How to pitch books to Good Housekeeping

Alessia Horwich (00:08):

Welcome to On the Rox, a podcast from Roxhill Media that asks some of the best journalists in the UK for their solutions to the kind of dilemmas that confront PRS daily. We know that there’s not a one size fits all way of communicating with journalists, so we are going direct to the writers in the newsroom to hear how they like to work with PRs and how to stand out in their inboxes. My name is Alessia Horwich. I’m a former Sunday Times journalist now the brand director at Roxhill. Today we’re going to be talking about how to pitch books to good housekeeping with the magazine’s, books, editor Jo Finney. Jo, it’s lovely to see you again. The last time we met we were talking about consumer stories and you’re focusing on books now.

Joanne Finney (00:47):

So I had a bit of a job change and I’m now the Books Director at Good Housekeeping. That’s my sole focus, which is actually very nice.

Alessia Horwich (00:53):

It’s quite fun.

Joanne Finney (00:54):

Yeah, absolutely. That’s kind of was my passion anyway, so it’s been great to just give that my full attention.

Alessia Horwich (01:00):

Do you want to give us a little bit of background info on you and your career? How have you ended up being the Books Director at Good Housekeeping?

Joanne Finney (01:07):

Yeah, absolutely. So I did a degree in English and French and then

Alessia Horwich (01:11):

same as me.

Joanne Finney (01:12):

Oh, did you?

Alessia Horwich (01:12):

Yeah,

Joanne Finney (01:12):

and then I went into book publishing first of all,

(01:17):

And I did book publishing for a couple of years working at a couple of small publishers and I sort of came to realise that actually rather than working with someone else’s creativity, I wanted to be the creative one. And that’s when I moved across into magazines and I kind of been there ever since. And the book thing kind of almost came about by chance. I was working on the features team at Good Housekeeping, this was a while ago, and books was part of that sort of remit and I just loved it. I absolutely loved it and I’ve always been a massive book lover, so it kind of made sense.

Alessia Horwich (01:47):

What other things have you written about?

Joanne Finney (01:48):

There’s not much I haven’t written about, to be honest, over my career I’ve worked on over the place. I’m a complete magazine obsessive, so for me, the magazine is, working on a magazine is kind of the main thing. I’ve always, always loved magazines ever since I was eight and I’d spend all my pocket money on Twinkle Magazine. So I’ve written about food, I did food writing for a while. I’ve written about money, I’ve written about books, I’ve done features, so sort of real life stories and I’ve done celebs as well. So yeah, a bit of everything. Really. A whole lot. Yeah.

Alessia Horwich (02:16):

One of my questions was what is your favourite book?

Joanne Finney (02:19):

Oh God, that’s so hard.

Alessia Horwich (02:23):

There’s so many to choose from these days.

Joanne Finney (02:23):

Absolutely, absolutely. I think one book that I know is Marmite for a lot of people, but A Little Life I absolutely loved it

Alessia Horwich (02:31):

Did you

Joanne Finney (02:32):

Well I say I loved It is maybe not the right word because it’s quite a hard book to read, but it just really, I think it really got under my skin

Alessia Horwich (02:37):

One of the most depressing books I’ve ever read.

Joanne Finney (02:39):

I was having dreams about Jude, the main character at night and I was like, wow, that doesn’t normally happen.

Alessia Horwich (02:44):

Did you see the play?

Joanne Finney (02:45):

I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure I would could take it.

Alessia Horwich (02:48)

I think live would be way too much

Joanne Finney (02:48):

Yes, exactly. And the book had enough of an effects on me. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I saw it live.

Alessia Horwich (02:53):

What is the best thing about being a books editor? Is it all the free books?

Joanne Finney (02:57):

I mean, absolutely. That’s it. Hearing about books and getting to read them before anyone else does. I still get excited. I go into the office once a week and I get a massive parcel bag full of new books and I still get excited when I open them and I think, well, that’s a good sign.

Alessia Horwich (03:11):

Do you open all of them?

Joanne Finney (03:12):

I do open all of them, absolutely. Yeah, that’s part of when I’m in the office, I have to leave a good half hour aside to just open all my posts and everybody in the office laughs

Alessia Horwich (03:20):

Have you got any packaging tips for Seriously? We had, her name is Audrey. Audrey Ward.

Joanne Finney (03:26):

Oh yes, I know Audrey.

Alessia Horwich (03:27):

And Audrey was saying from the Sunday time she was saying that it made a real difference to her. She had to open so many books like the ones that were really easy to open. She loved them.

Joanne Finney (03:36):

The ones with where the stuffing comes out drive you mad. Absolutely. But no, I don’t really have any tips. Just rip. I’ve got a 9-year-old and he loves opening my book post. Oh yeah. Sometimes you get a little chocolate or pencil, whatever, and he’s always hopeful that there’ll be a little

Alessia Horwich (03:52):

Good tip. Good tip. You can curry favour with Jo. Putting some extras in there for her 9-year-old. The editor of Good Housekeeping has changed recently. Yes, absolutely. So can you tell me a little about how that’s affected what you do if it has at all?

Joanne Finney (04:02):

I mean it probably hasn’t affected what I do particularly, but I think she’s given the magazine a whole kind of refresh, which has been, was needed and it looks great now. I think it looks really good. She’s also lent into the sort of multi-generational aspect of the magazine, which she’s kind of always known about. We’ve always known that moms and daughters read and I pass it thousand forwards between themselves. But that is a real focus for us now when we are planning. And probably that’s fed into my book choices a little bit as well. I’m thinking about those two generations of women who might be reading the magazine, got a new franchise called Books to Turn To. That’s something that Jane brought in, which is sort of a more sort of self-help holistic look at books and it’s an author recommending five books around a seam. We had Jeanette Winston in the current issue talking about books to read if you’re not feeling festive, which I thought was great. So that’s something new that she brought in.

Alessia Horwich (04:55):

Yeah, let’s talk about that. How does it work? And it’s a page in the mag, right? It’s

Joanne Finney (05:00):

A page in the mag

Alessia Horwich (05:00):

It’s sort of an interview.

Joanne Finney (05:01):

Exactly, exactly. So it’s sort of a memoir piece really, and I think the more personal the better in a way. Those are the ones that work really well. So it’s an author, it doesn’t have to be a big name particularly, and they pitch, I approach people, but people pitch to me as well for the slot and it just can be anything that they feel strongly about. It can link into the book they’ve written, but it doesn’t have to at all.

Alessia Horwich (05:23):

Do they get credit for the book that they’ve written at the bottom, get

Joanne Finney (05:25):

Credit? Absolutely. Absolutely,

Alessia Horwich (05:27):

Joe, so for that feature, if a PR is pitching it to you, what needs to go in the email for you to kind of consider it?

Joanne Finney (05:32):

So if they tell me a little bit about the writer and the reason why they would be writing about that particular subject, that’s kind of the main thing. And we tend to try it into someone who’s got a book out that month as well, which make it a bit more time.

Alessia Horwich (05:45):

So it has to sync up.

Joanne Finney (05:47):

Yeah, ideally. Yeah.

Alessia Horwich (05:49):

So I guess in the pitch you have to say, the book is coming out this month and we would want it to run in that issue kind of thing. Yeah, that’s right. Does that link to the issue month or is it the month when it Yeah, sorry, this is the thing that blows my mind about magazines.

Joanne Finney (06:00):

No, not the issue month. They’re the month before.

Alessia Horwich (06:03):

The month

Joanne Finney (06:03):

Before, which is just, yeah, I know it’s magazine, world months don’t correspond with the Real World.

Alessia Horwich (06:09):

Do you have to say what the books that they would choose will be?

Joanne Finney (06:12):

No, I don’t need to know in advance. No, just the subject. And why that subject?

Alessia Horwich (06:17):

What’s a lead time on pitching that and how long does it actually take to do the interview?

Joanne Finney (06:21):

So the lead time is pretty much the same as the lead time for everything really for me, which is sort of four to five months in advance of publication. We have a big planning meeting where everybody on the team gets together once a month with Jane and to run through our ideas, and that’s about four months in advance. So I need to have that beforehand so I can pitch it.

Alessia Horwich (06:42):

Where in the month is that planning meeting?

Joanne Finney (06:44):

Oh, that’s a good question. It tends to be right at the start of the month, which is, yeah,

Alessia Horwich (06:48):

That’s helpful.

Joanne Finney (06:49):

It’s quite useful to know. Yeah, it does tend to always be that first week of the month. Now

Alessia Horwich (06:52):

How else do you cover books in Good Housekeeping, apart from that lovely regular?

Joanne Finney (06:57):

Yeah, so in print we’ve kind of got three or four ways to cover books, which is really nice. I’ve got my books review page, which is seven books every month, new books out in hardback that month, and that is mostly fiction, but I do have the occasional memoir as well, if it’s the right kind of book.

Alessia Horwich (07:16):

So how do you choose what goes in?

Joanne Finney (07:19):

I think it’s a well homed system based on my gut instinct. I think as I’ve been doing it for so long now, I’ve been doing this for about 15 years. I just have a real sense of what’s going to appeal and what’s not.

Alessia Horwich (07:32):

What are the type of things that really appeal to GH readers?

Joanne Finney (07:35):

So GH readers love a kind of literary commercial crossover, what they call a book club book. So if it’s kind of issue-based, that works very well, A bit of a weepy, a bit of a tear jerker, those are always brilliant psychological thrillers still really popular. It’s got to be something a bit different though. That market is so saturated. There’s a clever, something really clever and different about it. That tends to be what I go for historical fiction, but I just go through, I get sent up to most months around 40, but up to 70 books a month and it’s a real case of just going through and sort of ting out anything I know definitely won’t work.

Alessia Horwich (08:13):

What is the definite won’t work.

Joanne Finney (08:14):

I mean, I get sent all kinds of crazy things like military history for example, which I would never put them

(08:24):

Do particularly. Obviously books for kids we only do at Christmas. YA again, only Christmas. So there’s some obvious ones. Obviously sometimes I get books sent to me too late as well, so if it’s coming out to close the publication, then this is too late for me. I can’t do that. So once I’ve done that, I tend to go through and I have the ones I am super keen on, so I’ll go to those first and I’ll read and even if I think it’s not right, I try to read sort of a third of each book if I can.

Alessia Horwich (08:50):

That’s a lot.

Joanne Finney (08:51):

Well, I guess just to get a real feel, sometimes I just feel like it’s not fair otherwise.

Alessia Horwich (08:56):

Yeah, I can’t remember what Audrey said that she read 60 pages or something

Joanne Finney (09:00):

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, sure. That might be, yeah, possibly. I’m not sure, but I want to get a good feel for it to see if it’s,

Alessia Horwich (09:09):

I’m now thinking definitely not right. 60 pages more than a third. Well it might be. Yeah, exactly. Not sure. What is the balance between male and female authors?

Joanne Finney (09:18):

Do you know what? I never actually think about that at all. Probably I scuba more female, but I don’t really think about the author particularly when I, it’s more getting a good balance across a different genres

Alessia Horwich (09:29):

I was going to ask about balance

Joanne Finney (09:30):

To make sure there’s for everybody, because we have such a broad readership and with such broad interests that I try to hit certain pillars so there’s something there for everyone and I try to signpost that in my review as well. So they know is this, they know if it’s going to be something they enjoy.

Alessia Horwich (09:47):

Yeah, I’m guessing that when you get sent review copies, you don’t get a big pitch with it. You just get send the book and that’s it.

Joanne Finney (09:52):

Sometimes I get a pitch and that is helpful. Is helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I do quite a lot of meetings with publicists who are brilliant and it’s very helpful to me when they say, this is our super lead, this is the book that I really had an effect on me and it’s genuine and I can tell when it’s genuine and I trust those people if they do it properly. So that’s helpful.

Alessia Horwich (10:17):

When’s the best time to do that kind of meetings? If there’s a new publicist on the scene and they want to connect with you, how do you want to do it?

Joanne Finney (10:25):

I mean they can just drop me a line and say, have you got time for coffee, breakfast, whatever.

Alessia Horwich (10:29):

When do you do those?

Joanne Finney (10:30):

I do those. Well, because I’m only in the office one day a week. It does make it a bit trickier, but I tend to be in the office on a Tuesday that’s a bit specific. I know, but Zoom is fine as well. If people want to do a Zoom call, that’s absolutely fine. And then there’s people I’ve known for a long time and I see them fairly regularly, but I am happy to meet up with people, not particularly to talk about one or two books. I think it needs to be

Alessia Horwich (10:53):

A year ahead

Joanne Finney (10:53):

A big chunk. Exactly. Or the next six months or whatever, the big books just to make it worth both our whiles really.

Alessia Horwich (11:00):

Do you publicists ever pitch books to you that would be for longer features and how does that work?

Joanne Finney (11:06):

Yeah, absolutely. So I work really closely with our features team and I do a book list for every issue ahead of our sort of planning meeting with all the books coming out, fiction and nonfiction. And then I suggest ideas for features as well. So memoir pieces, more sort of practical self-help type pieces as well. And that’s always really useful. If the authors, sorry, publicists can flag those and do me a proper brief for them.

Alessia Horwich (11:35):

What’s a proper brief?

Joanne Finney (11:36):

So a proper brief would be this is the author, this is their biography, this is who they are, quite know their age, where they’re based, that sort of thing. And then a proper, this is how they structure a piece if they were going to do it. Bullet points. I quite often get slightly vague. They could write a piece about, I don’t know, moving to the seaside, but I want to know what’s this actually going to look like? It needs to be detailed

Alessia Horwich (12:00):

In terms of those kinds of pieces. What is the audience that they need to be connecting with through those stories?

Joanne Finney (12:07):

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean it is the typical GH reader and it’s quite hard. Quite broad. Broad, absolutely. So she could be anything from 35 to 85, but I guess they all have

Alessia Horwich (12:21):

Is there a particular demographic you’re looking to connect with at the moment though? Is it slightly younger?

Joanne Finney (12:24):

Yes, we’re going slightly younger and actually our readership is younger than I think people imagine. I think our biggest chunk is 45 to 65 and only a quarter or over 65, which I think surprises people go off. And so that is that middle chunk of 45 to 65 is the key one. I’d say the core one,

Alessia Horwich (12:44):

It’s mad how many publications are going after that demographic at the moment

Joanne Finney (12:48):

Yeah, absolutely. But you have to because you just have to.

Alessia Horwich (12:51):

We’re both in it.

Joanne Finney (12:52):

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Ad (13:02):

Exit those clunky Excel spreadsheets. Close all the tabs on your browser. Roxhill now does media monitoring. You’ll have a single login to access our journalist database and our media monitoring solution boosting productivity and eliminating frustrating work silos. It’s really intuitive to use so you can navigate your data with ease and Roxhill smart folders keep all your coverage perfectly organised without you having to lift a finger. You can download all your metrics to take the headache out of monthly reporting and design bespoke news digest emails that help you keep everyone updated with the mentions that matter most for a free trial. Head to roxhillmedia.com.

Alessia Horwich (13:51):

Let’s talk about Good Books. Yes. How does that work? It’s a commercial opportunity?

Joanne Finney (13:54):

Yes. So Good Books is a commercial opportunity. We launched it this spring. It kind of came off the back of the fact that we wanted to do something to recognise the fact that there’s always amazing books being published that don’t necessarily always get the recognition and the sales that they deserve. I quite often see that I might review a book and I’ve absolutely loved it and then it sort of disappears

(14:13):

Which I feel is such a shame. So this was a way of highlighting that. So we’ve worked with publishers really closely to suggest the kind of books we’d like and they send them into us. We started quarterly, so our first one was our spring collection, and we got sent in maybe a long list of about 30 books, which I narrowed down to about 20. Those go out to our VIP reader panel and they read the book, they feedback to us on it. They’ve got a big detailed feedback form, they score it and then I use their feedback to decide a winner. And then we’ve been having seven reader favourites and then from January, 2026 we’re going monthly.

Alessia Horwich (14:55):

Oh wow, okay. So it’s happening.

Joanne Finney (14:57):

Yeah. Yeah. So it is been really successful.

Alessia Horwich (14:59):

Who should a publisher approach to talk about that? The commercial team?

Joanne Finney (15:04):

Well, it would be me actually. Yeah. And I run it in partnership with the commercial team, but I kind of do publish a liaison on

Alessia Horwich (15:12):

That. And is it that kind of two hander whereby maybe they’d be in good books and then maybe they’d get a review?

Joanne Finney (15:18):

Well the way it works is because Good Books is paperback, which is quite nice. So they sort of sit it side by side. There’s quite often the books that are going into good books. Oh, because I reviewed a year ago in hardback.

(15:29):

So it’s like another chance to promote them because I think obviously it’s harder to get reviews for paperback really meant there aren’t many places where they get attention. So this is another way of giving them a bit of profile.

Alessia Horwich (15:39):

And the other thing that we were talking about was the VIP book club.

Joanne Finney (15:43):

So that’s our sort of third charge. And this is a monthly book club. This is just for our VIP members.

Alessia Horwich (15:51):

Who are they?

Joanne Finney (15:51):

So this is a new thing we’ve done also, we launched a membership programme. So our VIPs pay a little bit extra, but they get the same subscribers. They get the magazine, they get all the specials and extras that we do, and then they get to be a VIP tester. They get to test all the products that our tried and tested team look after. Could be anything from a mattress to the latest Dyson hairdryer. And they also get to be part of the VIP book club. So they get a free ebook every month and then they get an invitation to our author event every month as well. The Good Housekeeping offices.

Alessia Horwich (16:24):

And are you organising those author events?

Joanne Finney (16:26):

I am organising them.

Alessia Horwich (16:27):

What a Surprise. Okay, so how do you do it?

Joanne Finney (16:30):

So the way that that works is that, again, that’s paperback rather than hard back. I approach publishers. Publishers pitch to me. We asked for 503 ebook codes to send out to our VIPs and in exchange for that you get two mentions in our print issues and in all our newsletters and on our social channels and on the Good Housekeeping website. And then it needs to be ideally UK based author so that we can do this live event. But we have done a few US author and then we just do it online.

Alessia Horwich (17:01):

Online. And how did the live events work?

Joanne Finney (17:04):

So they’re held in the Good Housekeeping offices. It’s really nice actually have

Alessia Horwich (17:09):

You’ve got a swanky new office?

Joanne Finney (17:10):

Yes, we do. Yeah, we’ve just renovated the whole sort of that space, which is really nice. So that’s

Alessia Horwich (17:15):

That’s in Leicester Square.

Joanne Finney (17:15):

Yeah, exactly. And we get sort anywhere between 50 or 70 people, which is as many as the space can hold. It’s a really nice intimate evening. The author comes in, I chat to them, we do questions from the audience and then they sign copies of their book if people want. So VIPs get to meet the author, which is nice.

Alessia Horwich (17:34):

That sounds super.

Joanne Finney (17:34):

And we get a lot of the same people coming every month, which is really nice. So they’ve all got to know each other, which is really sweet. They look out for each other. So it is a really nice intimate sort of friendly group.

Alessia Horwich (17:46):

It’s great and a hugely invested audience, which I guess a great

Joanne Finney (17:49):

Thing. Yeah, absolutely. We also get brilliant questions from the audience and they’ve all read the book amazingly, not like a real book club

Alessia Horwich (17:56):

That’s so true. All of my experience book clubs is no one reads it and you just get pissed. The other slot I noticed is Book of the Month, which is obviously the big one of the seven.

Joanne Finney (18:08):

Yes.

Alessia Horwich (18:08):

How can a PR nudge you towards that? Or is that nothing

Joanne Finney (18:12):

They can’t, can’t. It’s totally down

Alessia Horwich (18:15):

To, it’s just down to what you like.

Joanne Finney (18:17):

I mean, I try to go for something that I think will have the widest appeal, something a bit different, something original, there is no sort of algorithm to it at all, I’m afraid. It’s just whatever I think would appeal to the most people that month.

Alessia Horwich (18:30):

Yeah.

Joanne Finney (18:30):

Do you know what the impact of that slot is? I mean we have heard that it does have a big impact, but it’s quite hard with magazines to sort of put a number to it because obviously people pick up the magazine at any point in the month. Of course it’s not like a radio two book club type thing where once it’s broadcast the sales go up

Alessia Horwich (18:47):

You can see the spike immediately.

Joanne Finney (18:48):

But I mean I think from what I’ve heard anecdotally from publishers, it does have an effect.

Alessia Horwich (18:53):

Is the way that you guys treat books coverage in print the same as online? How does it translate?

Joanne Finney (19:00):

Yeah, pretty much anything that is in print books wise goes online. And then I also do ad hoc pieces, seasonal pieces. I’ve just done a piece on books to give for Christmas on a stocking filler selection as well. I might do a spooky books for Halloween,

Alessia Horwich (19:21):

So it’s very seasonal,

Joanne Finney (19:22):

That stuff. Yeah, it’s very seasonal or just whatever’s in the news. I did one recently, which was thrillers you might do if you’re a fan of The Traitors, that kind of thing.

Alessia Horwich (19:31):

And

Joanne Finney (19:31):

It is basically just as and when I’ve got the time more than anything else,

Alessia Horwich (19:35):

Can a PR pitch an idea for something

Joanne Finney (19:36):

Like that too? Absolute. Yeah, no, I’d love that.

Alessia Horwich (19:39):

I mean is it really helpful if they sort of said, my book fits in this list, but also this other book and this other book.

Joanne Finney (19:44):

Oh well yeah, that would be amazing. But that, does that happen is a

Alessia Horwich (19:46):

Little bit beyond,

Joanne Finney (19:47):

Do you think it’d be great? No, I’d be delighted.

Alessia Horwich (19:50):

Yeah, I mean let’s, something’s

Joanne Finney (19:51):

Quite a lot of work for them though.

Alessia Horwich (19:53):

Well, I dunno mean if they know what their main competitors are I guess.

Joanne Finney (19:54):

Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I’d be very happy for someone to do that.

Alessia Horwich (19:58):

So we’ve talked about lead times, we’ve talked about how to pitch it to you. Are there any secrets for standing out in your inbox? Because you must have a tonne of emails got what’s a great subject line, what’s the great top

Joanne Finney (20:09):

Line in your email? Probably a comparison is very useful.

(20:14):

So if someone says this is like this X, y, and Z book or for fans of X, Y, and Z authors, that helps me place it in the market and that’s quite useful. I mean if they put the pub date in the subject line, that’s very helpful because when I initially get things, I just sort of far them away in various months and it just makes my life easier. As I mentioned earlier, a genuine recommendation from someone. I absolutely love this book where they really mean it. Obviously don’t say that about every single book you said because it obviously becomes obvious, I suppose, thinking carefully about Good Housekeeping and its audience and only sending books that really would genuinely work.

Alessia Horwich (20:55):

Is it helpful when someone says, these are the themes that I think are really appropriate for the GH audience? Orsomething like that

Joanne Finney (21:00):

Absolutely. Yeah, no, that’s very helpful, especially if it’s for a feature that would be really helpful. Yeah, yeah. The more detail the better when it’s for a feature.

Alessia Horwich (21:07):

Yeah, I mean feature’s the ideal bit of coverage that a PR would want to get for a book book, I guess it’s really chunky I think gives you a bit more space, doesn’t it

Joanne Finney (21:14):

Yeah.

Alessia Horwich (21:15):

So it’s worth putting in that work to sort of outline Yeah.

Joanne Finney (21:17):

To get, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Alessia Horwich (21:19):

Yeah. I mean you are doing one day a week in the office. How many other days are you working? Are you working full time?

Joanne Finney (21:24):

No, I’m two and a half days a week for,

Alessia Horwich (21:27):

Okay. So when should pictures be landing with you?

Joanne Finney (21:29):

I mean it doesn’t really matter to be honest. You read everything. Yeah, absolutely. As and when. Yeah. Yeah, that’s

Alessia Horwich (21:34):

Fine. And four months lead time.

Joanne Finney (21:36):

Yeah, four months of lead time.

Alessia Horwich (21:37):

Is there any room for, I mean these special sort of features you’re doing just online, are you turning them around as far in advance as that?

Joanne Finney (21:45):

No, they tend to be of the moment. So I’d be covering books that have come out this if I was doing one now books that have come out this month and maybe the last three or four months so that’s not so timely.

Alessia Horwich (21:56):

So someone could kind of drop you an email with an idea that included their book that had come out that

Joanne Finney (22:02):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that would be okay. That’d be totally fine. That would be fine.

Alessia Horwich (22:05):

Do you always want to be approached on email?

Joanne Finney (22:07):

That is the best. Really. I don’t have a work phone. We don’t have phones on our desks anymore. No. So modern took them away.

Alessia Horwich (22:14):

Yeah. What about social media though?

Joanne Finney (22:17):

I mean people can, I guess if they don’t have my email, but then I think most publishers probably would know how to contact me via the Hearst email.

Alessia Horwich (22:25):

If you are a Roxhill client, you’ve got Jo’s email in the database. No excuses

Joanne Finney (22:28):

Well there you go. Yeah exactly. That probably is the easiest way just because otherwise it gets a bit confusing if people are coming with various avenues. But most social media is probably quite useful because I post the books that I review every month on there. So if you want to get a feel for the kind of books that have good housekeeping, that is probably a good place to have a look. I’m jofinney77

Alessia Horwich (22:46):

jofinney77 on Instagram.
Joanne Finney (22:48):
Yeah, on Instagram
Alessia Horwich (22:48):
Lovely newsletters. So you did mention earlier that some books content goes into a newsletter. Which one is it and where does that content come from?

Joanne Finney (22:57):

So I have a monthly book specific newsletter which goes out to all our subscribers, which is about 120K people. And that is all the books of the month. And then any content I’ve done that month, any books, content that I’ve done for the Good Housekeeping website goes into that newsletter. And then we also promo the VIP book club of the month, book of the month and the book club event in there as well.

Alessia Horwich (23:22):

Okay. And when does that go out during the month? Is it?

Joanne Finney (23:24):

That tends to go out again right at the start of the month.

Alessia Horwich (23:27):

Yeah, yeah. But I guess that’s just sort of an additional exposure rather than new content.

Joanne Finney (23:31):

There’s no point really pitching for it as such because it is just what is available. Whatever I’ve written recently goes in there.

Alessia Horwich (23:39):

Okay. We’ll do the recap. So this is the bit at the end where we say if you were a PR pitching to you, what the three main takeaways, pitching books to you?

Joanne Finney (23:47):

Yeah.

Alessia Horwich (23:47):

What are the three main things that you need to remember?

Joanne Finney (23:50):

I would say think really carefully about Good Housekeeping and its audience and tar only send things that work for that demographic. The more detail, the better and probably as far in advance as possible as well. Although the lead time is four to five months earlier is great.

Alessia Horwich (24:07):

Are you scheduling in?

Joanne Finney (24:08):

Yeah, totally. Totally. And I have a massive database of all the books coming out, so as soon as I get something I just add it into the month that it’s coming out and the further in advance the better for that

Alessia Horwich (24:20):

third one?

Joanne Finney (24:21):

Oh, third one, probably the thing about the genuine enthusiasm, I would say that doesn’t really, don’t fake it. Yeah, don’t fake it. Absolutely. Absolutely. I do rely on that a lot. There is so much coming out. So if someone says this is really special, then I do listen.

Alessia Horwich (24:36):

I guess that it’s really important for PRs then to make a proper connection with you and build a relationship. What’s your main piece of advice for doing that? Is it just pitching quality stuff all the time?

Joanne Finney (24:44):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Looking at the magazine, seeing what we’re reviewing, thinking about it. Maybe flitting out the things that aren’t quite right as much as you want to pitch them and the long term that I think would have a better effect. Definitely.

Alessia Horwich (25:00):

That’s great. Jo, thank you so much. I think we’ve covered everything, mark. I hope you get our inundated with brilliant pictures.

Joanne Finney (25:07):

Fingers crossed. Thank you.