years ago, and during that time, I helped out with social media\u00a0<\/span>(Twitter\/Facebook\/the Tundra blog), so that I got a little taste of what marketing could be. In my current role, publicity brings together the parts of editorial and marketing I like the most: I get to interact with authors and I have the chance to brainstorm creative ways to get the book out into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing that helped me stand out during my internship was the fact that I was already\u00a0<\/span>involved in the YA community. I had a (not very successful) blog for a while, but I always kept\u00a0<\/span>tabs on upcoming books and read as much as I could. All those hours spent with my nose in a\u00a0<\/span>book makes it easier for me to talk about my titles in comparison with other ones that prospective readers might be more familiar with. It might seem obvious to say that a love of reading helped land me a job in the publishing industry, but it\u2019s true!<\/span><\/p>\n

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WOTS: And, finally\u2014do you have any advice for anyone who\u2019s just starting to get into publishing? Whether a writer, a potential publicist, or otherwise.<\/b><\/p>\n

SD:<\/b> For someone trying to work in the industry, I\u2019d highly recommend doing an internship. I\u00a0<\/span>know it\u2019s not always financially feasible but it gives you the chance to figure out what part of\u00a0<\/span>publishing you\u2019re most interested in, and it allows you to network with industry professionals,\u00a0<\/span>which is invaluable. Enrolling in a publishing course definitely helps you in terms of setting up\u00a0<\/span>internships so if you\u2019re serious about a career in the industry, it\u2019s a good idea to think about\u00a0<\/span>getting your certificate. <\/span><\/p>\n

A fun way to get involved in the book industry is to become a blogger. It\u2019s definitely not easy to get noticed and building a readership can take a long time, but I\u2019ve noticed there\u2019s a real sense of community among Canadian YA book bloggers, and it\u2019s a nice chance for you to meet people with the same interests as you. As a publicist, I spend a lot of time talking to bloggers, and they\u2019re a great\u2014and very enthusiastic\u2014group!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the WOTS blog? Sign up for our newsletter here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Word On The Street Festival is a great opportunity to get to know Canadian authors and our literary landscape. But the festival is also a fantastic way to get to know the professionals who keep the publishing world turning! We sat down with Samantha Devotta to talk about getting into PR, YA lit, and […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[350,351,353,352],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11850,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11848\/revisions\/11850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}