Making Choices When It Comes To Book Publicity

In life we have to make many choices.  In fact, we make choices even when we don’t think we’re choosing something over another.  Every action and inaction expresses a choice and a different set of consequences and results.  Sometimes we have to choose between two bad choices, but we seek out the lesser of two evils.

I think for those marketing and promoting a book, choices have to be made over limited resources, a lack of skills, and diminished desire.  Many authors simply are uncomfortable wearing the hat of promoter.  Writer, yes.  Publisher, maybe.  Marketer? Not so fast.

But they know it’s promote or perish, so they reluctantly try to push their book to the media and the consumer.  Many don’t have a lot of funds to hire help.  Others think they can do it on their own but find learning on the job can be costly.

Promoting a book takes time, planning, and help.  Whether an author’s excited but not knowledgeable and capable enough to promote his book, or an author has the resources and ability to promote but just has no drive to do so, there are pitfalls in the author marketing sector.

So how do we get authors to make smarter decisions early enough in the process to make a difference?

Maybe they should play ZOBMONDO’s You Gotta Be Kidding! card game.  Each card poses four questions asking if you would rather do choice one or two – and neither choice is pretty. 

“Would you rather jump into a pool of non-poisonous snakes or one with a million flies?”  Get the idea?

But the game shows you how to choose, even when your first choice is to opt out altogether.  Authors need to come to grips early on in their writing career that they will need to be actively involved in their book publicity.  Even if they rely on a hired gun or have the luxury of a publisher to help, the author still should actively promote and market his or her book.

Why?

Because so much needs to get done.  If a publisher actually helps on PR, it likely does a certain amount for a limited time and then moves on to another title.  This means you need to supplement what they didn’t do.

So start making the tough choices and realize doing nothing, though a choice, is not really an option. 

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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