Sales are everything in the books sector, and PR drives them.

While trade-book PR is most closely related to consumer product PR, the cultural relevance of fiction and non-fiction gives books more clout with the media than most products. PR, not advertising, sells books. "Publishing houses are structured with big publicity departments and very small advertising departments - if at all," says Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House. "Editorial space moves sales." Both ...