Hot keys to make publisher symbol

You look it up in the character palette. To do this:
1. Open System Preferences
2. Click on International
3. Click on the Input Menu tab
4. Check Character Palette
You can also check Keyboard Viewer, as that comes in handy for looking up keys, too.
5. Quit System Preferences

From now on, to look up a character, click on the flag in the top right side of your menu bar and select Show Character Palette. To find your symbol, type "copyright" down at the bottom and press enter and it comes up with the (P) SOUND RECORDING COPYRIGHT symbol. Select it and drag it into your document or press the insert button. To find the key combination, go into the Keyboard Viewer and play around with the modifier keys (command, option, control, shift, and function) until you find it. I don't believe it's in there, so you'll just have to add it to your favorites in the Character Palette

A good method, indeed. I think I can improve on it.

The Character Palette will also show you the Unicode number for the selected symbol. If you enable Unicode Hex Input in the Keyboard menu, you will be able to use it to enter the code for this symbol by holding down the Option key, typing the code, and releasing the Option key.

By the way, the code for (p) is 2117.