(note : if you’re a strayed literary, you’re on the wrong page, the literary customers, it’s HERE ! Click on HERE)
Some examples (non-limited list, please click on the category of interest) of non-literary books entrusted to Balustrade for the press relation. Balustrade defended political/religion books, geopolitical/diplomatic books and magazines, economical books, entrepreneurs books or books addressing the managers, lawyer books, health/society books, psychology/well-being/spirituality books, science books, humor books…etc
– Since 2012 (8 years), I have been working under the Balustrade banner, my own, as a freelance press agent for multiple authors, books, ideas, institutions, etc, publishing houses, and on occasion for several prizes and human science and social prestigious events.
As a teenager I got my awakening into political science by Jacqueline Romilly’s and René Rémond’s books. This love for politics in all its beauty, its usefulness, its greatness, intelligence and nobleness, has never left me since. I had the chance to attend from within the French excellency of human and social sciences thanks to my studies at “SciencesPo”, the Political Science faculty, and my professional experience at EHESS (School for Higher Education in Social Sciences). These two prestigious and complementary schools have given me a solid education allowing me to understand and be passionate about the issues of the world surrounding me. (photo with President Jacques Chirac)
I previously spent four years as a press agent at the Éditions Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque (2007-2010) publishing house where I was also Antoinette Fouque’s, cofounder of the Women’s Liberation Movement, personal press agent and of her very “political” books (Guilaine Depis is specially thanked by the authors in the book « Génération MLF 1968-2008 »), but also those worldwide she published : the female Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi ; Taslima Nasreen a feminist literary figure of Bangladeshi origins opposing fundamentalism ; Elisabeth Roudinesco, the celebrated historian of psychoanalysis ; the Franco-Tunisian lawyer and politician Gisèle Halimi ; Sigmund Freud’s grand-daughter Sophie Freud ; Thérèse Clerc, the feminist activist who fought for abortion rights.
then at the Éditions de l’EHESS (2011-2012) publishing house where I replaced the Communication officer on parental leave and where I defended the books of Christophe Prochasson, Philippe Artières, Serge Moscovici (photo), Nathalie Heinich, Rose-Marie Lagrave….
Two cases may arise :
1) if your book is on the verge of being published in France or if it already exists in a french version:
Having a press agent in Paris such as Guilaine Depis guarantees the book will have every chance of gaining visibility in France.
Guilaine Depis is the intermediary between authors who are either unable to be physically present in Paris, or to express themselves in correct french, which is necessary when attempting to address efficiently french publishing houses and journalists, influencers or bloggers.
Signing a contract with Balustrade is offering your book the possibility to reach a French audience. As a matter of fact, Guilaine Depis has a very wide network of French journalists, publishing houses and whom she frequents regularly, seeing them at lunches and at dinners. It should be noted that in France, a press agent’s work in France, in accordance with the rules of conduct published in the Lisbon Code, and because of the liberty enjoyed by the French press, no visible result is guaranteed. It’s a profession which implies an obligation of means, not results. The author pays up front for information concerning his book an information aimed for the journalists and literary critics concerning his book and its shipment to recipients selected by Guilaine Depis from amongst more than 80 000 journalists and literary critics in France. Said journalists and critics are then free to accept or not to read the recommended book, to like it or not, then to write an article or interview or not.
Notwithstanding the above, according to Google, Guilaine Depis is number 1 of the “book press agent” category in France. Furthermore, a quick tour on her Facebook public profile will demonstrate that Guilaine Depis is well-known, active and highly appreciated for the quality of her writing and the intelligence of her reflections and analyses as well as for photographs revealing her as exceptionally open, unquenchably curious regarding others and hungry to meet new people. After a brief overview of her page, one quickly realizes that she has a hefty address book. French journalists and bloggers pay attention when she discusses a book in which she believes. In her guestbook, the testimonials of her customers, mainly authors, should inspire trust for they are, with few exceptions, extremely satisfied with the results of her work and regularly renew their contracts or recommend their entourage to hire her as press agent.
2) in the event the French version of your book doesn’t yet exist:
Guilaine Depis has been working with trusted professional translators for several years and also offers as a service, if your book doesn’t yet exist in French, to organize and entirely supervise the translation. She can then help you find a French publisher to publish it. Then begins the essential part of her mission: press relations to make the book known in France. Because the key is not just translation and giving birth to the book, but making it live, accompanying it as it reaches out of media, influencers, etc., who will all allow it to find readers.
(Note : if you are a literature writer, and your book is literary, please go HERE !)
Who are Balustrade’s clients in France?
Authors themselves : About half of my French clients are authors whose publishers are : 1) too small to provide a press agent service. 2) too large to allow the existing press agent to find the time necessary to really take care of their book. 3) self-publishing authors working in their own publishing structure or at their own expense in publishing houses whose business model involves giving birth to books but not sending them out into the world !
Publishers : The other half of my customers are foreign publishers wishing to have a press relations professional to give their books visibility in France; small French publishers who cannot afford a fulltime press agent and who regularly assign me individual missions for some or all of their publications ; and large publishing houses who choose me for their book or collection based on my network, which their consider appropriate for a given situation.
Somme examples (incomplete list, please click on the category of interest) of books for which Balustrade had responsibility for the press relations. Balustrade has defended all types of novelistic genres (autofiction, thrillers, fantasy, historical, rock’n roll, musical, political or ecological fables, etc), not to mention biographical stories, literary essays, collections of poems and collections of short stories, youth books (children or teen literature).
Balustrade was also entrusted with missions such as editorial coaching/ opening channels in which it was able to find publishers for well-established writers, including a famous journalist of the leading french newspaper “Le Figaro”, which helped it emerge into the limelight. Such missions far exceed the scope of traditional press agents.
The one without whom NOTHING would be possible : Jasmine Catou, my precious personal assistant, so important that she walks and stretches on my logo’s balustrade.
Very brave, she works tirelessly to make nice packages with the authors’ books defended by Balustrade for journalists. My customers love her so much that she has already made the cover of a book and she has become a character in the novel “Les Chimères de Karl” (Karl’s pipedreams). Inspiring feline !
Guilaine Depis, with French politician and French greatest journalists