Leverage PR to Build Platform with Caitlin Copple and Full Swing PR
If you’re treating PR like a magic button that will “get you famous” and automatically land you a traditional nonfiction book deal, you’re aiming at the wrong target. The authors who actually get those deals use publicity as part of a bigger visibility funnel: a strategic way of being seen, building trust, and driving specific actions — like email signups, preorders, and high-value leads — that make publishers want to bet on them.
In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, host and traditional publishing expert Meghan Stevenson interviews Caitlin Copple, cofounder of Full Swing PR, about how entrepreneurs and experts can use PR smartly to grow a platform that supports a traditional book deal.
PR helps you get a deal when:
You already have solid business fundamentals (website, proven offer, social proof).
You use publicity to build a visibility funnel that complements your sales funnel.
You turn media hits into specific actions (email subscribers, preorders, leads), not just “ego in the ether.”
You time hiring a publicist around capacity, alignment, and launch plans — typically starting at least six months before publication, and often a year before.
PR alone doesn’t get you a deal. Strategic, sustained visibility built on real results, coupled with platform and proposal work, does.
What Full Swing PR Does (And Why It’s Different)
Caitlin’s agency, Full Swing PR, is a leading firm for under‑recognized founders and leaders of professional service companies scaling to $2 million and above.
Key details:
They focus on Black, Indigenous, people of color, LGBTQIA+, and female-identifying clients.
They’ve helped hundreds of clients earn millions through smart, effective PR campaigns.
Full Swing was named among Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing privately held companies in the Rocky Mountain region in 2024 and again in 2025.
Their flagship Rocket Ship Retainer is unusual in that it combines publicity strategy (earned media, podcast bookings, articles) and digital marketing support (social media and email marketing).
This matters because traditional publicists often only handle “top of funnel” brand awareness; Full Swing insists PR must be tied to a real business model and measurable outcomes.
PR That Packs Your Pipeline: The Visibility Funnel
Caitlin describes their core philosophy succinctly: “publicity that packs your pipeline.”
That means:
Every PR effort is designed to drive an action — sign up for your list, buy a book on preorder, sign a petition, book a call, etc. — not just create vague “exposure.”
They build a visibility funnel that sits alongside your sales funnel, ensuring you’re visible at every stage in ways that match your goals and your audience.
For example:
A podcast appearance might be crafted to drive listeners to a specific lead magnet or book preorder page.
A guest essay or interview might point directly to a high-value offer or waitlist.
They’ve seen clients sign six‑figure deals (for services, not books) directly after appearing on small podcasts most people have never heard of — because those shows reached the right buyers.
This is crucial for aspiring authors: publishers care about conversion and reach, not just raw follower counts. A visibility funnel shows that when you’re visible, people actually take action.
What You Need Before You Add PR
Caitlin is clear: PR is not a band‑aid for a broken business. Before you hire a publicist (Full Swing or anyone else), you need basics in place.
Minimum prerequisites:
A functioning website that clearly explains who you are and what you offer.
A transformative product or service that works — not just something you like, but something that has delivered results for others.
Social proof: testimonials, case studies, metrics, or “receipts” that show your work does what you say it does.
She emphasizes that “transformative” can’t just mean “this changed my life”; it must have changed other people’s lives or businesses, too.
Meghan backs this up with her experience: Many people claim their work is transformative, but when asked “whose life did it change besides yours?” they have no answer. That’s a red flag for both PR and traditional publishing.
When Is The Right Time To Hire A Publicist If You Want A Book Deal?
For aspiring authors, timing is critical. Caitlin’s guidance:
Start interviewing PR firms or freelancers about a year before your intended launch date. This allows you to:
Build a platform and list ahead of submitting proposals or going on submission.
Plan coordinated PR and marketing around your book’s release.
Once you have a book deal (especially with a Big Five publisher), consider:
Hiring an external publicist roughly six months before launch to support your in‑house publicist.
Assessing how likely you are to be prioritized by your publisher and whether extra firepower is worth budgeting for.
They share a current example:
A Hachette author hired Full Swing six months pre-launch to make her debut more successful, even though the publisher provided an in‑house publicist.
The logic: publisher publicists are often excellent but spread thin. Investing in your own PR team can amplify and focus efforts around your particular business and impact goals.
What PR Can And Cannot Do For Entrepreneurs And Authors
Caitlin sees three major benefits for clients who work with PR over time:
Clarity: better messaging, positioning, and understanding of who you serve and how you show up.
Confidence: feeling more comfortable and powerful in your thought leadership and visibility.
Bottom-line results: more leads, more discovery calls, more inbound interest.
Concrete examples:
One client went from one discovery call a week to ten.
Another went from about 20 inbound leads to 50, filling out contact forms or downloading lead magnets.
For high-ticket service businesses — architecture, law, finance, learning and development — those differences translate into substantial revenue.
For authors, similar dynamics apply:
More podcast invitations and media hits tied to clear calls to action.
More email subscribers and social followers who are primed to buy your book.
More credibility in agents’ and publishers’ eyes, because your platform is clearly working.
What PR Cannot Do
PR has clear limits:
It cannot fix broken operations. If your business systems are a mess, you can’t respond to opportunities promptly or serve the volume PR brings in.
It cannot be a Hail Mary for someone “really worried about money” whose business fundamentals aren’t working; PR is not a substitute for a functioning sales process.
It cannot make an unaligned or half‑baked offer magically sustainable. If you’re not lit up by your business or you’re about to pivot dramatically, doubling down on visibility for the wrong thing is counterproductive.
Caitlin’s metaphor: PR is gasoline. You don’t pour gasoline on a fire you don’t want to burn.
Meghan echoes this for books: you don’t add more platform visibility if your pipeline is already overflowing and your team is burned out, or if your book is essentially a niche lead magnet that doesn’t require massive reach.
DIY Pitching: Consistent Habits That Actually Move The Needle
You don’t have to wait until you can hire a full agency to start building visibility. Caitlin lays out a simple habit system:
Commit to a consistent pitching habit — for example, sending two podcast pitches per week.
Use AI as a helper, not a crutch:
Feed it your bio, website copy, and the podcast’s “about” section.
Let it draft a rough email, then edit it so it feels human and on-brand.
She believes that if you have something to say, are a qualified expert, and pitch two whos a week consistently, you will see results over time.
Meghan notes that the most successful platforms in her client roster come from people who are simply consistent — they show up, repurpose content intelligently, and keep going.
Making Traditional Media Work In A Fragmented Landscape
Meghan observes that traditional media like The New York Times or Today often produces smaller sales jumps than it used to, especially for books. Caitlin agrees partly, but explains why those placements still matter — and how to make them work.
Her recommendations:
Don’t rely on the outlet’s audience alone; promote the hit heavily on your own channels.
Rachel Rodgers, for example, took her Good Morning America appearance, got the file, and turned it into an ad-like asset she shared everywhere.
Gwyneth Paltrow screenshotted entire print features for Instagram so followers could read them without a subscription.
Bake your wins into everyday touchpoints:
Add “As seen in [Outlet]” to your email signature and website masthead.
Tag outlets when you share clips so they might reshare and broaden reach.
The logic:
Names like The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, and Dwell still carry major credibility, even if fewer people read them line-by-line.
The value lies not only in direct audience reach, but in social proof you can repurpose indefinitely.
PR, in this view, is about capturing and reusing credibility, not just betting on one “big day” of exposure.
Energy, Alignment, And Being Ready For Visibility
Both Caitlin and Meghan spend part of the episode on the “woo” side of business: energetics and alignment.
Key points:
Money stress changes the energetics. Clients who hire PR or publishing support from a desperate, “this has to save me” place tend to struggle more, because the pressure warps decisions and expectations.
You want to hire a publicist when you can comfortably afford one, treating it as an experiment and a strategic investment, not a last resort.
Fit matters: you and your PR team should be interviewing each other to ensure vibe and expectations match.
Meghan adds similar lessons from publishing:
Sometimes everything lines up — platform, concept, timing — and a proposal still gets turned down by every publisher. That often signals misalignment rather than failure.
Sometimes an author is not actually ready — operationally, emotionally, or structurally — for the kind of visibility and responsibility a big platform or deal would bring (e.g., security concerns, capacity, money mindset).
Their shared advice: check in with your why, your capacity, and your readiness. A deal or a big media hit shouldn’t feel like an emergency; it should feel like the next aligned step.
How PR And Books Fit Into Your Business Flywheel
Books and PR are rarely standalone profit centers; they’re parts of a broader flywheel.
Meghan reminds listeners:
A traditionally published book is typically a $15–$30 product, yielding a few dollars per copy in royalties at most.
The book is a lead magnet and credibility asset that drives readers toward higher-ticket offers — services, programs, speaking, etc.
Smart authors use their advances to invest in positioning, publicity, and long‑term brand building, not just as “extra cash.”
Caitlin points to Profit First as a prime example:
The book’s long-term success isn’t just from the text; it’s from a business flywheel: certifications, programs, ongoing content, and repeated messaging across many channels.
For aspiring nonfiction authors, the big questions become:
How does your book plug into your business ecosystem?
Do you want to build a flywheel like that — and are you prepared for the sustained effort?
PR then becomes the amplification mechanism for that flywheel, not an isolated project.
Questions Answered In This Episode
How can PR and visibility help entrepreneurs and experts move toward a traditional nonfiction book deal?
What makes Full Swing PR’s Rocket Ship Retainer different from traditional publicity services?
What is a “visibility funnel,” and how does it complement a sales funnel?
What prerequisites should entrepreneurs have before investing in PR?
When is the best time for aspiring authors to start interviewing publicists?
How far in advance of launch should traditionally published authors hire an external PR team?
What specific business results can strategic PR produce for service-based entrepreneurs?
What are the biggest limitations and “wrong times” for hiring a publicist?
How have changes in the media landscape affected the impact of traditional media coverage?
How can authors and entrepreneurs make the most of major media hits like NYT or GMA features?
What simple, consistent DIY pitching habits can anyone start to build their visibility?
How do money, energetics, and alignment influence whether PR and book deals actually work for you?
This week’s guest is Caitlin Copple. She is the Founding Partner at Full Swing Public Relations. Caitlin’s work teaching clients to “be the news” has elevated the stories of diverse founders, sold books, won elections, passed legislation in multiple states, and even ousted a lawmaker accused of sexual assault. She has placed clients in a wide array of outlets such as CNN, Forbes, Fast Company, TIME, and many more. Caitlin and her business partner, Holly Conti, scaled the agency to seven figures in less than four years.
Full Swing PR is the nation’s leading agency for underrecognized founders and leaders of professional services companies scaling $2M+. Our agency has helped hundreds of clients earn millions of dollars through smart, effective PR campaigns. In 2024 and 2025, Full Swing PR was named among Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing privately held companies in the Rocky Mountain Region.
Full Swing PR is a women- and LGBTQ-owned agency.
Find Caitlin and Full Swing on social
Find the Full Swing PR podcast here: https://fullswingpr.com/how-to-hire-pr-podcast/.
Take Full Swing PR’s Visibility Scorecard quiz here: https://fullswingpr.typeform.com/visibilityscore
