Is Your Book Marketing An Expense Or Investment?

 

 

To market your book, you will need to put in a certain amount of time, mindshare, and money into it. Is this an expense or an investment? What is the difference?

When you take $7500 and put it into a CD and earn four percent interest for a year, you are guaranteed to make money — $300 to be exact. One would say you invested your money.

If you take $7500 and put it into amazon stock and within a year it goes up 10%, you make $750, more then double the guaranteed return of a CD. That was an investment with risk.

If you take $7500 and bet on a craps table, that is gambling, an investment with greater immediate risk and reward potential.

But in all cases, the outlay was an expense in the sense that you don’t have access to that money, as if you never had it. Each type of investment has varying degrees of profitability potential and several has loss possibilities.

Well, putting money into book marketing is the same thing. It is initially an expense, but it has the potential to turn a profit or provide a non-monetary payoff of some value. Book marketing is somewhere between having a hobby and running a business.

Yes, I don’t mean to play word games, and yes, by no means do all publicity campaigns bring one riches, but, the assumption that there is a cost and no return hampers authors.

Like with anything, we invest with no guarantees. We invest in our children and not all turn out like we hoped. We invest in a spouse and half of us get divorced. We invest in stocks and some go south. But, we do so because we believe in these things and try to do something to better our lives.

Guaranteed: no investment, no return, and if you don’t get more of what you want, you lost something. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can’t put money under your mattress and expect to be better off tomorrow.

You, in my view, should be open to book marketing, and instead of fearing or dismissing it, embrace it. The only question should be: What should you do specifically, not on whether to do anything at all. Also, who you choose to work with is the issue, not whether to work with someone.

So, take the initial expense on book marketing and turn it into a worthwhile investment.

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 5,400,000 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