"The only bad publicity is no publicity."

So the PR mantra goes. Of course, it's a nice cliché if you're not the PR person whose job it is to generate good "buzz" about a product that flops or a company that's under fire.

Essentially, this profession is a lot like sales. You work for a person, product or company that wants to get its message out. Your job is to convince journalists, most of whom have little interest in hearing from you, that they should cover your client, whether it's in a front page, news article or a momentary blip on a local TV show. It can also be your role to respond to journalists when they poke around asking unflattering questions about your clients.

"You've either got a knack for it and the right personality or you don't," says Millie Lee, 30, an account supervisor for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in San Francisco. Her clients have included the California Artichoke Advisory Board, which hired sexpert Dr. Ruth Westheimer as its spokesperson, and Odwalla, the California-based juice company that suffered a PR person's worst nightmare when one of their products was linked to serious illness.

Even when you're not being asked to spin a company's way out of a difficult fix like Odwalla's, pitching the press is no cakewalk. You'll have to be preternaturally persistent to win the attention of journalists, even those who refer to you derisively as "just a flak." You'll have to juggle multiple tasks at once and be constantly creative, while handling rejection with a smile. And you'll do all this for a low -- starting out at $20K or less is not unthinkable -- to medium-range salary.

On the upside: If you do your job well, there's the "feel-good" effect of knowing that your work has significantly furthered the client's success. "You get to use your creative skills to come up with innovative publicity ideas, and sometimes you get to rub shoulders with celebrities or go to really cool parties," says Laura Morgan, 28, director of national publicity for A&M Records in NYC, who works with bands like 16 Horsepower, a "Goth" country band, and acoustic guitarist Patty Griffin.

Of course, it all depends on what you choose to publicize. Promoting quality health care services might not have the same perks as attending the concerts and record-release parties that come with publicizing bands. But then again, those glam jobs are few and far between, and getting the word out about something you really believe in has its own rewards.