Book | Ambassador of Nowhere: A Latin American Pilgrimage
Author | Richard Gwyn
Publisher and Release Date | Seren, March 2024
Project Brief
Ambassador of Nowhere by the award-winning author Richard Gwyn charts the author’s journey across South America in search of poems for his landmark anthology, also published by Seren, The Other Tiger. This brief was for post-publication coverage; I was brought on to boost awareness of the title two months after publication by way of securing reviews, events, speaking engagements and features.
Campaign
At the outset, I reviewed where the book had been sent and followed up accordingly with outlets to capitalise on the investments the publisher had already made in sending out a first round of proofs. We had an impressive collation of endorsements to bank on which I used mindfully in my pitches. I listened carefully to the author’s story behind the book in order to craft my approaches to editors and producers, and drilled down into contacts I had in my Rolodex within the sphere of literature from Latin America. It didn’t take look for me to find passionate advocates for Richard’s work.
The author was away over the summer, so I ensured that festival pitches were during a period where he’d available and also for festivals where I felt this book would land well. Elsewhere, I worked with other publishers to pitch for dual events to amplify our reach, given that I was only on this contract for a total of four days.
Results
The jewel in the crown for this long-tail campaign was a Times Literary Supplement review by Josh Weeks. In addition, I secured both a review and an author interview with Leo Boix in the Morning Star, plus reviews in the Irish Times and PN Review.
Other features I secured included a profile in The Western Mail within two weeks of taking on the project, as well as an article in The Big Issue.
In the autumn, the author will appear alongside author Sophie Buchaillard to discuss their recent releases at the Centre for Cultural Studies at Swansea University and several festival pitches are still out in circulation as of summer 2024.
