Does Lying Pay-Off For Authors?

 

“You can hype, distract, and obfuscate — but don’t lie to the news media.”

This is the advice  I have given to thousands of self-promoting authors and to the hundreds of book publicists that I have trained or advised over the years.

In the world of book publicity, lies are told all of the time. This is the ugly, lazy, and stupid approach. Any moron can lie — about anything to anyone. That doesn’t require skill or smarts — and it will only come back to bite you in the butt.

The minute you blatantly lie, and not merely be silent about the truth, is the moment you have dug your own grave. It may not hurt you as the words pierce your lips but rest assured, each lie unleashes a virus that eventually makes its way back to you, snowballing in its virulence.

It may seem hard to believe that liars pay any price at all, given how much lying takes place. But the more one lies, the bigger the lies get, and the chances increase you will get caught.

Look at newly-elected Congressman George Santos. His lies about everything got him voted into one of the most powerful offices in the world. He almost got away with it — and it took years to catch up to him — but he will soon face criminal charges.

Santos lied about:

* Where he went to high school
* Graduating college
* Where he worked
* His sexual orientation
* Campaign expenses
* His mother’s 9/11 death
* Being Jewish and having relatives in the Holocaust

Apparently, he also ran from criminal charges in Brazil.

Ok, that was just the first half of his resume. Has anyone fingerprinted this loser?

However scandalous his lies may seem now, sadly, he got away with them for quite a while. Somehow, with two congressional runs (he lost in 2020), the RNC did not vet their own, the DNC opposition research was a fail, the news media fell asleep at the wheel, and non-profits that monitor the government failed to do anything.

But, eventually the lies caught up to him. And that is my point. When you promote your book and your brand, do not take the easy way out and use your writer’s imagination to craft wholesale lies to better yourself.

Book publicity, as a trade, offers many tools to dazzle, wow, and excite others into thinking a pile of fecal matter is art, a dull book a best-seller, and a drug addict a self-help guru. No lies are needed — just some creativity, wit, and lots of confidence can do the trick.

There is a fine line between bullshitting and lying. Don’t cross it. 

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.