Publicity Mistakes that Ruin Book Launches

If you're an author you know writing the book is only part of your job these days. Promotion is a huge chunk of what you have to do. Here's some excellent tips from people in the know. 

Book publicity is one of the most frustrating things for authors both experienced and new. You can write an all-time great novel, design the best book cover in history, and get blurbs from JK Rowling and Barack Obama—but if you don’t publicize your book well enough, you won’t sell any copies.

The simple fact is that people have to know your book exists before they can buy it, and publicity is the best way to get fresh eyeballs on your book.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of good information regarding book publicity available freely. As a result, we see many authors make the same book marketing mistakes over and over again—sabotaging their own campaigns and killing their book sales.

If you want to successfully market your book, you need to be aware of these three marketing mistakes authors of all levels make...

1. Avoiding Large Outlets 

A lot of authors limit themselves by not pitching to larger outlets and publications like The New York Times or NPR. After all, there are so many authors who send their books to those offices every day, what are the chances of getting a reviewer’s eyes on your book? 

While the odds are daunting, they are not impossible. Even self-published books with no professional publicity firm behind them have landed themselves an NYT book review. The key is to do your research:

• Which editor should you be pitching?
• How do they like to be pitched?
• How can you put a spin on your pitch that they will like?
• How many times are you going to follow up? (The answer to this should be “a lot”)

With the right research and execution, you can greatly enhance your chances of being covered by a large outlet, which will lead to many more eyeballs on your book.

Pro-Tip: When writing a pitch, not tailoring it to each audience can be a huge disadvantage. Do you want a health-focused public radio station to cover your book the same way Financial Times would? Of course you don’t—you know that those stations often appeal to different audiences. Make sure your pitch highlights the value of your book to their specific audience.

2. Skimping On The Legwork 

We all have long days, and when you’re writing a book, and doing the marketing and publicity, that can make the day much, much longer. The temptation is always there to take shortcuts—send out generic email blasts, drop $10,000 on a “publicity service,” or just give up on book marketing altogether. 

But the legwork is where the magic happens in publicity.

Force yourself to reach out to local bookstores, libraries, author groups and book clubs and schedule some readings. Even when your exhausted, write those emails to journalists who probably won’t respond. Embrace the grind, because that’s the only way to get results.

Leaning in to the legwork in marketing also gives you the opportunity to really be present and seize opportunities. If you send out a generic email blast and have a virtual assistant handle all the follow up, you’ll save time, but you’ll miss those unexpected opportunities when someone responds to you offering a cool new collaboration.

Be present, be committed, and push yourself through the grind of publicity. Your hard work will pay dividends.

3. Not Building a Platform

Not building an online platform for your book is a huge publicity mistake. 

When readers and supporters want to get to know an author, and that author’s whole catalog of work, the first thing they do is go online and look at the author’s site. Don’t believe me? Check out Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, both of whom are best selling authors many times over, and both of whom have amazing websites.

Your site is your ultimate sales tool. It’s where readers go to learn more about your book, to explore ways of engaging you, and—most importantly—to buy your book.

With all of the tools available now to make website building incredibly easy (and sometimes even free) there’s almost no excuse not to have an author website when running your own publicity campaign. 

Don’t Play Small

All of these mistakes are symptomatic of a larger issue that plagues authors. We think we’re smaller than we are, that professional websites, complex publicity campaigns, and coverage in major outlets are for writers who are more prolific than us.

We relegate ourselves to thinking that we—as small, amateur writers—don’t need more than a Facebook page and maybe a review on our friend’s blog.

When you play small, you get small results. Don’t limit yourself before you start. Approach your book’s publicity campaign as if you were already a bestseller, and the results will follow.

Thanks, Reedsy! This was great. 

You’re The Best Publicist for Your Book by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Today the IWSG has the honor of hosting the master of book publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson.

You’re The Best Publicist for Your Book

or

Why Your Publisher Can’t Sell Your Book Without You

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

If your name isn't King or Grisham or Roberts you've probably already figured out that you need to do a lot of publicity on your own. But did you know that your publisher can’t do it without you?

Sure you can hire a publicist. A big publisher might even assign one of their own to you, but you are the one who must show up for the signings. You are the one readers want to know about. And you are the one who is most passionate about your book.

I have a publicist friend who is also an author. He rightfully claims that he could never find a PR person who would do the same kind of job he does, including the time he spends on his own PR work. How could anyone argue with that? We all are our own best publicists, even if we hire someone else.

But what if we don't have the time or expertise?

We can learn to do it ourselves. After all, we are writers. We should be able to grasp the knack of how to write a media release.

But the best way to do it is to learn a lot about the marketing of books and then partner with expert publicists or people who can help you with specific projects like online book tours. And partnering with them in a way that won’t eat up your advance or cost you more than you’re likely to make on your book.

Here are some suggestions for preparing yourself to be the best publicity partner around.

1. Join organizations like IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association) where you’ll learn to understand the world of publishing from every angle—your, that of your publicist and that of your publisher. And get the support you need along the way.

2. Subscribe to newsletters sent out my experts in the field of publishing. Dan Poynter, John Kremer, Penny C. Sansevieri, and one of my favorite publicity gurus Joan Stewart are all online resources for getting online information that isn’t rooted in myth and gossip. You’ll learn tons from my Sharing with Writers newsletter, too. Subscribe by sending a SUBSCRIBE message to CarolynHowardJ@AOL.com.

3. Take a class in public relations. The only way I know how to avoid drastic mistakes in choosing a class is to patronize your local college or attend writers’ conferences sponsored by universities.

4. One of the most frugal ways to learn a new skillset is to read. Most of those who publish free newsletters like the ones I mentioned above have books that will get you off on the right foot. Find mine here.

The next question is how do you find the best help with publicity possible.

1. Consider what you need and how much time you can put into it. Your budget may not accommodate a full-service publicist. You may not have the time to fully participate with all of those services.

2. If that’s the case, consider people who will work with you piecemeal like Penny Sansevieri. You may need an online book tour. I like Denise Cassino's book launch service for that. Contact her at dencassino@gmail.com . It shouldn’t be too expensive to get help when you do it in bits and pieces. And when you work with others, many of the contacts you get from your service will become contacts for the life of your writing career. Or you may need help writing your first release so you can do it yourself. That kind of help is available, too, from people like Mindy Philips Lawrence, mplcreative1@aol.com .

3. Before you hire anyone consider their Rolodex. I'm talking about a file of contacts that are real personal, working relationships with editors, radio hosts, etc. Ask what kind of publicity have they gotten for their other clients? Consider whether those contacts are people who might have an interest in a project like yours. A book publicist who has had mostly experience with mystery writers, deals mostly with books stores that dedicate themselves to stories about crime, and has a huge file of names of reviewers interested in psycho/thrillers probably won't be able to do you much good if yours is a literary novel. And vice versa.

4. As you have already guessed, you want someone who has clients similar to you. Check that out, but also check with the clients. Were they satisfied? If not, why not. Their expectations may have been different from yours. Further, if there were some gaps that you consider important, you may be able to negotiate with your newfound partner to include those services in the publicity package you are contracting for.

Am I speaking from experience? You betcha. And lukewarm results were not the fault of my publicist. She did a great job with what she had. She just didn't have what I needed! If you do your homework, you’ll be happier with your publicity campaign and your publicist will be able to help you reach your goals more quickly…and they’ll be happier with you.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of so-called hard-to-promote genres (www.howtodoitfrugally.com/literary_books.htm) and of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, because she likes helping other authors avoid the same promotion potholes she once fell into. She blogs frugal book promotion and great writing ideas at Sharing With Writers and read her multi award-winning Frugal Book Promoter and the just-released e-book version (2nd edition!) of multi award-winning The Frugal Editor where you’ll learn how to write killer query letters—to agents, publishers, feature editors and all the other gatekeepers who can make a difference for your book.

Why Don’t More People Buy Your Book?

Many factors go into the success of a book. To neglect just one of those factors is to miss giving your book the best chance it can have to sell well. Below I’ve listed just some of those factors.

The Cover. The cover is one of the most important selling points for a book and yet it’s often underrated. It’s the first impression the book offers. It has to express what your book is about, if not specifically, then in a subtle way. For example, it should show what genre the book belongs to, it should have recognizable elements, including a readable title, and it should look professional.

The Title. If a reader buys your book with a false expectation born from the title of your book, they’ll end up returning it and won’t buy any more of your titles. The title doesn’t necessarily have to be short, but it does have to give the right impression for the book. For example, a book titled Dead Man Walking will give you an impression that it’s fiction and might belong to crime, paranormal or horror. You’d be pretty certain it wouldn’t belong to romance. If your book is non-fiction, then it needs to be a lot more specific to hook any potential readers.

The Editing. Don’t underestimate the importance of professional editing. A book with many typos and grammar mistakes will pull a reader from the story. Not only that, but the author will lose credibility. The reader will be less likely to buy any more of your books.

The Hook. Because of the vast array of choice readers now have, it’s important to hook them early. If your beginning pages drag on, few people will be willing to read further. It’s an unfortunate fact of publishing. So give them a hook—a promise of great things to come--make it early, and deliver that promise in the continuing pages.

The Target. Sometimes a story has a way of writing itself. The author will get caught up and carried away. It’s a wonderful phenomenon when it happens, but there is a danger that the target audience is forgotten, or misinterpreted. For example, if you’ve written a story you want to target to teens, then you shouldn’t make the protagonist a forty-year-old woman. If you are writing the story for the wrong audience, then your book won’t sell.

The Marketing. Oodles of information is around to learn more about marketing--just check out the tabs here at our IWSG website--but to break it down to its simplest form: Know your market. If you aren’t marketing toward your audience, then you’re missing an opportunity. Also, you can’t always expect your readers to come to you. You’ll need to find out where they are and spend time in those places.

The Spam. While this point belongs in marketing, it’s so crucial it stands on its own. If you are spamming everyone and their dog about your book, then you will guarantee yourself a lost readership. Avoid the spam at all costs.

The Reality. Every writer who wants to sell a book needs a realistic idea of how many books they should be selling. Not everyone can be a J K Rowling. Also, for self-publishers in particular, it takes time to pick up momentum when you’ve released your first book. Don’t expect to sell thousands in the first month. On top of that, if you’ve only written one book, then sales won’t be as great as having a collection of books available. If readers like your first book, then they will be more likely to read your second, and so forth.

What are some tips and tricks you’ve found works best for selling your book/s? What are some other factors that may influence higher or lower sales?

Lynda R. Young found success as a digital artist and an animator for many years, and now as a writer of speculative short stories. Her work is published in a number of anthologies and online. She is currently writing novels for young adults. In her spare time she also dabbles in photography and all things creative. You can find her here: Blog, Twitter, Facebook