Natalie Trice | Author and Coach

Natalie Trice | Author and Coach

Author profile

With over twenty years experience in PR, Natalie Trice has worked with some well known brands including Hewlett Packard, TM Lewin, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. When her son was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, Natalie’s skills led her in a new direction because she found there was no book to read for her as a parent to learn about the condition. Her son needed more treatment, so Natalie took some time off from PR to support her son. This led to her launching the charity, DDH UK, and writing her first book, Cast Life - A Parent’s Guide to DDH. Turning her PR skills to support the charity, it confirmed for her how important it is to set boundaries when dealing with editors and journalists. Having both fronted large organisations as a publicist and the much smaller charity which she launched, Natalie found out firsthand how important it was to overcome any hesitations and be confident in being more visible.

After relocating with her family to South Devon to live by the sea, Natalie was keen to share her experience in PR to help business owners and charity leaders, especially females, to shine. Her extensive knowledge culminated in writing her second book, PR School - Your Time to Shine, published by SilverWood Books. The book covers all the practical elements of PR and also the mindset you need to positively approach publicity and embrace the vulnerability of opening yourself up to journalists.

Finding the right publisher

When her second book was finished, Natalie met a writing coach who encouraged her to test the book with readers, selling an electronic PDF copy at a lower price. Initial sales went well, giving her confidence that the book was useful and a refreshed desire to see it published. However, having been published by a traditional publisher for her first book, Natalie was somewhat hesitant about the hybrid model for self-publishing.

A Google search led her to SilverWood Books, which suited her because of our location in the South West. Natalie recalls her first contact with SilverWood, "Whatever book you’re writing, it feels very personal to you. Looking back, I was anxious about sending my manuscript to a publisher, but Helen [at SilverWood] was great. She responded personally and engaged with me, it wasn’t just an assistant replying, and she gave me the belief that it was a good book. I chose SilverWood because it was affordable and Helen made the process sound very easy, although I did have some experience of publishing from my first book. I contacted them in April and the time frame worked to get the book out that year, which by then, I really wanted to do."

The proofreading and copy-editing were a challenge for Natalie. However, she recognises that they are very necessary steps. And overall, her experience of the publishing process was really good. As she says, "Being able to have someone take the challenging technical parts away from me was brilliant, like the ISBN numbers and listings. The SilverWood team was great and kept me updated throughout."

A smooth publishing journey

Having mocked up a concept for the book with her designer, Natalie knew exactly what she wanted the front cover to look like. Natalie says, "PR School was aimed at a female audience and I wanted the book to be bright and spark joy. I had used PR to position myself as a global expert in hip dysplasia and I wanted to share that knowledge and make it accessible to other people. You’ve got to have passion and determination to get those words down on a page. Then you need to find someone like Helen who gives feedback in a helpful, confidence-building way. If you can learn to take on board constructive feedback, then you can create a really good book. Once published, it felt like a great achievement to get it out there."

While raising awareness and doing publicity for her book, Natalie sought reviews, arranged a blog tour, attended talks, was interviewed as a guest on podcasts and went live on Facebook to her audiences. She advises other authors to think about promotion while they’re still writing: "You need to be thinking about the places you want it to appear and the wider appeal of your book’s content. Then you need to be confident about what you’ve written and decide how much of your personal story you want to tell."

For two years running, Natalie has been awarded the most influential women in PR and she gives guest lectures at Plymouth and Leeds universities. The global pandemic lockdown in 2020 gave Natalie time for a new focus; she retrained as a life coach and mentor. This has resulted in her coaching other PR professionals to take their career forwards. She has also been successful in securing a publishing deal from Little Brown for her third self-development book, designed to help others have more confidence in their choices to relocate their family.

Find out more

If you’d like to find out more about Natalie and her work, please visit her website here or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Work with SilverWood

Discuss working with SilverWood's Helen Hart by dropping her a line here.