Publicity Neepery Part the Last: Wrap Up


(the previous publicity neep is behind these words).

Just because it took me a while to write this up and post it doesn't mean it's especially profound. I am far, far from an expert on this stuff, and everybody's experiences and expectations are different.

So I'll leave you with a few thoughts and invite you to add yours in the comments.

--For the author every part of the publishing process, from writing, to submitting, to the agent hunt, to launching the book, is potentially fraught with angst. The thing about book publicity that makes it perhaps the most angst-provoking is that the process, as the author sees it, is so opaque. Authors try to decode how the publishing house feels about a book from the kind of publicity effort it's given. Sometimes the author feels like she's on the outside looking in, losing control of a piece of work in which she's invested her whole self. The author's editor and publicist and agent are professionals; they know how things work. Authors often don't even know the right questions to ask.

--From a friend's email (reproduced here with permission), taking issue with my first publicity neep post:

All of us on the lower spectrum of publishing work our butts off promoting. And we don't stay out of the way. You stay out of the way, you are forgotten. We email reviews back to the publicity department, we make our own reviewer lists, we organize our own contests, we do all this insanely time-consuming crap, which I completely hate, because we know that no matter how much marketing and publicity loves us, they are working with a tiny budget alloted by a very profit-conscious publisher.

This friend and I disagree about the efficacy of this kind of effort, but as she pointed out in the same email, my own situation is not typical. She is worried: Because your average $5,000 advance newbie authors will read [your post] and expect the works and won't do the promo on their own, and then will suffer for it.

--A counterpoint, from another friend's email:

So I can't decide whether to blog about this or not but one of the saddest things at [a recent] conference was the sight of 30+ authors sitting behind tables and stacks of their books for the mass book signing [...] and no one buying them. All the [authors] in their best clothes, in a hallway far off the main lobby, and you've got your [...] other reputably published authors mixed in with the self-published or micro-published with no way to tell the difference. All of the authors had big smiles and autographing pens and little candies on their tables [...] along with bookmarks, flyers, tchotchkes, etc, all the little marketing trinkets that I find mostly useless. All pert and ready to talk to the readers who never come.

So a question. If the author does her own publicity, and she is an amateur (that is, not a professional publicity person), how does she distinguish herself from the self-published and vanity published authors who probably spend more time selling themselves than working on their writing? How does her effort make a difference to how her book does? How does she reach her readers?

--I think it's important to examine the truisms of book publicity. Like the one about publishing houses not doing enough to promote their books. Maybe not every book is getting a lead title push, but the publicity team might be doing the most they can, in their professional capacity, to push the book into the hands of its "fit audience".

--If the author hates schmoozing and giving away tchotchkes and spending her own money on publicity, then wouldn't her time be better spent writing? A very highly respected author I know via a listserv, who has also been an agency professional, says that the best thing an author can do for her career is not publicity, but writing the next book.

--That said, every author might augment her publicity team's push as much as she feels is right for her. In the comments to the first neep post, other authors pointed out that they do only what they feel comfortable doing. So maybe that's the answer. If the author feels comfortable handing out bookmarks and stopping to sign stock at every bookstore she encounters, then maybe that's what she should do. If she likes going to conventions and setting up readings, then maybe she should. Will these things make a difference to her career? I have no idea. I guess the trick is finding the right balance.

Seroiusly, I hope you'll add your thoughts on this.