Can Authors Market Themselves By Omission?

 

“A study once showed that 60 percent of people surveyed admitted lying or stretching that truth within a ten-minute conversation,” writes Roger Flax, PHD, in his book, Forget That!

 

People are not always honest, not always forthcoming with relevant information, and not always stating facts but rather opinions. When you market a book, it is important that you never lie - -but how you disclose of the truth is another matter.

 

Let’s say you believe there are many books that are better than yours. Not only are you not legally required to disclose this, there is no moral imperative from the marketing industry to force you to say such things. In other words, you don’t have to share your views with others.

 

Nor, are you required by law or marketing standards, to share any facts that could persuade your customers not to buy your book. By omission, you can market yourself. Let silence be your ally.

 

Now the hard part – hype. Should you put it out there that your book is great when you believe it is merely good? When you get back a book review, and most of it is mediocre, with one or more criticisms, and just one positive sentence, is it ok to quote just the good part?

 

Look, in a court of law, there are two sides to everything and evidence, witnesses, and records are presented to determine an innocent, or guilty decision. But in the world of book marketing, there is nothing stepping you from presenting a one-sided, bias viewpoint about your book.

 

No one advertises that eight awards rejected their book, but they all will highlight the ones who gave them positive recognition as a finalist or winner.

 

Authors don’t highlight that 50 publishers rejected their book for publication or that dozens of literary agents \declined to represent them. They just promote that they have a published book and stay forward-looking.

 

Some writers may be terrible people, bad parents, tax cheats, drug addicts, racists, and domestic abusers - -but none of that has to be made public by the author. In fact, their private life is something that writers can just ignore unless it gets raised by others.

 

You hopefully take pride in your writing and conduct proper research, editing, and re-writing, but writers can easily slop together a book with unconfirmed content. The burden comes on the public to discern if a book is very good, accurate, or purchased often.

 

So, dear author, don’t take all of this as a license or mission to put out garbage and to market your book using questionable tactics. Instead, open your eyes to the pitfalls of the book world, and take ownership and responsibility for generating quality content and promoting it in a fair and decent way.

 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum 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 5,350,000 page views. With 5,400+ 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 was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

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