Ask them to send you their standard marketing materials and any price sheets on retainer or contract relationships. Publicists who charge strictly by the project won’t have price sheets, however. Find out if they have experience with placements in media you want to get into, or if they have worked with clients in your industry. Authors should hire book publicists. High-tech companies should hire publicists familiar with high-tech publications and online media. Bankers should hire publicists familiar with the financial services and business media, and so on.

Ask for background on their company. Ask if the publicist has a website. Ask if there’s a fee for the initial meeting. If so, can the fee be applied against the cost of an eventual contract? Ask what they need from you to prepare for the meeting.

Now see how long it takes for the materials to arrive. Perfect publicists mail materials the same day. If it takes a long time to receive them, this is a bad sign. If they’re this slow working with you—a potential new client—imagine how slow they’ll be if a reporter requests your media kit.

For more tips on how to pick out a perfect publicist, check out How to Hire the Perfect Publicist.
http://101publicrelations.com/hireapublicist.html?s=prideas&c=perfect_publicist