Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cristina Deptula. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Cristina, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Yes, we serve underserved people in two ways: through bringing aboard people who face barriers to employment for reasons that have nothing to do with their skills or their creativity, and through targeting an often-missed customer market.

We hire people for gig work and online research who are skilled but have faced trouble landing regular jobs because they need flexible scheduling due to disability, chronic illness, or family caregiving responsibilities. Now, working from home is common and considered a perk, but in 2013 when we launched, it was innovative.

From my own experience as a disabled person (I’m on the autism spectrum) I found that beyond the basics of having food and shelter, what made the most difference in my self-esteem and quality of life was having a purpose, having some worthwhile way to work and contribute to society. And I see that every day in our teammates.

As for the clients, we target authors who have something to invest in promotional services for their books but who aren’t in the market for $5000 or so a month to pay someone who hangs out with TV execs or New York Times reporters. From what I see in the market, literary PR services tend to cluster around the very inexpensive or the very high-end commercial or literary markets, and there isn’t as much out there for people in the middle, who are the majority of authors. So we make an effort to reach mid-level, mid-career writers who have a marketable product but not a cocktails and caviar budget, who are focusing on the writing. And we make an effort to be transparent about who we are, what we will do, how we’ll do it, and how it will benefit authors.

Cristina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started Authors, Large and Small back in 2013 when I was living in my grandmother’s mobile home park taking care of her as she’d developed dementia. I myself needed a way to keep my communications and social media skills sharp while working from home. Relating to someone with dementia involved staying aware, reading the room, and adapting my communications style, all of which are critical skills in book promotion.

In the beginning I provided book outreach services for a small publisher near where I lived, which helped me develop skills and connections. Later on, I outlined and expanded on those skills and marketed services to independent authors I saw who had purchased sponsored advertising on social media.

I’m a firm believer in the proverb that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, recruit and bring a team. A diverse team is all the more necessary in book promotion because others from different backgrounds can see ideas and angles and avenues for promotion that you won’t, and vice versa. I initially started team-building by bringing aboard friends and former colleagues who were also out of work or disabled, and then intentionally recruited people from a mixture of ages, backgrounds, and locations.

What that means for clients is that multiple eyes look at your book and brainstorm places and people who might take an interest in your work. That’s often more effective than having just one publicist.

We’re proud of taking the time to build relationships with partners and venues, whether that’s bookstores, social media influencers, reviewers, etc. And of taking the time to develop a unique strategy for each book that comes our way rather than simply repurposing old contacts (although we do that when it’s appropriate!)

We handle outreach through both traditional and social media and help you find your audience where they already gather and reach them how they already communicate!

Have you ever had to pivot?

As many entrepreneurs will tell you, the shelter-in-place season during the Covid-19 pandemic required us to take the events aspect of our business virtual.

Initially, we hosted in-person author mixers near where I and our other teammates lived and reached out to media and bookstores and other local venues near our author clients to set up events for them. So, we had a ground team going out to bookstores etc to organize some events while we had to organize others remotely and simply have the author show up at a certain place and time. The events with a ground game were often better-quality and better attended, just because whatever people tell you, there’s no real substitute for showing up in person.

However, during 2020 and 2021, all of our events were virtual by necessity. That put all of our clients and all regions of the country we served on the same level and allowed us to partner with venues that were previously out of reach geographically. Then, people were able to talk with each other and share advice and contacts and wisdom they might not have had the chance to otherwise.

We got the inspiration out of that experience for authors to meet virtually or in-person if possible and share skills, connections, and wisdom with each other. We had a journalist client host a workshop on media training for our other clients and an environmentalist activist writer share a virtual workshop on writing effectively to make a social impact. People sold books to each other and most importantly, built relationships, and the idea for that all came out of Zoom chats during the pandemic.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

In Authors, Large and Small, we pride ourselves on building strong relationships with clients, past, present, and future. By the nature of our business, we have a whole lot of individual clients, as many writers want and need affordable marketing and promotion services. So, there are a lot of people to keep track of and with whom to stay in touch over email, phone, or social media!

As a child, I remember visiting an airport with my dad and brother. A pilot offered to show us inside the cockpit of his plane, so we peeked inside. I thought the plane had a whole lot of instruments and I asked how he kept up with all of them. He said he would go around in a circle and look at each instrument in turn, making sure no important indicator got neglected.

We do the same with clients, venues, and everyone with whom we’re building and maintaining relationships: bring each person to mind on a regular basis and check in with them. Tools that help us with that include an email newsletter and social media, but nothing replaces individual contact and updates.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://authorslargeandsmall.com
• Instagram: @ladycatherina1982
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorslands
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-deptula
• Twitter: @smallandlarge
• Other: More social channels coming soon!

Image Credits

Cristina Deptula
Brett Matthew Axel (the NYC Bookfest book table)
Desiree Duffy (the pandemic virtual event)
San Francisco LitQuake and Miah Jeffra (the LitQuake ad)