A Graduation Speech To Authors

 

I recently attended my niece’s college graduation from the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was a cold, drizzly day in Central Park, but the graduation went off a success and her accomplishments as an honor student were celebrated. In listening to all of the speeches, it occurred to me that authors deserve a graduation speech the moment they transition from being a writer with an idea to a published author. 

Allow me to step up to the podium. 

Welcome to the Class of 2025 graduation for authors. Though this is a journey that has just begun, not one that has concluded, the publishing of your book is a great milestone. Now comes your real challenge: to market your books successfully. 

Let me demythologize book marketing for you. First, let me tell you who is advising you here, so that you can determine if I possess the right pedigree. I have learned a few things over the past three decades as a published author, book editor, book publicist, and an acquisitions editor. I have helped thousands of authors to sell more books. I also have written over 5000 posts for my award-winning book marketing blog of 14 years and 4.4 million page views.  

Ok, so none of that means squat.

This is about you — not me.

I feel surrounded by a great enthusiasm and energy here, as published authors gather to celebrate no small feat: the act of taking an idea from its embryonic stage to acting it out over hundreds of pages of text. You brainstormed, researched, wrote, edited, and rewrote until you knew it was time to unleash your creation. You then successfully landed a publisher or found a way to self-publish your work. 

Stand up and hear the roar of applause for your dedication and commitment to your work. Take a bow and feel joy. But after you celebrate, reality will hit and you are sure to ask: “Now what?” 

You know the answer: Market your book. 

You may wonder just how do you do that, without spending a lot of money and time to do so? No need to wonder. I can save you the energy of worrying about this. It just is not possible to get your book discovered without you, the author, driving the book marketing bus. 

Ask yourself these three questions: 

* What could you do to market your book?  Know the possibilities. 

* What can you even do? Know your capabilities. 

* What should you do? Customize and target your priorities to identify what you should do. 

You will experiment, work hard, diversify your approaches, have some successes and likely many more failures. That is okay. Live, learn, and grow. 

You can do this. You must do it! 

It is not rocket-science. You just need a can-do attitude and.to have faith in yourself and your book. 

Ground your expectations in reality but remain optimistic and hopeful. Don’t let the odds of failure become an excuse to live a self-fulfilling prophecy. You must vigilantly promote your book. It may feel like a thankless grind but you can feel rewarded when you see your book is impacting others. 

Don’t let your ego of overconfidence or your fear of insecurity steal your chance to succeed here. Just put yourself out there. Marketing is a numbers game; just put a lot out there.  Don’t wait to be asked; don’t wait for permission — just take the initiative and embrace an opportunistic mindset.  Keep at it and you have a chance to breakthrough even with you having an expected failure rate of over 90 percent.

You will figure out which marketing cocktail works for you, but it could include many of these ingredients: 

* News Media

* Speaking & Events

* Book Awards

* Social Media

* Freebies and bundling with books, services, and products

* Ads

* Website

* Blogging

* Podcasting

* Testimonials

* Content marketing

* Consumer/professional reviews

* Organized bulk sales

* Networking

* Building a mailing list

* Discounting

* Collaborating with a charity

* Attend writer conferences and book fairs

* Sell to book clubs

* Join a writers association 

No doubt you won’t be able to do everything. Some things will be outsourced. You will do the rest. Some things won’t get done — due to time, skill, energy, knowledge, cost. That is ok. Don’t lament on what you can’t do; embrace what you can. Do what is achievable and worthwhile. 

Your budget will be based on:

* Your access to funds/loans/investors

* Projected ROI of your marketing campaign

* Risk vs reward analytics

* Your goals 

* Tolerance for risks

* If book is a loss leader for something else

* If this is a legacy or passion project 

Along the way, you will reach out for help. Be ready and willing to: 

* Pay for help

* Beg for it

* Trade favors

* Buy reviews, awards, and swag

* Give books away

* Lean on another’s guilt, fear, or ego to get what you want 

Whatever you choose to do — and however it gets done — know that you are on the precipice of being discovered once you take the momentous step to transition from being a writer to a writer-marketer. Today is your graduation moment, a time to reflect on what got you here, and a moment to plot an exciting new course. 

Take ownership of your book marketing. No one else will. Take your optimism and back it with hard work and a commitment to succeed. 

Do not overthink and do not delay or replace taking action with research and analysis. Execute a marketing task over worrying about doing it. 

Above all, have fun and remind yourself of why you wrote this book and use that to drive your marketing efforts. You have a purpose: to write books that entertain, inform, inspire, enlighten, or empower people. And you have a need, no, an obligation to market your books so that they see the light of day and benefit us all.  

Congratulations to our author graduates of 2025!

 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your 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!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 4.4 million pageviews. With 5,300+ posts over the past 14 years, 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 www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity 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, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

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. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum