This week, I’m pondering what it takes to push the needle in book promotion, to get people’s attention and hopefully encourage them to buy the book, talk about the book, recommend and review the book, and all those other things we authors hope will happen in a way that helps build success for this project we’ve toiled on and love.
Like all authors, I’ve pondered this every time I’ve got a new book out (admittedly, it’s been a minute but now I do have more in the pipeline!) or a friend publishes a new book or when there’s a book I love that is either successful or maybe not quite building the buzz I think it should. In the past seven years as a bookseller and event director for an indie bookstore, I thought A LOT about what gets attention and what doesn’t and why, and what authors can do about that.
But first, let’s start with the hard truth: Much, although not all, of what does or does not happen with a book in traditional publishing is beyond the author’s control. It’s the publisher who decides whether or not spend money on special table or end cap placement in Barnes and Noble, and whether they will push for your book to be carried in store at Target or Walmart or Costco, etc. Those ads in PW, for forthcoming books? Also the publisher. Same with most of the featured interviews and the like. It’s the publisher who sends a publicist to a meeting at the New York Times to pitch your book to be reviewed. It’s the publisher who may or may not pay for book tours or set up a string of school visits for you, or pitch you for conferences and larger book festivals and trade shows. You can do a lot of this yourself in many cases, and should, and certainly I have been successful in this on occasion, but truthfully, often the whole thing is very corporate unless you have a particular personal connection or other workaround. And for things like featured books and panels at trade shows like ALA or ABA’s Children’s Institute, where certain authors not only have their books on the arc tables and mentioned during various presentations, but are also featured as the guest authors at fancy dinners for the booksellers, well, that’s something only your publisher can do for you. For traditionally published books, it’s the publisher who can do broader librarian outreach or decide to produce some limited special editions of your fantasy book or mail out arcs and swag to a select group of ‘push the needle’ booksellers who might then write encouraging shelf-talkers for their customers and who will in the process be encouraged to review the book on Edelweiss, and say yes to a pre-sale push. Again, you can arrange this yourself, but you have to decide what you have a budget and time for and what you don’t. Publishers will be the ones to submit your book for awards and who will decide whether they want to push sales more aggressively in hopes that it will hit a list, and talk it up in ways that might encourage those starred reviews.
If this sounds like the trajectory of your book might possibly be decided when that book is acquired, that’s because in many cases that’s true. Can a book break out regardless? Absolutely. Dreaming Anastasia (my first book, and absolutely not a front list title) was a surprise break out in the fall of 2009. Does that happen all the time? No. And even in this case, my assigned publicist, as I’ve talked about widely, decided that he wanted to see if we could make this book a best seller. So while my efforts were legion, I’m not shy to remind everyone that I was, in actuality, not doing it alone.
So what can we do? Fear not! There’s a lot. We just have to be wise about where we spend our efforts and limited marketing dollars. And the other truth is, that even if you have all the above (or some of it! ) from your publisher, there are no guarantees in this industry. A book can still arrive in the middle of a worldwide pandemic or a contentious election season or at the same moment as another book about the same topic or in a sea change of ideas or popular tropes or some reason that I can’t think of but will nonetheless affect sales. Your publisher can promise things that don’t happen. There can be delays or paper shortages or a million other things that result in missing the mark. That’s what happens just like it happens with all types of art. It sucks. But it happens.
So let’s talk about what we can do.
Social media is a must, but it’s also unpredictable and a potential time suck beyond its potential value, so be prudent about it. Find a platform that works for you, your personality, your brand, and that you enjoy, and stick with it rather than spreading your efforts too thin. The vast majority of what you post should about your fellow authors and the books world in general. No one wants to hear you shouting all the time about yourself. If you are not already part of the larger conversation, that’s your goal. And that’s where the fun lies, anyway! Think: building community rather than selling books.
If you don’t know any of the other local authors in your community, you need to fix that as soon as possible. That’s part of your community building as well.
Targeting your audience is also something you can do: What groups, events, book club, schools, workshops, festivals, conferences, people in general, would be a good fit for your book? That’s where your outreach should go.
For those in the kidlit world as I am, build that outreach with teachers and librarians as well. If school visits are your thing, work on what exactly you are going to offer. Hint: No child wants to hear about your author journey or how long it took you to find an agent or sell your book (except maybe that last one if you’re talking about never giving up). Your presentation should be no more than 30 minutes plus q/a, include ppt or other visuals, be as interactive as possible and when presenting you should be high energy, fun, funny and interesting and appropriate to your audience. If you cannot be those things or talking to children in person scares you, then consider that school visits are perhaps not for you. You should also figure out if you are going to partner with a bookstore to sell your books, among the many other things you need to organize for school visits. (another post for another time!)
And speaking of bookstores, if you are an author and live in a community where there are independent bookstores, you should already have relationships with those stores as a customer and as an attendee to their events. Makes it easier to approach them about an event for your own book. But remember, bookstores and librarians owe you absolutely nothing. You may not be a good fit. The time might not be right. No one owes you an event just because you wrote a book.
And extra hint from my time as bookseller and event planner: Personally, I wouldn’t overspend on swag items, postcards, bookmarks and like except for the actual events themselves. Mailing bookmarks and other small swag items to stores (and this includes much of the stuff the publishers send – except for candy which is usually appreciated), is, in my opinion, usually a waste of time and money. Bookstores get boxes of the stuff and have no room to use or display it after the first few. Most of that stack of 50 bookmarks will be either recycled or thrown away unless it’s for a book the store is already in love with and is featuring on their own. Exception are items that are limited/exclusive and part of a larger campaign. And even then…
So be wise! Keep writing! Believe in your book and in yourself. Most of all, create community. If you do that, I guarantee you that good things will follow.
Til next week.
And for another recent take on the subject, Substacker Fox Tales has an interesting post on marketing that you can check out as well.
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