Do You Conduct A Butterfly Book PR Campaign?

Butterflies can be very beautiful as they gracefully float through the air.  They seem to be peaceful, gentle creatures.  They don’t bite, sting, smell or do harm.  Everyone loves them.  But they have a short life cycle.  The average lifespan is 20 days.

They burst onto the scene, live a fun but brief life, and then disappear.  Is that what your book publicity is like?  Do you make a colorful splash and then just go away?

Movie publicity campaigns are typically like the life of a butterfly – short and sweet.  Movies have a week or two before opening day – another two weeks afterwards – to make an impact. 

Then the buzz around them drops off significantly.

Books, however, have a longer shelf-life and window of opportunity for promotions.  

The butterfly approach does not work well for books.  True, there is a high-priority time to promote that centers around a book’s release date, but the PR campaign begins at least three to four months prior to a book’s publication date and continues for up to three months after that date. 

Depending on the news cycle, the book’s subject matter, and its sales, PR campaigns can stretch out even longer.

A book publicity campaign lasts longer than a fireworks finale.  It’s more of a marathon than a sprint.

However, not all days are equal in the six-month-plus campaign.  The early days are critical, in that they set the pace and tone.  The initial strategy development and story ideas that you come up with will dictate what happens later.  Further, the month prior to release date, and the month after, are the two most active months.  But plenty has to happen, on a daily basis, over a half-year, to successfully promote, market, and sell a book.

Butterflies are really pretty to look at and bring a smile to your face.  But a butterfly campaign for promoting a book will fall short of what’s really needed to put your book on the map.

Don’t Miss These Recent Posts

25 Ways For Authors To Break Through & Establish A Legacy

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-do-authors-break-through.html

Can You Market & Promote Books Like TV’s Dexter?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/do-you-promote-books-like-dexter.html

Evolving As A book Marketer & Publicist

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/are-you-evolving-as-book-marketer.html

Winning The Battle Over Internet Book Piracy

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-battle-against-internet-book-piracy.html

26 Ways To Save Barnes & Noble

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-save-barnes-noble.html

12 Hot Topics For Authors, Bloggers, Journalists

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/hot-topics-for-authors-bloggers.html

The Bestseller That Never Was

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-bestseller-that-never-was.html

Do  You Market Your Books Doggy Style?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/book-marketing-doggy-style.html

Does Your Book Blog Do These 16 Things?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/does-your-blog-do-these-16-things.html

Why Bestseller Cap Doesn’t Deter Authors http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/bestseller-cap-doesnt-stop-authors.html

Will Social Media Save Your Book?  http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-big-is-your-social-media-following.html

Writers Read This: You Are Marketers

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/writers-read-this-you-are-marketers.html

Why Authors – and Publicists & Publishers Need A Therapist

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-authors-need-therapist.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013