Book publicity, Part 2

Having talked a bit about generalities regarding publicity and promotion, I’m going to spend this post getting a little more specific. I’d originally thought that I’d do this series of articles according to the type of book and/or publisher – ebooks vs hardcopy, traditional publishing vs. self-publishing – but there are too many permutations and too much overlap, so instead I’m going with the process. First, though, a warning: the publicity game can be seductive and destructive, and it behooves every writer who finds themselves doing a lot of it to step back occasionally and check to see whether the publicity stuff has become an end in itself and what effect it is having on one’s life and writing.

Next point: regardless of whether you are self-publishing or have a publisher, whether it’s hardcopy or ebooks, actively working on publicity before you have something to publicize is not merely pointless, it’s detrimental. If you haven’t even finished the first draft of the manuscript, the most you should be doing publicity-wise is making occasional notes if you have thought of something to do that you absolutely don’t want to forget, or of things that you could do that are distracting you from getting the manuscript finished. If you work really hard at publicizing your as-yet-unfinished novel, odds are very good that by the time it comes out, your audience will be thinking of it as last year’s book, something not nearly as interesting as the new, fresh stuff that’s coming out now. The only possible exception to this is when the writer is publishing the book in serial form, which is generally done on the web these days, and which has enormous pitfalls that more than balance out the benefits (in my opinion). I’ll deal with that separately, because the process is different.

So: you are writing a novel, and you want to think about publicity. When do you start working at it?

If you seriously want to play the publicity game, you need to have a plan well before the book’s launch date. How you create this plan depends on whether you have a publisher or whether you are doing it all yourself. In either case, you have two distinct areas to look at: pre-publication and post-publication.

The writer who is self-publishing can theoretically start working on a publicity plan at any time, though again, my experience indicates that first novelists, especially, should not get involved in any aspect of publicity until they have a completed manuscript. Once the first draft is done, it depends on the writer’s ability to balance their time between working on the second draft and working on the publicity plan. These are, in essence, two completely different projects that both have to come to fruition at the same time, and the writer needs to be really clear about time commitments so that the planning, the pre-publication publicity, and the last stages of book production all mesh together and come out at the same time.

A writer who has a publisher can certainly start working on a publicity plan while the book is in production – in fact, this can be a reasonably good way to fill the time spent waiting for editorial revisions request, waiting for the copyedit, waiting for the page proofs. The writer should keep in mind, though, that the publisher will very likely also have some ideas, plans, and opinions. Expect to run your publicity plan by your editor and the publisher’s publicist (ask, if they don’t offer) to see what kind of help you can get and what you can do to assist with whatever they may be planning. For first-time writers at traditional publishers, there isn’t going to be a lot on their plan, but there are things you can do that they will be happy to support if it takes minimal effort on their part.

Pre-publication publicity falls into two categories: things that are intended to make your book more available, and things intended to increase reader interest and awareness.

Making the book more available means getting as many copies as possible into as many bookstores, libraries, and other sources as possible so people have an easier time finding it. Obviously, this isn’t something ebook-only writers have to worry much about – put the book up on Amazon, iTunes, B&N, and a couple of other major ebook outlets, and you’re good. With the advent of Amazon, a lot of self-published writers ignore availability even if they’re publishing in hardcopy, as marketing to bookstores at the national level is very hard for an individual to do. This is where traditional publishers put a lot of their effort. For writers who are working with one of them, it’s worth asking their publicist if there is anything you can do to help, but at this level, the answer will usually be “no.”

For writers who are self-publishing in hard copy, and who want to get their book into stores, this is mostly legwork. You go to the phone book, make a list of every physical bookstore in every town you are going to be in between now and when the book comes out, and start making the rounds. Chain bookstores have a buyer who handles books for an entire region (multiple states); if you are lucky, that buyer will be close enough to reach. If not, you can try writing a letter. Persuading the stores to carry your book will be hard, especially if you hope to sell them the books as non-returnable – very few independents and almost no chain stores will gamble on stocking books that they can’t send back if they don’t sell.

That brings us to reader interest and awareness pre-publication publicity. The objective here is to create “buzz” – get people talking about the book – and this kind of publicity applies to ALL books, whether hardcopy or ebook, traditional or self-published.

The most basic pre-publication publicity is reviews. Getting a review of your book involves making an enormous list of all the blogs and publications that might review your book and then sending the reviewers a copy. For hardcopy publication from a traditional publisher, this is usually an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) – a cheap paperback version of the book that hasn’t been proofread or set into its final form. Publishers print up a few hundred of these to send to bookstore buyers and reviewers, and they usually also send the author ten or twenty copies for the author to send to places they’ve missed.

“Places they’ve missed” generally include: the book review section of your local newspaper (if they have one), your college alumni magazine, various review blogs that might be interested but that the publisher might not know or think of, especially if the book has crossover interest. Ask your friends for ideas of logical places that might be interested in reviewing your book. The idea is not to blanket the universe with ARCs – that just irritates everyone – but to think of places that you have a connection to that also review books and that might therefore be interested in reviewing yours.

Blogs and other online venues can usually be sent an ebook version of the novel, even if it is being released first in hardcopy. If you have a list of 300 places you want to send ARCs to, check with your editor and the publicity department at your publisher early – around the time you send in your copy-edited ms. – to make sure that you aren’t duplicating effort and that you can get enough ARCs for all of them. Send the publisher an alphabetized list of names and addresses; you may be able to get them to send out the ARCs for you, which will save you postage and time.

When you are asking someone to do a review, remember that you are asking for a favor; do not try to tell them when to release their review, or demand that it be favorable or that they link their review to your Amazon page. Try to get the ARC or ebook proof copy to the reviewer two to three months in advance of publication, so they have plenty of time to read the book and write their review before publication day.