Book review sections disappearing. Newspapers going entirely online. Fewer and fewer independently owned, locally-focused radio and TV stations.

The drumbeat for a changing publicity process has been beating for a few years, with authors, publicists and publishing houses scrambling to get ahead of the curve.

As if we needed another example that the way things were is not the way things are in book publicity, Oprah Winfrey provided a final nail in the coffin last week with the announcement that she’s stepping down from her daily talk show

Oprah made careers (of both authors and the PR folks behind the booking) with each guest that she had on her program. She also had a one way pipeline of information to the millions of moms that watched her program each afternoon.

With her goes one of the last examples of the way books have typically been promoted.  My first thought when I heard the news was “publicists everywhere will never again have to answer the Oprah question.” But every publicist reading this knows that this question will simply shift to “what about The Daily Show?” if it hasn’t already.

I think Oprah’s departure opens the door to talk about a monumental shift in the way books are promoted.

Tolly Moseley, one of our fine senior publicists, created a great analogy to the shifting roles of publicists in her “micro-persuasion in the new black” post a few months ago. In it she writes:

“Most people now understand what the point of social media is. If the book-buying public is a classroom, and Oprah, The Today Show, and The New York Times our teachers, Facebook and Twitter are the notes we pass in class. It feels fun, almost conspiratorial, and if you're already on-board with social media then I don't need to preach to you anymore. Except to say:

Our "teachers" have taken up the notes. And they want in on the party.”

To carry this analogy a step forward, I’d say bloggers are student teachers—with a foot in both worlds—some combining the best in journalistic standards, while embracing new media tools, new immediacy, and in many cases a new type of journalistic voice. Some have notes that are passed all over school.

As any PR expert knows, the advent of bloggers and social media is both a good thing and a bad thing.  The good?  More publicity options.  The bad?  In a world of increasingly fragmented media, it’s hard to believe that even if you do get on The Today Show, you might not become a best-seller.  Why?  Less people are watching.  Before Oprah left, her ratings were actually lower than in years past.  This is less an indication of Oprah’s appeal, and more a symptom of our new media reality.

Even so, since book reviews, TV interviews, radio opportunities and other traditional coverage are more rare, it gives the impression to many authors and publishers that they are also more powerful.  And don’t get us wrong – they are extremely powerful – but this often leads to hounding, hassling and pressuring of publicists to only focus on traditional media.  “Have you heard back from FOX & Friends?  What about NPR?” 

As a result of this pressure, some publicists deviate from a smart media outreach strategy just to pacify the author. Some publicists spend their entire day going after the few remaining “teachers” (along with every other PR flack in the country), teaching to the few remaining classes that are in session instead of building an online platform for the author that is more suited to the recess environment we now live in.

So, what is your publicist’s new role?

Let’s assume that your publicist has solid traditional media relationships (our clients have been on Dr. Phil, The View, Fox & Friends, CNBC, every top-50 paper, numerous top magazines, etc. in the past year) and will be spending a significant amount of time pursuing and acquiring those opportunities.

Beyond traditional media contact, good publicists are also setting their clients up online so that media opportunities come to them. 

These days, producers and reporters search for experts online, instead of relying solely on PR contacts. If you don’t have a great web site and a solid amount of bloggers, online news outlets, Twitterers etc. talking you up on the internet, the next time a New York Times reporter searches for a “bottle-nosed dolphin expert,” you’re missing a potential hit.

So whether you’re a first-time author or a well-known author without a huge internet presence, there’s one vital thing your publicist should be doing for you on the front end:

Get the word out online about you and your book.

This not only helps you snag reporters/producers Google searching your area of expertise.  It makes you more searchable to bookers for speaking engagements, everyday consumers, etc.

Your publicist is working harder than ever before, under intense pressure to move books and secure game-changing bookings that give sales reps a reason to call the B&N buyer back.  But if you don’t give them the leeway to work smarter (re: getting you mentions online), you’re both in for a stressful ride.

After all, if you don’t find a way to get more notes circulating around the schoolhouse, how will the remaining teachers ever know you’re an honor student they should be paying attention to?