10 Mar Page One Media’s Pro Bono Book Publicity Campaign for Publishing Year 2027 

Last year we launched our first fully pro bono book publicity campaign for an underrepresented writer in publishing. Out of all of the submissions, we chose, as a team, Malavika Kannan and her forthcoming debut novel, Unprecedented Times, which publishes on August 18. We are thrilled to be able to support Malavika, her book, and her career in this way. Tune in to our social media to hear more about what’s happening for Unprecedented Times as that campaign gets underway. 

We’re getting an earlier start on the process this year, so we have more time to read the submissions and also to give a longer submission period for authors. The submission requirements are the same as last year and listed below and on the Grant submission page on our website. 

Background on the Page One Media Grant Project 

The Page One Media Grant Project began in 2021. You can learn more about it here in this blog post. It was one way that we felt we could help support authors who have, over the decades, been less likely to have their books acquired and less likely to have them resourced through sales, marketing and publicity support. I had worked in publishing for 20 years when I decided to leave my in-house job in 2019. We know that diversity benefits businesses and it is also true that it benefits people and learners. Page One wants to be a part of aiding that change in publishing. Without an equal chance at high level publicity, authors are at a disadvantage for publishing their next book and the cycle of underrepresentation continues.  

Who Qualifies? 

We take an intentionally broad view of diversity. If you come from a traditionally underrepresented group in publishing and this includes women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, and more, you should submit your project.  

There are only two circumstances that disqualify an author from consideration for the Page One Media book publicity grant. First, we don’t currently work with books that are being self-published or published by hybrid presses. This is not unique to the grant project, and it is not a statement on the quality of these books, but we have worked on them in the past and we have found that we can’t make enough of an impact because media still use publishers and imprints as a qualifier for book review and other types of coverage. Why do they do this? Because we publish a preposterous number of books annually in the United States. Nearly 400,000 books are traditionally published and another million are self and hybrid published. We have also found that in the instances where we have worked on these books, they don’t have enough distribution or large enough print runs to feel the impact of our work and to therefore benefit through sales.   

Second, the 2027 grant round will only consider books being published by U.S.-based publishing houses, by U.S.-based authors, and publishing in the 2027 calendar year. 

All the other requirements are ones that we require of all books we work on:  

1. We, the Page One team, must love the book. We best represent stories, research and ideas that truly resonate with us.  

1. The publisher must be aware that the author is considering working with us.   

1. Galleys must be available in both print and e-formats. 

1. Underrepresented is an intentionally broad term and includes any group that has had less access to being published. Don’t count yourself out. Tell us about yourself: who you are, what is important to you, and how you are trying to be a force for good in our world through your book. We want to hear from you. 

We are asking for some additional materials during the submission process. Those are: 

1. The full manuscript of the book. We will keep it completely confidential and will destroy it after the grant process ends. 

1. Complete our grant questionnaire. 

1. Provide the Publisher Affidavit form to your publisher representative (this needs to be an in-house employee of your publisher) to confirm the publication date of your book. Please submit it with your materials. 

1. Provide your publisher author questionnaire if you have one. If you don’t, please fill out ours. 

1. Submit all requested materials by May 15, 2026, at 11:59pm EDT. Any materials received after 11:59 pm EDT on May 15, 2026, will not be considered. 

Do not delay in submitting your materials. The more we can get a head start on reading submissions; the sooner we can announce the grant recipient. 

Next Steps and Instructions 

1. Carefully review the submission requirements in this post and in our terms and conditions. We will not notify you if required materials are missing. If materials are missing, you won’t be considered. 

1. Download the Publisher Affidavit form and have your publisher fill it out, sign and return it with the rest of your materials. 

1. Fill out our P1M Grant Project questionnaire form. 

1. Submit all your materials together; this will be done through the P1M Grant Project questionnaire form. Do not submit anything via email. It will not be considered. 

1. Sign up for our newsletter and follow our social media accounts (not required but this is where we will announce the grant recipient).  

1. You can get started with the submissions process here. 

Note: Do not submit yourself twice. If you are publishing two books in 2027 choose only one to be considered for the P1M Grant. If you submit two, we will only consider the first book submitted. 

Please direct any questions to hello@page1m.com. We can’t wait to read your book and learn more about you! 

Sarah Russo is the founder of Page One Media® and Page One Education™ and a publishing professional for over twenty-five years working across multiple facets of the industry. You can connect with her on BlueSky @sarahrusso.bsky.social, Instagram, Substack and LinkedIn. You can follow the work of page one media on LinkedIn, @pageonem.bsky.social on BlueSky, Substack, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.