Adding a One-Time Contact to a Tour

To enter booking information for an author tour, you must first enter a contact for that booking into your project. If you have a contact you would like to add to a project, and that contact does not have an entry in your Main Media Data , you may enter the information directly into your project. In most cases, though, you will want to add the information to your Main Media Data and import it into your project. If you add contacts directly into your project, they will only be available in that project.

To add a contact directly into your project, follow the these steps:

1. Be sure that your project is open. To do this, select the project name by clicking on it once, then select open from the toolbar. For more information on opening a project, see Opening Projects.

2. Select the Contacts tab of the project window.

3. Press the ADD button in the toolbar. Alternatively, you may press control-a on your keyboard. The following screen will appear:

   

Note that it is composed of two areas: The left side is for the contact’s basic information, and the right side is for scheduling information for the particular event.

4. Enter the contact’s information. Each field is optional. You only need to enter a single piece of information to save the record. Following is a description of each field:

• Tags: Special codes your organization may optionally attach to a contact.
• Release Only: Check this box to indicate that this contact will receive only a press release.
• Galley: Check this box to indicate that this contact will receive a bound galley copy of a book.
• Sent: If a press release, book, or bound galley has already been sent to the contact, enter the date here.
• Tracking: Press this box to view a history of this contact’s reviews. Since this is likely to be a new entry, there will not be any information on this screen.
• Update, By: Click in this field to record the date on which the record was entered, and the publicist who entered the date. This information may be changed. It is initially populated with today’s date, and the default publicist name set in the options.
• First, Last, Title: Enter the contact’s information.
• Callsign, Show, Affiliate: Enter the contact’s callsign, show name, and affiliate. An example might be WABC, Good Morning America, ABC. Use the Callsign field to enter publication names. For example, if your contact writes for The Boston Globe, enter The Boston Globe in the Callsign field. If she has a column titled “About Town,” enter that as the Show. When you enter the media type in the Type field (described below), this Callsign field’s name will change accordingly. For example, if the type is print, the callsign field will change its name to “Publication.” The data you entered will remain the same.
• Website: If your contact has a website, enter it here.
• Address, City, State, Zip, Country: Enter the contact’s information.
• Unique: Check this box if this address is different than the Standard Address.
• PO: Check this box if the delivery address is a Post Office Box. You will then be able to distinguish this later when creating mailing labels or shipping disks. Many carriers, such as UPS and Federal Express, do not deliver to PO Boxes.
• Type: Enter the type of media (i.e. TV, Print, etc.) which this contact works with. Your version of Publicity Assistant will either allow you to enter a media type free form, or it will prompt you to select from a pre-defined list. Notice that when you enter a type, subtle changes to the entire form appear. For example, if you enter the type Print, the Callsign box above will change to “Publication.” If you enter TV or Radio, a new set of fields will appear below, allowing you to enter data about this contact’s broadcast.
• Markets: Enter the market that this contact represents. Your version of Publicity Assistant will allow you either to enter a Market free form, or it will prompt you to select from a pre-defined list.
• Categories: Enter the category or categories for this contact. Your organization will likely have established a set of pre-defined categories, such as sports, women’s issues, politics, etc. Again, depending on your implementation, Publicity Assistant will allow you either to enter a category free form, or to select from a predefined list.
• Circulation, Rank, Hits, Watts: Enter the circulation of print media, the market ranking of television media, the watts of radio media, and the online hits of online media. This information can then be used as criteria in searching for contacts in the Main Media Data. Enter the type of media first, and then type your circulation information directly into the box. This field is dynamic and corresponds with the type of media.
• Phone, Fax, email: Enter your contact’s information. You may add only one entry per field.

5. Enter scheduling information into the Scheduling Fields as follows. All information is optional. In order for an itinerary and reports to be created with this information, at least the date of the event must be filled out. Following is a description of each field:
   • Date: Enter the date of the booking.
   • Location: Enter the location of the booking – i.e. the city in which it will be occurring.
   • Arrive, Begin, End: Enter the arrival, beginning, and ending times for the booking. For example, for a television interview, you may enter an arrival time one-hour prior to the interview to allow for make-up and other preparations.
   • Time Zone: Enter the time zone abbreviation, such as EST, CST, etc.
   • Description: Enter a brief description of the type of booking – i.e. phone, taped, live, etc. Any information you enter into this field will be displayed on the itinerary printouts.
   • By Phone, Taped: Use these buttons to indicate the type of interview, if applicable. If there are no notes in the Description field, above, then these buttons will fill that field with either “by phone” or “taped.”
   • Approved for the Web: If this box is checked and your system has this capability, interviews will be automatically posted to your company web site.
   • Scheduling Notes: Space for additional, optional notes relating to this event. Press this button and a blank page appears allowing you to enter notes as needed. Any notes you enter will appear on your itinerary printouts, towards the bottom right of each entry. This is a good space to write reminders to your authors. For example, you may use this space to remind an author to bring copies of a book.
   • Studio Address: If the location of the event differs from the contact’s information, press this button to enter an alternate address. On the itineraries, this is the address that will appear for the location.
   • Confirmation Notes: Use this space to enter information relating to the confirmation of a booking. You can optionally use this information in your confirmation letters. See Mailmerge Design Mode for more information.
   • Satellite/Drive Time: This feature is used to assist in managing satellite bookings. When you press this button, the following window appears:

     

You can use this to keep track of each interview during a satellite booking. To enter information, simply click in the appropriate field. All information is optional.

• Airs: For taped interviews enter the date and time at which the broadcast will air.
• Event Tracking: Check this box to store information about an event. For example, you may wish to track the number of attendees and the number of books sold at a bookstore signing. Check this box by clicking on it with your mouse. A window will appear allowing you to enter this information, and any additional comments you wish.

6. Save your contact and booking information. To do this, either press control-<end> on your keyboard, or select the close button in the data entry window.

For more information, see:

Creating a New Promotional Tour

Adding a Group of Contacts to a Tour

Adding a One-Time Contact to a Tour

Creating and Modifying Itineraries

Reverse Send