15 May Page One Media Will Offer One Pro Bono Book Publicity Campaign in 2026

Friends, colleagues, and authors, we are excited to announce a major change to the way we provide grants within the Page One Media Grant Project. Effective for the 2026 publishing year, Page One Media will offer one pro bono book publicity campaign to an underrepresented writer. The 2026 grant will provide one full book publicity campaign spanning eight months for a book publishing in 2026. The chosen author will be supported by the Page One team and assigned a lead publicist, I will lead on strategy, there will be administrative support for the campaign, and the book will be included in all of our team based pitching, media meetings, and annual outreach for holiday gift guides, book clubs, year-end best of lists, and in our social media when appropriate. The campaign will receive the same level of time, care, creativity, and dedication that all our campaigns receive. 

Why a Pro Bono Publicity Campaign?  

At Page One, we have always believed that change starts with us. If we want to read more stories from marginalized people, then we must be advocates for that change. Page One wants to be a support to and part of the change coming to publishing so some responsibility must start here with us at Page One. 

In the past, we’ve given three discounts on campaigns to underrepresented writers annually. We’ve found that even with a reduced price our services can be out of reach for many authors. As a very, very small business, we are limited in how much work we can offer pro bono, but it is important to me and the team that we be a support for change both in our world and in our industry. One pro bono campaign felt like a better way to open access to the work we do. Even though we won’t be able to help three authors each year, one campaign will be more broadly accessible to all sorts of authors who we might not otherwise have been able to work with. 

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 perpetuates.  

Who Qualifies?

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 review or 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 2026 grant round will only consider books being published by U.S.-based publishing houses, by U.S.-based authors, and publishing in the 2026 calendar year. 

All of 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.  
2. The publisher must be aware that the author is considering working with us.   
3. Galleys must be available in both print and e-formats. 
4. 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. 
2. Complete our grant questionnaire. 
3. 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. 
4. Provide your publisher author questionnaire if you have one. If you don’t, please fill out ours. 
5. Submit all requested materials by June 15, 2025, at 11:59pm EDT. Any materials received after 11:59 pm EDT on June 15, 2025, will not be considered. 

We’ve never done this before so we don’t know how many authors will submit for the grant. We are hoping we will be able to review all submissions and choose the grant recipient no later than the end of the summer 2025. But we will provide an update on that date via Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkedIn, and our newsletter after all submissions have been received. The grant recipient will also be announced on these channels. 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. If we have a large influx of submissions at the end of the deadline, it may take us longer to read all of them.

Next Steps and Instructions 

1. Carefully review the submission requirements in the post and terms and conditions. We will not notify you if required materials are missing. If materials are missing, you won’t be considered. 
2. Download the Publisher Affidavit form and have your publisher fill it out, sign and return it with the rest of your materials. 
3. Fill out our P1M Grant Project questionnaire form. 
4. 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. 
5. Sign up for our newsletter and follow our social media on Instagram, Bluesky, and/or LinkedIn (not required but this is where we will announce the grant recipient).  
6. You can get started with the submissions process here. 

Note: Do not submit yourself twice. If you are publishing two books in 2026 choose only one to be considered for the P1M Grant. If you do submit two, we will only consider the first submission.

We can’t wait to read your book and learn more about you! 

Sarah Russo is the founder of Page One Media and a publishing professional for over twenty years. You can connect with her on BlueSky @sarahrusso.bsky.social, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can follow the work of Page One Media on LinkedIn, @pageonem.bsky.social on BlueSky and @pageonem on Instagram.