Karen Shook, Books Editor, Times Higher Education
“Jeff Scott did an excellent job in promoting my book. He was professional, responsive, and delivered great value. I would certainly use him again, and would unhesitatingly recommend him to other authors who want to achieve the right balance of quality and quantity of publicity for their books.”
Luke Johnson, Chairman Risk Capital Partners & Former Chairman Channel 4 Television
“Jeff Scott is hard working, creative, knowledgeable, personable plus he knows and understands the needs of the UK media. Jeff read my book thoroughly (and intelligently) so was able to simplify complicated ideas in an attractive engaging manner for many different audiences and media. He achieved good positive coverage and I enjoyed working closely with him on the UK publicity for my book.”
Pascal Lamy, ex-Director General of World Trade Organisation (2005-2013) & ex- Commissioner for Trade at the European Commission (1999-2004)
“The very fact I don’t feel like a complete fraud saying “brand Kelsey” is down to you”
Robert Kelsey, international bestselling self–help author
“Working with Jeff really helped me craft my ideas for a broader audience and to develop a set of blurbs and columns that help publicise my book, The Great Convergence. He understood the ideas and understood how non-specialist readers would react to various ways of explaining them. His personal contacts with journalists were also critical in getting my book covered in a number of news outlets. I heartily recommend Jeff to any economist who want to get his/her ideas beyond the library shelves and seminar rooms.”
Richard Baldwin Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and President of the Centre at Economic Policy Research (CERP), London. Founder & Editor-in-Chief at VoxEU
“I have found Jeff Scott to be of an independent mind and does a great job! His ability and insight as well as his sound judgment have impressed me and he provides a safe pair of hands. Throughout the time we have worked together, I have found his advice to be sound and thoughtful. I would recommend him without reservation and look forward to enlisting his help for the launch of my next book”
HRH Princess Michael of Kent
“I can’t come to the launch of the Blair book. But I hope someone has told you that that invitation is the most imaginative one produced this year – or for as long as I can remember. It’s terrific”
Jeremy Paxman, Newsnight
View the invitation that made news itself and that Jeremy liked so much.
“Jeff Scott is somewhat unique in the field of literary PRs — he has a genuine love of books. Every campaign is grounded in a careful reading of the text (rather than just reproducing the author’s “talking points” and mailing out lots of jiffy bags). As our books are primarily politics and current affairs, Jeff takes great care to get the timing right and is constantly on the lookout for news “hooks”. All Jeff’s campaigns generate reviews — a tough call for a small publisher in today’s crowded market.”
Keith Sutherland, Founder & CEO, Imprint Academic
“It’s rare for a PR person to have read the books they promote, let alone reading them cover-to-cover, and being able to pull out the salient and interesting angles for journalists. Jeff Scott is one of those people. He also takes great time and trouble to understand the magazines and websites he is promoting books to, so he never wastes journalists’ time which means it’s always a pleasure to get his emails and phone calls.
The crib sheets he provides on the books and their authors ahead of review or interview are invaluable and Jeff has been always extremely helpful is arranging for authors to interviewed on film, which is becoming an increasing need. “
Lawrence Gosling, Group Editorial Director, Incisive Media
“I’ve worked with Jeff for over five years now and he’s always been professional and knowledgable about his subject matter. He turns things around quickly – which is important for a daily newspaper and he understands how important speed and efficiency is. He’s a pleasure to work with and I’d recommend him to anybody.”
Natasha Harding, The Sun @sunbookscolumn
“Jeff Scott is an extremely thoughtful media insider. His combination of analytic understanding of publishing in the international affairs space to knowing just about everyone in the media industry helped make The J Curve a big hit in the UK. Thank goodness for Jeff!”
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
“Jeff Scott is a first class publicist who put together a first class London book tour for my book Surrender Is Not An Option. Not only did he arrange interviews with the best of the best in London media, but he was also able to orchestrate several Editorial Board meetings with the leading newspapers AND managed to get a book signing at the legendary Hatchards Book Shop. It was a job well done!!”
Ambassador John Bolton
“Jeff Scott is a superb professional in all his dealings with authors. He was indefatigable in promoting my book – Ireland: A History – and was very successful in getting it widely noticed. I owe much to him, and to his good humour.”
Professor Thomas Bartlett, University of Aberdeen
“At one point towards the end of the campaign I was chatting to the editor of a business publication. I happened to mention that we had published Luke’s book and his response (verbatim) was “that was you? That’s been everywhere! I haven’t opened any industry publications recently without seeing that book.” And of course this was not my work but was all down to the talents of Jeff Scott.
I was consistently impressed throughout the process of publishing Start It Up with Jeff’s work-rate, his knowledge of the right routes into both mainstream and niche business media and his ability to maintain constantly positive relationships with the publisher, the author and the author’s team and a veritable gaggle of influential media figures.
We have freelanced several campaigns in the past 12 months and always been happy with results but we have rarely received the combination of quality, quantity and depth of coverage that Start It Up received through Jeff’s constant attention and diligence. This seems to me to have been a truly great campaign built on in-depth knowledge of the right media, strong relationships with everyone involved in the process, an extremely sound understanding of the material and no small quantity of serious hard graft. Delighted with the outcome.”
Richard Lennon, Penguin
“I owe Jeff Scott a great debt for bringing this book and Imprint Academic together. He is a man of wide knowledge and interests and has done much to help my work reach a broad public.”
James R Flynn, from Acknowledgements in Beyond Patriotism
“Thanks to Jeff Scott who first pushed me to write this book”
Bjorn Lomborg, from Acknowledgements in Cool It!
“Jeff Scott did a superb job in rallying support when we launched our latest book Scared To Death. He was pleasant and easy to deal with, tireless in pursuing his wide range of media contacts and the resulting coverage led to the book selling out its first printing within days of publication and also the second printing a week after that!”
Christopher Booker, author and columnist
“Jeff Scott at Platypus PR was the agent for my latest book (What is Intelligence?) while I was in the UK by arrangement with Cambridge University Press. He is the fifth agent I have had in my writing career and was by far the most productive. During my brief stay in the UK, he arranged a lengthy interview in the Economist publication Intelligent Life, publicized my lecture at the LSE, arranged a panel discussion that included Germaine Greer and an insightful interview with Simon Mayo on Five Live. Plus similar interviews for the BBC World Service and MENSA’s magazine plus a lecture to the Royal Society of the Arts.The net result was a huge leap upward in my ranking on amazon.com.uk. This outstanding performance was not simply the result of contacts but of the fact he had read my book, understood it comprehensively, and therefore was in a position to sell it effectively. I should add that he was a pleasure to work with and I hope that our relationship will continue throughout my career as an author.”
Professor James Flynn discoverer of “the Flynn Effect”
“Of all the book publicists I have worked with during the past decade and more as a literary editor of academic books, Jeff Scott is the best, because he combines hard work with good judgement, intelligent reading and imaginative ideas. I’d be delighted to have him as a publicist for one of my own books!”
Andrew Robinson, ex-Literary Editor, Times Higher Education and Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge
“Jeff Scott is the kind of publicist every author dreams of. He has excellent (and productive) media contacts, generated interviews and TV appearances, coordinated book events, always reacted with alacrity, had good judgment, prodded me when needed but did not interfere when there was no need to. If publicity is an early indicator of future book sales, he certainly hit the mark.”
Antoine van Agtmael, Founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Emerging Markets Management LLC
“PR can be a problem for small publishers. We certainly could not afford an in-house employee. Jeff Scott provides us with an excellent solution. He is efficient, effective, affordable, friendly, and always answers messages. Oh, and he has a good sense of humour. Jeff masterminded a strategy for a recent title of ours called Life from Light by Michael Werner. He successfully targeted The Sun (who I would never have thought of going to), and various good things followed, including a five-minute slot on the prestigious Richard and Judy television show and a splash in the Daily Mail.”
Sevak Edward Gulbekian, Founder & CEO, Clairview Books
“No books publicist I have worked with has so immediately understood the content, objectives and commercial context of each campaign, nor executed it with such gentle, yet winning charm, nor produced such an unfailing run of hits.”
Robert George, RSPB & ex-Cambridge University Press
“Having worked with Jeff for several years on a wide range of campaigns I have been tremendously impressed by his dedication, enthusiasm and creative thinking. He has worked on titles ranging from relatively small niche books to large-scale celebrity-author led tours with the same care and attention to detail. I would wholeheartedly recommend him to any future clients.”
Rumana Haider, Simon & Schuster
“Jeff is courteous, dedicated, quick to respond, and also quite a nice person. Why the hell did he become a publicist?”
Marty Beckerman, author of Generation S.L.U.T.
“Jeff Scott is gifted with astute judgment about what people will talk about. He has a good eye for a story and shows a conscientious attention to detail. This makes him a joy to work with.”
Juliette Jowit, The Guardian
“Jeff dove in feet first to our publicity efforts and produced stellar results across the pond. He continued to hammer away long after our book was originally published, with good humour and great ideas, and he secured placements in Management Today, BA High Life and Market Leader magazines among many others. He was a most dedicated publicist and our UK sales skyrocketed as a result.”
Chelsea Hardaway, co-author, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
“It’s all about results, and Jeff is very good at simply delivering the goods. We have been very pleased with his connections, his creativity, and his hard work to make our book successful. And working with him is an absolute pleasure – even if he does run a bit on quirky side! We highly recommend Jeff to other authors.”
Brian Fugere, co-author, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
“Jeff really does understand the requirements of a newspaper, and doesn’t waste our time. He’s meticulous about detail, well-read, intelligent and always good-humoured. I trust him.”
Corinna Honan, ex-Sunday Times
“It was a real delight to work with Jeff whose help in securing that first high-profile review for our first ever trade book was instrumental in kick-starting a really successful publicity campaign”
Tej P.S. Sood, Anthem Press
“Jeff’s work promoting my book Nixonland in the UK was tireless, energetic, strategically shrewd–and best of all, effective.”
Rick Perlstein
“Jeff did all the usual with hard work, creative ideas and charm. Better still, he reminded me the importance of brevity – make. every. word. count.”
Ian Sanders, business storyteller, opportunity explorer, journalist, author