Becoming the Media Strategist: Jen Angel Gets Activists Noticed

I was late to the game of discovering the work of activist, writer, educator, and publisher Jen Angel. I first saw her speak in 2008 at Bluestocking Bookstore in New York City's Lower East Side, touting her then-newly released booklet Becoming the Media: A Critical History Of Clamor Magazine. The paperback memoir reads as a how-to and why-to for aspiring independent publishers, based on Jen's experiences founding, editing, and managing the now out-of-print Clamour Magazine. The radical publication had roots in the Seattle WTO protests, and took a unique role in supporting new writers and pushing the boundaries of traditional press.

Jen's newest endeavor continues to promote and engage independent thinkers, artists, and activists, from a different angle. Aid & Abet is a cooperative media strategy, publicity, and tour management agency. We were honored to interview Jen for Sheepless, and encourage all of our readers to download her latest booklet, Get Noticed! How to Publicize Your Book or Film (or web project or business....).


You work with clients on varying scales of tour management and publicity. Can you give us examples of large and small projects Aid & Abet has undertaken? How do you approach them differently? How do you determine fee structures?


We work on several types of projects – we set up book tours and events for our clients, but we also do more traditional media like reaching out to magazines, websites, and radio shows and asking them to do interviews or reviews.

What we do is, essentially, sales. It’s selling an author or their book to a writer at a magazine or to a host at a venue. “Sales,” in general, feels pretty gross, because potentially, we could fall into that loathsome set of people that try to sell you things you don’t need or want. Or who fuel consumption. Really, though,  I think of it as a lot more (and better) than that – publicity can be all about helping authors/filmmakers/organizations connect with people who really want to know that they or their project exists. You know, like that moment when you find an amazing book and think to yourself, why did it take me so long to discover this? I look at my job as helping people connect with others who will be excited about their work. That feels pretty good.

Our work has really varied a lot – one of the biggest projects we ever worked on was a tour by Aimee Allison and David Solnit for the release of their book, Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War and Build a Better World. This included almost 40 events all around the U.S. – and was really designed as an organizing tour, where they did events and met with groups all over the country working the anti-war and counterrecruitment movements.

Then we’ve done contracts that are straight publicity – working to help get the word out about an event or about the release of a book.

The funding model is difficult. A lot of the people we want to work with don’t have a lot of money, but we’re excited about their project or their politics. When we’re doing straight publicity, we charge by the hour, and depending on what we’re doing, this could be five or 50 hours of work. When we are working on events, we typically ask for a percentage of whatever speaking fees or honorarium the person receives.

How did you discover that there was a need for a media strategy and publicity agency specifically for activist writers, filmmakers, and artists? How did that lead to founding a collaboration with your current team, and finding Aid & Abet's first clients?

I started working on booking and publicity in 2006 when the project I had been working on,  Clamor Magazine, was winding down. I was looking for a way to use my skills to benefit the community I had built around independent media – fabulous authors and writers whose work I was excited about.

When I was living in Toledo, Ohio, I would often host tour stops for friends who were traveling around promoting their projects and things, and over time I began to hear a familiar idea – that booking tours was difficult, that nobody was really happy with the booking agents they had worked with, and wouldn’t it be great if there was someone from the radical community who was doing booking and outreach?

I talked to some friends and realized that what it takes to do booking and publicity is knowing a lot of people and being ultra organized. Well, that’s me! I have since realized that it’s really about building relationships – with event hosts, media outlets, and with authors and others in our community – but that was all it took to get me started. I found my first clients by asking my friends if I could work for them – and since then it’s been primarily word of mouth (the best kind of publicity, by the way).

I mean, it’s important to work with a publicist or booking agent (or lawyer or accountant or….) who understands your politics, because as radicals and progressives we often make choices that other people don’t understand – no, we don’t want to talk to that industry group no matter how much they offer to pay us, or yes, we do want to drive five hours out of the way to talk to a small but dedicated group of individuals in a small town. From the publicity perspective, that could manifest as how we frame and pitch the projects to media – this is really important, and working with someone who understands your politics is really helpful.

Right away I realized there was way too much work just for me, so I asked Matt Dineen if he was interested in forming Aid & Abet into a collective. He and I had worked together on some projects for Clamor and he’d been a friend for a few years at that point. We’ve had other people working with us over the last few years, but Matt and I have remained the core of the group.

One particular practice of yours that I find remarkable is your publication of pamphlets like Get Noticed! How to Publicize Your Book or Film, the resources you provide on your website, and the workshops you facilitate, all available for very low cost. It's great for activists new to the game, but isn't it like giving away your secrets?

Well, like I said, we’re struggling with the funding model, and we realize that there are a lot of people out there who need guidance but don’t have the money. The people who pay for our services aren’t ones who can’t do the work themselves, they’re people who don’t have the time or don’t want to do the work. The people who buy our pamphlet are never going to spend $500 for publicity, they’re going to do it themselves.

Beyond that, the main reason that you would work with a publicist or booking agent is that we have established relationships with media outlets and event coordinators and that means we know not only who would be best to pitch, but how and when to approach them. That can make the process a whole lot smoother.

You've written about your experiences as co-founder and editor of the radical activist magazine Clamor from 1999-2006 in Becoming the Media: A Critical History Of Clamor Magazine. In what ways have those successes and failures shaped the way you run your business today?


I still struggle with a lot of the issues that I brought up in the pamphlet, like the general resistance by radical and progressive left individuals to really grasp and deal with issues of money, finance, and sustainability. I think it’s really important for those critical of the system to be able to understand how to live and thrive within capitalism without compromising too much – and not subverting our own needs for stability and security either.

Another set of issues involves transparency and power – as I get older I become more and more communicative and direct – I find that a lot of problems within groups can be attributed to miscommunication or lack of clarity on roles and expectations. Along with that, it’s really important to acknowledge power where it exists – it could from difference in experience, age, privilege, knowledge, skills – and if you’re seeking an egalitarian workplace it’s important to actively work against those inequities by working to bring up newer members’ skills and knowledge, for example. And recognizing that power exists instead of ignoring it is just so important. And finally, we need to acknowledge sometimes a horizontal structure isn’t the way to go and that’s OK.

We at Sheepless.org, and many of the businesses we've talked with, could use help with a media strategy and getting noticed. What are things to consider, tangibly or philosophically, when choosing to work with a publicity agency?


The most important things are the groundwork, and a good publicist or communications person can help you answer those questions if you’re having difficulty: Who is  your audience? What are your goals? What resources (financial and others) can and should you devote to the process? 

When you hire a publicist, you should expect a written agreement or plan on what he or she will do, as well as an estimate of what it will cost. You should also expect clear and frequent communication about what he or she is doing while working for you, and a written report of all activities and results. You shouldn’t expect a specific number of stories or interviews – whether or not media outlets decide to feature you or your project can be very unpredictable. This means that often, publicists will agree to contact or “pitch” and follow up with a specified number of outlets, or spend a specified number of hours working on outreach, but they won’t guarantee results.

Publicists usually charge by the hour, and you can expect to pay an hourly rate of anywhere from $25 to $200. While it may be expensive to have a publicist work  on a full campaign for you, you can also tell the publicist your budget and ask what they suggest – maybe they should work on pitching to radio programs or booking events for you instead of doing a full campaign, and you can do the rest yourself. Or maybe you need help strategizing, and then you can implement a plan that a publicist helps you develop.

Going into the relationship with clear goals and expectations will help you maximize what you are spending. Shop around: Find someone with experience who believes in your project, whose fees are in your league, and with whom you “click” personally.

Links:
Aid & Abet | Clamour Magazine | Jen's Bio
Download Get Noticed!