‘You lot have been amazing, really the best decision ever was to work with you all.‘
Rob Starr
The Brief
Midas was appointed to deliver an intelligent and creative, high-profile and impactful PR campaign for the publication of Rob Starr’s book The First Widow, independently published, on 29th August 2024.
Our objectives were to generate targeted publicity for the book across print, online and broadcast media – encompassing written pieces, features, interviews and reviews to create buzz and excitement ahead of publication day, to help drive book sales and to build on Rob’s author profile, exploring and highlighting his blockbuster thriller of the year.
The Work
Over the course of our campaign, Midas worked closely with Rob to secure coverage for The First Widow across broadcast, national, lifestyle, regional and targeted media including crime.
At the outset, following an initial call with Rob, we finalised a PR plan with agreed key messaging, overall strategy, feature angles, and target media. We worked closely with Rob throughout the campaign to develop our media hooks and to see which angles he’d be happy talking about.
Our key aim was to deliver exposure and coverage for Rob and his writing which we’re thrilled to have achieved by securing coverage in writing and crime magazines, regional radio and national media.
Midas sent weekly updates detailing the progress of our conversations with the media and kept regularly in touch with Rob throughout the campaign, to make sure we were aligned as the activity progressed and to work with Rob when organising speaking opportunities and securing written pieces. We worked closely with the social media and marketing teams to make sure that the campaigns were aligned.
It was a privilege to work with Rob on such an enjoyable campaign. We were delighted to see the paperback at #8 in Amazon’s best sellers list for Violence against Women and Kindle at #6 in their Violence in Society category on 2nd September. We look forward to hearing about Rob’s second book in the Kiara Fox series and would be delighted to work together on these future projects.
The Results
Midas secured 19 pieces of coverage, which included a fiction short story in The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror, book giveaway in That’s Life Crime Scene Book pages, review in Belfast Telegraph (print & online), feature in Shots Ezine, review in Crime Fiction Lover, feature in Writing.ie, feature in TripFiction, interview with Talk Radio Europe, four regional radio interviews with BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Guernsey, BBC Radio Jersey and Radio Sussex, Q&A in Bristol 24/7, my Favourite place slot in The Herald (print & online) which synced to The Scottish Farmer (print & online), Q&A with Brighton Journal and a Q&A with The Brightonian.
We were pleased with the successful blog tour which took place over publication week and included Jaffa Reads Too, Little Miss Book Lover 87, Bobs and Books, Ebookwyrm’s Blog Cave, Echoesinanemptyroom and A Crime Readers Blog.
We’re pleased with the quality of coverage secured for Rob Starr and The First Widow, and the positive responses it received.
This campaign was led by Henrietta Richardson