An Author’s Litmus Test: Is Your Book Promotable?

Not many books are great or even fairly good. Mediocrity rules.

Further, a book’s sales numbers are often not proportionate to just how good a particular book is.  Not every good book gets discovered.

You may wonder then, why are there several new million books flooding the marketplace every year, if most are just meh and the really good ones lack a means to stick out?

The vast majority of new books, especially the self-published/hybrids, will each sell fewer than 500 books this year.

Why?

It is all about if and how a book is marketed.

No marketing? No sales.

Bad marketing? Few sales.

Good marketing? Even mediocre books have a chance of selling.

Great marketing? If a book is very good and you market it well, that book should find a deserving readership.

So, step one to having a successful book is not to necessarily write a great book, though that helps, but to develop and orchestrate a great book marketing campaign for the book.

Once an initial wave of marketing exposes the book to thousands of targeted readers, some percentage will read the book, and of those, some will spread word-of-mouth exposure for your book. They will tell friends and family, post a review, or share about your book through their social media. 

Authors want to write a great book, but what they really need to focus on is crafting a marketable book — and then marketing the heck out of it. 

Ask yourself these questions: 

* Am I qualified to write my book?

* Do I have an interesting backstory?

* How does my book compare with competing titles within my genre?

* Am I active on social media?

* How am I growing my network of connections and mailing list?

* Do I have a web site? Hoe can it be made better?

* Have I pursued paid professional reviews?

* Did I submit my book to at least a half-dozen book awards?

* Am I setting up speaking engagements with * bookstores, libraries, relevant organizations, and targeted entities?

* What are my strongest news hooks?

* Did I retain a publicist to generate media coverage of my book?

* Do I have a strong, brief elevator pitch?

* Have I identified who my targeted readers are — and where they congregate?

* Do I speak assertively and with confidence?

* Do I have an opportunistic mindset? 

This is your litmus test, the one tool to measure your success potential. Is your book promotable? It has to be!

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." --Vincent van Gogh  

"The more we surrender control, the more fully we connect." --Best-selling author Daniel Coyle, Flourish  

"The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them." --Anton Pavlovich Chekhov  

"People won't like you as a communicator because they understand you; they will like you becuase they feel understood." --Best-Selling Author John C. Maxwell

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 6,750,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 15 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 2026, 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) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). 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, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, 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