Should I be investing in my own publicity?

I've had a few people write to me and ask about the marketing posts I did a couple weeks ago. Several have wanted to know, "When should I consider spending my own money on my book's publicity?" 

The answer is probably, "When you feel the marketing people at your publishing house aren't doing enough," except that NO author ever really believes the marketing types are doing enough for their book. (It's true. I've seen bestselling authors who are getting full page ads complain about the lack of effort from the marketing staff.) I suppose every author would like to see the marketing department try harder, do more, be more creative, and get away from doing the same things that don't work, all for no cost. But the publishers are all trying to do their best. One young publicist might have 20 or 30 books she's working on, so your book may not get a ton of attention. 

So again, let's just work on the assumption that YOU are in charge of the marketing. Anything your publisher does is great, and by all means you should express your appreciation for them sending out review copies or setting you up on some blogs to talk about your book. Hey, at least they're doing SOMETHING. But yes, it's possible your book may need a boost when it comes to publicity if it's really going to grab some attention. Figuring out what to do next is the key.

A lot of authors want to simply hire an outside publicist. That may work, or it may be an expensive mistake. Let me suggest that the first "outside" person who needs to get involved is you. It bears repeating: YOU are in charge of marketing your book. You. Not the publisher, who will help you but may not do all that much unless you're a proven bestseller. You. Nobody else knows your message as well; nobody else is as committed to your story as you are. Nobody else has as much riding on your book as you do. So just assume you're going to take charge of your marketing.

That means you're going to have to educate yourself. I can recommend some basic marketing books, such as marketing textbooks to get you started, but good books specifically targeted to book marketing include David Cole's COMPLETE GUIDE TO BOOK MARKETING, Steve Weber's PLUG YOUR BOOK, Jay Conrad Levinson's GUERRILLA MARKETING (there's a special one for writers), Penny Sansevieri's RED HOT INTERNET PUBLICITY, Chris Murray's MARKETING GURUS, David Scott's NEW RULES OF MARKETING AND PR, Lissa Warren's THE SAVVY AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO PUBLICITY, Shel Horowitz's GRASSROOTS MARKETING FOR AUTHORS, John Kremer's 1001 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BOOK, Tim Berry's ON TARGET, and the books by David Rising. Rob Eager of Wildfire Marketing has a new book on marketing coming out with Writers Digest soon, so look for that one. Consider spending a couple hundred dollars to educate yourself first. You can also think about purchasing a used copy of something easy like MARKETING FOR DUMMIES and SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING FOR DUMMIES. That will get you started. Do that before you spend money on an outside specialist. 

Comments

[Charity]

Over the holidays, I skimmed one of Levison's Guerilla Marketing books and got a few great ideas. A simple, but very helpful one was to create a marketing calendar, so you have a chart with what you're going to do in Jan, Feb, etc. It helped me organize my ten thousand ideas into manageable chunks. I will check my library for those other titles!

[Gina Holmes]

Couldn't agree more with this. Often, you'll get a standard campaign with your publishing house. This is good, it will hopefully get you reviewed in PW, BookList, and the rest of the biggies. This is hugely helpful. They will often try to do more for you, book you on radio shows, etc. But unless you've got a hot non-fiction topic, they're probably not going to have a whole lot of success. I've hired outside PR and that's helpful, but expensive. And no one cares about your book, or knows it, as much as you, the author does. The best hits I've gotten have come from me. My favorite pr book is "Publicize Your Book". There's so much to understand, though. Like lead times. Magazines require 6 months to a year in advance (so do many of the top review magazines). Radio, much less, etc.

I've found that media has a harder time telling me no, then a company you hire. And the angles... know one knows the best angles to pitch than I do. No one has as much time to do it as I do because it's the only book I'm pitching. You can learn to pitch radio, to write articles that tie in your subject etc. It's a learning curve, and I personally would rather spend my time writing, but this is a business. No pain, no gain. Even Nicholas Sparks tries to do every interview he can. I know because he's been interviewed on my site and a friend's blog talk radio.

The best advice I can give is write a book that stays with people and is well written and then cast a wide net to try and get it into the hands of people who will talk. (Read Tipping Point, invaluable to understanding how something becomes popular.) Great post, Chip. I hope people take it to heart.

One last note: If you're book isn't very good, no matter how hard you pitch, most likely you'll get some sales but they'll fizzle out. But if you know you wrote a good book that resonate with readers, then a push will often get a snow ball rolling down the hill and word of mouth will begin to build.

[Ruth A. Douthitt]

I find social media to be a GREAT help in promoting my book, book events, and my brand. It is time consuming, but worth it. I have met wonderful authors who have given me tips and also time on their own blogs.

I am getting my name out there, little by little, but marketing myself hasn't been all that expensive so far.

Great post! Thanks!

Ruth