Many
authors and publishers operate under misconceptions, myths, miscalculations,
and taboos when it comes to book marketing and book publicity. Their unfounded fears, factual errors,
misguided beliefs, and incomplete observations cause them to make wrongful
choices and conclusions when it comes to executing a solid book publicity
campaign or book marketing plan. Here are the eight biggest mistakes you need to
avoid – otherwise you’ll be infected with book marketing Zika.
Where
do people get these wrong notions about book publicity?
Often
it’s the blind leading the blind. Someone tells someone some advice that they
heard or read about but never tested themselves. Social media is good at spreading bad
information – fast and far.
In
other cases the right advice is applied incorrectly or incompletely, like a
medicine taken with an ingredient missing.
It just won’t work.
The
biggest reason people operate under outdated or incorrect assumptions is that
someone’s bad experience becomes everyone’s fear. All of a sudden people don’t
trust in what they really need to do.
Lastly,
the reason why so many authors and publishers operate under false knowledge is
they don’t always bother to test the theories they operate under. They
willfully believe something should or shouldn’t work just because they once
heard it eight years ago. Invest in reading reliable books, blogs, and
magazines on this subject and always question who your source of information
is.
Please do not operate under these 8
wrongful approaches, beliefs, or theories:
1.
Books can be
promoted all year – they don’t have an expiration date. There’s a window
of time to promote your book. It is
basically for the first three months that a book is out that one can garner
media exposure for it. The time to begin
serving media could begin four months prior to your official release date. This is when you send galleys to long-lead
media and major book reviewers. But the
shelf-life of a media campaign is shorter than the life of a book. Evergreen topics, fiction, or poetry may be
relevant a year from now, but generally major media will give you a look only
in that narrow window of time when your book is new. Don’t waste time or money trying to promote
an old book - and don’t think you can promote your book when it’s convenient
for you. You’re on the clock.
2.
Thinking you will
sell some books before you start paying to promote it. It’s the other way around. You pay to
promote your books so it will sell.
Otherwise, you’re in a Catch-22 situation by chasing sales without an
ability to generate them and by not having the money to do publicity, you’ll
squander your chance to promote the book when it’s new.
3.
Being overconfident that your book will do well once people learn about it. But how will
people learn about it unless you promote it?
Though exposure for your book should lead to sales, there’s no guarantee
that everyone who hears of your book believes they need to buy it. Don’t let your ego make you lazy.
4.
Trying something
and running away when you don’t see immediate results. You can’t test the PR waters and then
cease promotion when things don’t go as expected. Try new pitches and approaches. Experiment
and find what works and ride it hard until it no longer produces.
5.
Letting fear or
insecurity drive your PR. You have to check your emotional discomfort at the
door. PR efforts can lead to rejection and feelings of dejection. You’ll get turned down more than 90% of the
time when you seek out media coverage.
Play for the wins and don’t get discouraged by those who turn you
down. Don’t put too much pressure on
yourself. Don’t fear rejection and don’t let it define you at all.
6.
Thinking money
alone can cure your book sales problem. I certainly advocate for authors and
publishers to invest in their books and budget for marketing and PR campaigns,
but it must be done wisely. You can’t blow your budget on ads nor can you just
pay your way into automatic media coverage.
Even when you hire others to help, vet them properly, focus their
efforts, and complement the things they can’t get to or weren’t hired to do.
It’s a team effort to launch a book. You
can’t just hand over everything to one person.
7.
Believing you can
Tweet and Facebook your way to riches. You may find that
social media helps grow your brand and sell some books but you need to be aware
that it takes a lot of time, effort, creativity and street savvy to create and
push content and to build up meaningful connections. Build your platform before the train pulls in, meaning start now, way in advance of your book’s publication.
8.
Not understanding
how media works but just thinking the news media should cover you. The media is not a
single entity. Every media outlet and all of its staff members have unique
needs, pressures, and deadlines. To secure media coverage it takes a timely,
intelligent, customized and targeted effort. Persistence pays off just as much
as having good connections. Do not think
that you are alone in feeling justified to get media coverage. Every day thousands of other worthy writers,
musicians, artists, actors, experts, professionals, celebrities, athletes,
politicians, companies, non-profits, government agencies, and others also have
a good, unique, powerful message for the media. You’ll need to work hard to get
your message heard.
Maybe
the biggest mistake one can make is not believing they are worthy of media
coverage or that they feel uncomfortable asking for others to talk about their
book. By doing nothing you almost assure
yourself that nothing will happen. Go out and stir a word-of-mouth buzz and
give it your all, but be mindful of the eight pitfalls named above.
You
can get publicity and book sales – but be prepared to work long hours, pay for
help, and to push your creative juices to their capacity. Good luck.
To learn more on how to promote books, read my greatest blog posts from the past five years and 2,000 posts:
2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit
2015 Book Marketing & PR Toolkit
2014 Book Marketing & PR Toolkit
Book Marketing & Book PR Toolkit: 2013
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