FAQ
Last updated: November 2026
These are the questions small presses and authors most often ask about book publicity, answered by C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists from its own published materials.
The 46 answers below cover what a book publicist does, book publicist cost, how a campaign runs, who the firm serves, how outside publicity compares with a publisher’s team, the firm’s track record, and how to get started. Where a specific fact is not published, the answer says so.
Publicity for small publishers is earned media work that gets a press’s authors and books into print, radio, television, and online coverage. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists builds customized campaigns that position each author as a newsworthy expert, support book sales, and open future opportunities such as speaking engagements and new publishing deals.
A book publicist works to get an author and a book into the news. At C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists that means creating a media kit, sending books and kits to media contacts, following up to secure interviews, reviews, features, and bylined articles, and pitching story ideas tied to breaking news, often the same day it happens.
Book publicity earns coverage from journalists, producers, editors, and podcast hosts, while book marketing covers broader promotion such as an author’s website, social networks, and online content. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists offers both: book and author publicity as its core service, plus internet marketing help with online content, networking, and an ongoing web presence.
Campaigns from C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists bridge classic and new media: print newspapers and magazines, regional and national radio, television, podcasts, and online outlets. The firm has helped authors become contributors at sites such as Forbes.com, Inc.com, PsychologyToday.com, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Chief Executive.
A media kit is the background package producers, journalists, editors, and bloggers use when deciding whether to cover an author. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists creates kits that supply reviews, story ideas, interview topics, and bylined article material. Several past client press kits are posted as PDFs on the firm’s main website.
It means offering an author as an expert source while a news story is still unfolding. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists develops timely pitches that align an author’s expertise with breaking stories, often the same day, because the firm’s view is that the first publicist to respond to a hot-button event is the one who books the interview.
No. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists describes itself as a small book publicity firm that takes pride in personal, highly collaborative relationships with authors and publishers. It is led by president Cathy Lewis and vice president David C. Lewis, and it can bring in trusted specialists for speaker services, media coaching, and writing.
C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists does not publish its prices, so the honest answer is that cost depends on the campaign. Services are mixed and matched to each client, and the scope changes with the media you want, travel coordination, and any added speaker, coaching, or writing services. Contact the firm for a quote on your title.
The main factor is scope. A campaign that adds internet marketing, coordinated media during author travel, media coaching, speaker services, or ghostwritten op-eds involves more work than core book and author publicity alone. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists customizes each campaign, so describing your goals clearly helps the firm quote accurately.
Many publicists price each campaign to its scope rather than posting a fixed rate card. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists builds every campaign around the author’s expertise, goals, region, and travel schedule, and it does not state prices on its website. To compare options fairly, ask each firm what is included, how results are reported, and how follow-up works.
Either can. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists works with authors directly and with publishers, and it coordinates with publisher and business publicity teams so the efforts complement each other. Who pays is an arrangement between the parties involved, so discuss it with the firm when you request a quote.
It depends on your goals. The firm’s aim is to generate book sales and open future opportunities in publishing, new client acquisition, and high-value speaking. One client, Mike Song, says the team helped him make over 100 media appearances and that his book sold over 125,000 copies in 11 languages. Results vary by book and author.
Use the contact page on the C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists main website, which lists phone and email contacts for Cathy Lewis and David Lewis. Share your title, publication date, subject, publisher, and goals. Authors and publishers with a book launching soon are the firm’s highest priority clients.
The first step is a conversation. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists starts by talking with the author about expertise and strengths, media experience, and above all professional goals. From there the firm customizes a media kit and a strategic campaign designed to generate interest in the author and the book.
At C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists, yes. The firm distributes books and media kits to the media contacts that matter, then manages an intensive follow-up process to secure interviews, features, mentions, reviews, op-eds, and bylined article placements. Its FAQ describes telephone follow-up on mailed press material as part of daily work.
Yes. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists evaluates opportunities to maximize author travel to major media markets and coordinates appearances with the author’s personal schedule. The firm’s FAQ gives an example: an author visiting family in Florida could get a local television appearance or a book signing arranged in that area.
A campaign can be shaped around your comfort level, and coaching is available. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists customizes campaigns to each author’s strengths and media experience, and it can add media coaching from professionals it works with closely, covering how to look and feel confident on television, radio, and before live audiences.
Ask any publicist how results are reported before you sign. One C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists client, author Mark Pastin, says Cathy Lewis keeps authors up to date as opportunities emerge and gives a monthly summary of results. Confirm the reporting format for your own campaign when you talk with the firm.
Yes. David C. Lewis, vice president of C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists, helps authors focus their messaging and build their brand through frequent interviews and appearances on podcasts, radio, and television. The firm’s blog also covers how authors can maximize exposure from every podcast interview.
Yes. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists pursues op-ed and bylined article placements as part of book publicity, and its support team includes writing services that create ghostwritten op-eds and bylined articles based on your book and expertise for major newspapers, magazines, and trade journals.
The goal is lasting value. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists aims to help authors form long-term relationships with editors, producers, and journalists who come to regard them as experts. Its internet marketing work also aims to create an online presence that keeps generating publicity and exposure after the media campaign has ended.
Authors and publishers with a book launching soon are the highest priority clients for C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists. A title close to publication benefits from a campaign planned around the launch, with media kits, book distribution to media, and news-tied pitching ready as the book reaches readers.
Yes. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists serves publishers as well as authors and works closely with publishers’ publicity teams so its efforts complement theirs. Its client sampling includes titles from presses such as Addicus Books, Lifeline Press, Square One Publishers, Ash Tree Publishing, Station Hill Press, Windsor Peak Press, and Bard Press.
C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists works with authors directly, not only through publishers, and its campaigns are built around each author’s goals. The firm’s published materials do not address self-published titles specifically, so an indie author should contact the firm with the book’s details to confirm fit before planning a campaign.
C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists lists an established track record in ten subject areas: business, careers, work/life, parenting, health, diet and nutrition, food and cookbooks, self-help, human potential, and New Age and spirituality. Its client sampling also includes current events, economics, and politics titles.
The subject areas C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists lists are nonfiction categories, and its about page describes nonfiction book publicist services. If you have a fiction title, contact the firm directly to ask whether it is a fit rather than assuming either way.
Yes. Business and careers are among the firm’s listed subject areas, and its blog discusses how CEOs turn books into speaking platforms. The firm’s stated goals include opening opportunities in new client acquisition and high-value speaking engagements, and it can add speaker services through professionals it works with closely.
That is the core aim. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists builds campaigns that position authors as newsworthy experts through frequent print, radio, television, and internet exposure. Cathy Lewis also helps clients become regular bloggers at sites such as Huffington Post, Forbes.com, Inc.com, and PsychologyToday.com.
Because an outside publicist does nothing but publicity for the clients it takes on. According to the C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists FAQ, publisher departments handle many titles each season and usually cannot tailor a campaign to each author’s expertise, region, and travel, or respond to breaking news in real time. Many authors use both together.
Not always. The firm’s FAQ notes that small press publicity departments tend to work hard and have fewer titles to focus on, but also fewer resources for a targeted, strategic campaign per author. An outside publicist adds capacity and media relationships, and C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists coordinates with press teams so efforts complement each other.
Neither is better for everyone. A small firm like C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists offers personal, highly collaborative relationships and campaigns customized to each author. A larger agency may suit a title that needs broad services beyond book publicity. Compare who will actually work on your book, what is included, and how results are reported.
Yes, many authors do some of their own outreach, especially online. What an established publicist adds is time and relationships: C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists says it has first name relationships with hundreds of editors, reporters, columnists, and producers, and its daily work is focused only on getting clients high-value exposure.
Look for subject experience that matches your list, a clear plan for follow-up, examples of real media hits, client statements you can verify, and a willingness to coordinate with your in-house team. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists publishes its subject areas, a client sampling, client statements, and links to clients’ own media pages.
A press may not need one when its own team has the time and media relationships to give a title a tailored campaign, or when the book’s goals are modest and mostly local. An outside publicist tends to make the most sense for a title with an expert author, news hooks, and a launch coming soon.
The firm’s references page on its main website collects statements from clients, including Mark Pastin, Prasad Kaipa, Mike Song, and Jim Camp. These are client statements published by the firm, not an independent review site. The clients and subjects page on this site quotes several of them word for word.
Yes. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists links to the media and press pages of past clients, including Daniel Amen MD, Areva Martin, Ora Nadrich, Ted Baxter, Judith Orloff, Carol Roth, Joel Schwartzberg, and Vicky Oliver, so you can see the coverage on the authors’ own websites.
According to the firm’s about page, Cathy Lewis’s strategic media campaigns have landed authors on the bestseller lists of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Her authors have been featured in prestigious business publications, national newspapers, women’s magazines, and online venues across North America.
Cathy Lewis launched C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists in 1994, after working as an in-house publicist at publishing houses for seven years. She started the company convinced she could do a much better job serving authors, and she remains its president.
The firm’s client sampling includes John Perkins for Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition, Richard Vague, Areva Martin, Daniel G. Amen MD, Judith Orloff MD, Susan Lark MD, Ora Nadrich, and Ted Baxter, among many others across health, business, and current events.
The firm’s contact page lists two offices: 2 Oriole Drive, Woodstock, New York 12498, and 31-F Stratford Lane West, Boynton Beach, Florida 33436. Book publicity campaigns target regional and national media, so the firm’s location does not limit where an author can get coverage.
The contact page names Cathy Lewis, president, and David Lewis, vice president. Both are reachable at 845-679-2188. Cathy Lewis is listed at cslewispublicity@gmail.com and David Lewis at david@cslewispublicity.com. The contact page on the firm’s main website has the current details.
Generally, earlier is better, because media kits, book mailings, and pitches all take time to prepare before launch. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists does not publish a fixed lead time, and books launching soon are its highest priority, so contact the firm with your publication date to confirm the timing for your title.
Have your title, publication date, publisher, subject, a short description of your expertise, any past media experience, and your professional goals. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists starts every campaign with a conversation about exactly these points, so preparing them helps the firm shape a proposal quickly.
The firm’s published materials focus on campaigns built around authors and new books, and books launching soon are its highest priority. News-tied pitching can still position an author as an expert after publication, so contact C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists with the book’s details to ask whether a campaign fits.
It should not. C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists says it works closely with publishers’ and businesses’ publicity teams so its efforts complement theirs. Agree early on who handles which outlets and how results are shared, so media contacts receive one clear, coordinated pitch.
It can. One stated goal of C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists campaigns is opening opportunities for high-value speaking engagements. The firm can also add speaker services through professionals it works with closely, aimed at landing speaking opportunities that support book sales and reach targeted audiences.
This page is part of the guide to publicity for small publishers from C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists.
Published by C.S. Lewis & Co. Publicists
