Understanding Public Relations and How It Can Help Support You and Your Book

Ann-Marie Nieves has been in PR for more than 25 years working with a variety of businesses, nonprofits, thought leaders, public figures, and authors. In 2005 she founded Get Red PR, a New York City-based lifestyle and social media agency. Learn more at areyoured.com or connect @getredpr and @getredprbooks.

Fauzia Burke is a book marketing expert and pioneer of digital book publicity. As the founder and president of FSB Associates, she has spent more than 20 years publicizing books by bestselling authors such as Alan Alda, Arianna Huffington, Deepak Chopra, Sonya Renee Taylor, Ken Blanchard, and Charles Spencer, as well as many first-time authors. In 2019, she co-founded Pub Site, a platform for building author websites used by authors like Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, and hundreds more. Fauzia also does consulting and offers a “power hour” for authors needing marketing advice. Whether you’re a first-time author overwhelmed by building a brand or an experienced author wanting to take your marketing and publicity to the next level, Fauzia can help! She’s the author of the BK book Online Marketing for Busy Authors and is based in San Diego, CA. Learn more at FauziaBurke.com.

For more than three decades, Elizabeth Mars has served individuals, start-ups, and large organizations seeking to differentiate themselves in the market and drive sales through public relations and marketing.

As a PR manager for Weaving Influence, she helps authors establish and raise their personal profile and drive book visibility in the marketplace through the implementation of strategic, high-momentum media relations.

Previously, Elizabeth served as a director of public relations for Comcast, where she led communications in the West Division with Comcast’s public relations professionals in the business services areas of media outreach, community affairs, and employee relations. Prior to Comcast, Elizabeth served as the director of public relations for MX Logic (which later became a part of McAfee)—positioning and differentiating the company and its solutions with enterprise and service provider prospects, strategic business partners, the media and analyst community, the venture capital audience, and the general public. Previously, Elizabeth spent several years at high-technology start-up organizations in a variety of public relations roles. She began her career at JohnstonWells Public Relations in Denver in the mid-90s serving as an account manager to healthcare clients.

Elizabeth received her BA in journalism from Metropolitan State College of Denver. She currently resides in Denver with her husband, three children, two dogs, and a cat. She enjoys spending her free time with her family and in the mountains.

Erin MacDonald-Birnbaum is the director of publicity strategy and business team publicity manager at Smith Publicity. A nationally recognized public relations professional, she has managed and implemented well over 400 national book promotion campaigns for Smith Publicity since 2004. Erin specializes in promoting nonfiction books and has worked in almost every nonfiction genre, including business, tech, lifestyle, finance, health/wellness, self-help, and memoir.