Authors Must Bounce Back From Being Screwed Over

There are bad apples in every industry and family. We try to avoid them, but sometimes they get the best of us by giving us their worst.

Unless you plan on a life of celibacy, you will date, move-in together, and break up or divorce until you find someone who can fulfill enough of your wants and needs — while not paying too heavy of a price for it. In other words, you may get lucky and land the person of your dreams, but more than likely, you will find someone who is good enough. Yes, you will settle, but you will be happy.

You simply won’t give up on finding love because it is just too important to you. Well, marketing your book is the same way. You need to find the right promoter — even if you were already burned by someone you had put your faith into.

What if an early-life experience in dating was with a guy who proved to be a liar, a looza who banged chicks on the side, and then played mind games with you just for having male friends?

Maybe you had relationships that simply disappointed you in other ways, from being bad in bed, to not being able to commit or even be present, to failing to hold down a job, control his temper, or restrict a borderline addiction.

Sound too familiar? Is any of this too close to home? If you are a straight woman, you likely have lived out one or more of these scenarios. But intimacy issues for all sexes and genders exist because human nature and society create the circumstances for them.

And what did you end up doing? Likely, one way or another, the relationship ended. But you did not stop dating or cease to make yourself vulnerable to another. That is what life is — risk and reward. The pursuit of love serves a deep, natural desire. We must quench our thirst to be loved, even desired, and we want to feel the satisfaction of giving love to one who embraces and treasures it.

So, for authors who hired a publicist who:

* Took money and disappeared
* Who got paid but failed to deliver much
* Simply lacked knowledge, contacts, experience, or creativity
* Performed as promised but failed to provide a useful campaign

… you need to put that in the rearview mirror and move forward on hiring a new book promoter. Sure, you will be more cautious and try to learn from your disappointing experience, but you won’t use it as an excuse to be ruled by your bitterness. Don’t play the victim.

Unfortunately, I speak with too many authors who suffer from book marketing PTSD. Some were truly victims of a scammer; others just disappointed by the incompetence or lies that were shown and told to them by their hired gun. Or the author expected too much, and the publicist excelled at underperforming. These unfortunate relationships can scare or even scar an author.

But it cannot be this way. To cave into fear, depression, or anger over a busted relationship — whether in romance or book marketing — will not get you what you want. Life is a landmine of risks and an ocean of rewards. Losses can pile up — broken hearts and trust, time wasted, money misspent, and bitterness fill a huge hole. But your response shall not be to run, avoid, or ignore the parts of you that still need fulfillment. Replace the burdens of the past with hope for the future. Visualize what success can look like for you and start to take steps toward achieving it.

Marketing your book can involve one or more pieces:

* Setting up speaking engagements
* Using social media to target your customer
* Direct marketing to educational/parenting organizations
* Getting news media interviews and coverage
* Applying for book awards
* Beefing up your web site
* Blogging about the book
* Writing articles/op-eds
* Book reviews — paid and free
* Advertising
* Influencers
* Giveaways and discounting

If you are questioning spending any money on
doing promotions, you are asking the wrong question. You will have to invest something in order to get a pay-off beyond what luck and wishful thinking will generate. You need, instead, to choose not between spend vs spend, but to spend on what?

Your delays and indecisions take a toll on you and your book. It is okay if you don’t hire me, though I want to help; but you cannot do a Hamlet here and be crippled by indecision.

You must take action, promote, and persevere. Don’t let a bad relationship or experience — either in romance or book marketing — destroy your future. Move on and forward.

Your book and life deserve it.

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 5,800,000 page views. With 5,500+ 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 2026.

 

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