Publicity is FREE: 15 Commandments for Getting in on the Ride

Publicity is FREE: 15 Commandments for Getting In on the Ride

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

A huge retailer once said that advertising works, we just don’t know how, why, or where it works best.

What we do know is that advertising’s less mysterious cousin, publicity, works even better. It is the more reliable relative because it is judged on its merit alone and carries the cachet of an editor’s approval. It also is surrounded by the ever-magic word “free.” The two are easily identified as kin.

These two often walk hand-in-hand and yet they can be incompatible. The editors of good media outlets will not allow the advertising department to influence them. Still, in an effort to be completely impartial they reserve the right to use advertiser’s stories editorially if they deem them newsworthy. That is why it is helpful to use advertising in a vehicle that plays to the audience you would like to see standing in line for your book. This paid-for exposure then becomes an entrée to the decision-makers. A contact in the advertising department may be willing to put a news release on the desk of one of his editors, maybe even encourage her to look at it. There are no contracts, but it does sometimes work. If you’re going to try this route, choose a “little pond”, a bookish brochure or an “arty” weekly so that the dollars you spend will be noticed.

Sometimes a magazine or newspaper will run a special promotion called advertorial. These are sections where you pay for an ad and then the newspaper assigns a reporter to cover the story you want told. The article carries some of the prestige of editorial copy—that is the general reader may assume the article has been chosen only on its merits because of its copycat character. The writer or editor you meet will can be approached when your have something exceptional.

Still, advertorial isn’t exactly FREE. If FREE sounds more like the fare that will serve your needs, carve out some time to do it yourself and follow these 15 commandments:

Educate yourself: Study other press releases. Read a book like Publicity Advice & How-To Handbook, by UCLA Marketing Instructor, Rolf Gompertz, a SPAN member. Order it by calling 818-980-3576. Join publicity oriented e-groups.

Read, read, read: Your newspaper. Your e-zines. Even your junk mail, a wonderful newsletter put out by the Small Publishers of North America (www.spannet.org) and one called The Publicity Hound (www.publicityhound.com.) My daughter found a flier from the local library in the Sunday paper stuffed between grocery coupons. It mentioned a display done by a local merchant in the library window. My second book, HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED, became a super model in their lobby and I became a seminar speaker for their author series. Rubbish (and that includes SPAM) can be the goose that laid the golden egg.

Keep an open mind for promotion ideas: Look at the different themes in your book. There are angles there you can exploit when you’re talking to editors. My first book, THIS IS THE PLACE is sort of romantic (a romance website will like it) but it is also set in Salt Lake City, the site where the winter games were played in 2002 and, though that’s a reach, I found sports desks and feature editors open to it as Olympics © fervor grew and even as it waned because they were desperate for material as the zeal for the games wound down.

Cull contacts: Develop your Rolodex by adding quality recipients from media directories. The website http://www.gebbieinc.com/ has an All-in-One Directory that gives links to others such as Editor, Publisher Year Book, and Burrell’s. Some partial directories on the web are free and so are your yellow pages. Ask for help from your librarian—a good research librarian is like a shark; she’ll keep biting until she’s got exactly what she wants.

Etiquette counts: Send thank-you notes to contacts after they’ve featured you or your book. This happens so rarely they are sure to be impressed and to pay attention to the next idea you have, even if it’s just a listing in a calendar for your next book signing.

Partner with your publicist and publisher: Ask for help from their promotion department—even if it’s just for a sample press release.

Publicize who you are, what you do: Reviews aren’t the only way to go. E-books are important promotion tools and Twitter is big news right now (find me at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo). Katy Walls, author of “The Last Step,” coordinated an “anthology” of recipes from authors who mention food in their books (yes, some my family’s ancient recipes from polygamist times are in it). It is a free e-book, a promotional CD, and great fodder for the local newspapers. If you’d like a copy, e-mail me at HoJoNews@aol.com. Use it as a cookbook and as a sample for your own e-book promotion.

Think of angles for human interest stories, not only about your book but about you as its author. Are you very young? Is writing a book a new endeavor for you? Several editors have liked the idea that I wrote my first book at an age when most are thinking of retiring, that I think of myself as an example of the fact that it is never too late to follow a dream.

Develop new activities to publicize: Don’t do just book signings. Use your imagination for a spectacular launch. Start an award. I give the Noble (Not Nobel!) for literary work each January at www.MyShelf.com. Get charities involved. Think in terms of ways to help your community.

Send professional photos with your release: Request guidelines from your target media. Local editors won’t mind if you send homey Kodak moment--properly labeled--along with your release. Some will use it; it may pique the interest of others and they’ll send out their own photographers. It’s best, however, to send only professional photos to the big guys.

Frequency is important: The editor who ignores your first release may pay more attention to your second or twenty-fifth. She will come to view you as a source and call you when she needs to quote an expert. This can work for novels as well as nonfiction. I received a nice referral in my local newspaper because I am now an “expert” on prejudice, even though my book is a novel and not a how-to or self-help piece.

Follow Up: Shel Horowitz, author of Marketing Without Megabucks (http://www.frugalfun.com), reports that follow-up calls boost the chances of a press release being published. Voice contact builds relationships better than any other means of communication.

Keep clippings: Professional publicists like Debra Gold of Gold & Company do this for their clients; you do it so you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t.

Evaluate: One year after your first release, add up the column inches. Measure the number of inches any paper gave you free including headlines and pictures. If the piece is three columns wide and each column of your story is six inches long, that is 18 column inches. How much does that newspaper charge per inch for their ads? Multiply the column inches by that rate to know what the piece is worth in advertising dollars. Now add 20% for the additional trust the reader puts in editorial material.

Set goals: You now have a total of what your year’s efforts have reaped. New publicist-authors should set a goal to increase that amount by 100% in the next year. If you already have a track record, aim for 20%.

Observe progress: Publicity is like planting bulbs. It proliferates even when you aren’t trying very hard. By watching for unintended results, you learn how to make them happen in the future.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON’T (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo ). For a little over 2 cents a day THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER assures your book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty gritty how-to's for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. She is a former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program.. Learn more about the author at http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or http://HowToDoItFrugally.com

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The 10 Terrible Truths of Book Marketing

During the time I have worked in the publishing industry, I have heard a lot of different ideas and statements about how to market books. Some of them are pretty good. Others might seem like a good idea to someone new to the industry, but in actuality they don't work at all. Those are the ideas I'm going to address in this post, but only because they come up so often. I probably hear these ideas or comments on a weekly basis. So, here they are, in no particular order: The 10 Terrible Truths of Book Marketing, along with the marketing requests or comments which generally accompany them.

1. My book will sell itself. No book sells itself. Selling books happens to be a lot of work, but it can also be a lot of fun. But no, books do not sell themselves. If they did, I wouldn't have a job.

2. Celebrities will help me sell my book. I have had requests to send review copies to President Obama, Joel Osteen, Sean Hannity and Larry the Cable Guy, among other celebrities. I'm not sure what authors think these people are going to do with their books, and I think President Obama has his hands full without taking on a book marketing project (other than his own book). Besides, most celebrities are more concerned with selling THEIR books than that of another author.

3. I'm an author, not a book salesman (or salesperson). Well, of course you're an author first, but along with that title comes a certain responsibility to help promote and sell your book. For some authors, this means doing book tours and making media appearances. For others, it means speaking to Rotary Clubs and eating rubber chicken dinners at speaking engagements. But make no mistake, authors must be involved in promoting their book, or it will collect dust on the shelf.

4. (From children's book authors) Let's sell my books through Scholastic Book Fairs. They sell a lot of books. Yes, Scholastic Book Fairs do sell lots of children's books...millions of dollars worth each year, in fact.  But, if you and your book aren't known and already have some kind of track record of sales, your book is less likely to be picked up by Scholastic. 

5. If I could just get on Oprah (or some other national TV show) my book will be a bestseller. I have worked with authors who have been on numerous national TV shows. There is no denying it is fantastic exposure, and it's the kind of exposure I work toward for my authors every day. However, making one appearance on a TV show does not guarantee bestseller status.

6. If we buy an ad on (Facebook, YouTube, Drudge Report or some other web site) my book will sell thousands of copies. Millions of people use these sites. It is true that these are high-traffic sites, attracting millions and millions of users. But hits on a web site don't necessarily transfer into sales. Think about it: when is the last time you purchased something as a result of seeing an ad for it on one of these sites? If you're like most people, the answer is probably "never." If you do sell a few copies, it is unlikely you would make back the amount of money spent on the ad. Even after I tell people this, they still insist on spending the money, only to later call and tell me they shouldn't have done it.

7. I'm just going to set up a web site and sell all of my books online. Having a web site should certainly be a part of any author's marketing strategy, but it's only one part of an overall strategy. Authors should also use other social media sites, do book signing events, niche marketing, media appearances, etc. One web site alone won't help an author sell a lot of books.

8. My book appeals to everybody. Unfortunately, no book appeals to everybody. Take a look at the New York Times bestsellers list. I'll bet there are books on that list you have no interest in reading. This is why it is crucial to specifically target your book's niche market.

9. Once my book is released, I'll be able to quit my day job and work at writing full time. This is every author's dream, but unfortunately few writers are able to make a full time living from doing nothing but writing. Many of them have day jobs, teach writing courses, teach book marketing courses, take freelance writing jobs, write for newspapers or magazines, etc. Most authors make $1-$2 in royalties for every book that is sold. If they received an advance, they don't receive those royalties until the publishing company sells enough books to recoup the advance. In those cases, it could take years for an author to see their first actual royalty check, if they get one at all. If a book isn't a success, the advance may be the only cash an author receives for their book. If authors can't purchase books from their publisher at a steep discount for resale, they may be waiting a long time to see any real money from their book.

10. If my publisher believed in my book, they would spend a lot of money to market it. The fact is, your publisher has already taken a chance on your book by agreeing to publish it. They have already paid for editing, layout, cover design, printing, distribution, shipping, and marketing. However, not every title gets a big ad budget. In fact, few books get ad budgets, period. These are usually reserved for authors who already have a reputation for producing books that sell. These are authors who have a platform, a fan base that wants to read the books that they write. Now more than ever, publishers are depending upon authors to deliver the fans that will buy their books.

In most of these instances, there is a belief or a misconception that if the author or publisher "just did this ONE thing, the book would REALLY take off!" What I'm trying to convey with this list is there is no magic bullet when it comes to book sales. There is no "one thing" that will deliver the sales the author wants. It takes a lot of things: hard work, persistence, patience, and of course, writing great books, to achieve success in the publishing industry. So tell everyone about your book, consistently promote it, work hard, don't give up, and great things CAN happen!

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Interview with NYT bestselling author Suzy Spencer

1. How much help did your publisher give you in the marketing of your book?

I’ve had four books published. Of those four, I’ve had little marketing support from my publishers. Now let me clarify. When I say “marketing,” I’m referring specifically to public relations. I’m not referring to sales and distribution support. I’ve never been allowed any contact with the sales teams, though I understand some publishers encourage such. In fact, I’m friends with a sales representative for a major publishing house and she has advised me to always get to know and befriend my sales reps. When the sales reps love your books and you, they’ll fight to get your work into the stores, get you solid display space, and psych up the bookstore staff so that they recommend your book to the buying public.

Having said that, sales reps are going the way of landline telephones. Maybe landline telephones is the wrong metaphor to use since sales reps – those human beings who travel, from state to state, from bookstore to bookstore, to make face-to-face sales pitches to bookstore management – are being replaced by telemarketers. To foresee how well that is going to work, just think about how you react to telemarketers.

As for public relations support, for my first book Wasted, which became a New York Times bestseller, I believe my publisher sent out a few review copies. By that I mean I provided names and addresses of friends in the media and my publisher mailed them copies of the book and, from what I understand, a note that said here’s a book by Suzy Spencer. There was no publicity packet included. No sales pitch of what the book was about or why they would be interested in it.

With my second book, my publisher decided it was too expensive to send out review copies, so I was provided an extra box of books, which I was supposed to mail to my media contacts.

I switched publishing houses for my third and fourth books. That publisher did provide a bit of publicity support. But for the purposes of this interview, I’m going to stick to the details of marketing and publicity for Wasted, i.e. the experiences of a first time author who fluked into becoming a New York Times best-selling author.

2. Did you hire a publicist, or did you work on marketing and promotion on your own? If you hired a publicist, what types of things did they do for you?

My answer is all of the above. Initially, I did everything myself. As time passed and I was out of ideas and contacts, I hired two different publicists. Each pursued only radio shows. I believe one publicist charged per booking, meaning if she got me on a show, I paid her a fee. If she didn’t get me on a show, I paid her nothing. She got me on numerous radio shows, mostly high-wattage stations in rural areas, in daylight hours.

I believe the other publicist charged a flat fee with a minimum number of bookings guaranteed. He booked me into larger markets but in the middle of the night, AM hours. One radio host sent me a copy of that publicist’s Suzy Spencer “PR packet.” It consisted of a copy of my book and a note scribbled in black Sharpie on white paper that said Suzy Spencer is available for interview – no explanation of why the radio station might be interested in interviewing me. At least my publisher had included a neatly typed note.

I never used that publicist again. In fact, I never hired another publicist.

3. What types of marketing activities did you handle on your own?

I sent out postcards announcing the publication and availability of the book, including its ISBN number. I sent those cards to friends, acquaintances, and even strangers, though I might have a tenuous relationship to them, and often added a handwritten note. I forced my family to do the same.

I set up book signings. I sent out postcards promoting the signings – again, to friends, acquaintances, and strangers to whom I had tenuous ties. I repeatedly contacted newspapers and radio and television stations regarding the signings and begged for interviews. I brought extra books when I felt bookstores hadn’t ordered enough product for a signing. And believe me, that happened often.

I created a press kit, which included a press release, biography, headshot, and eventually press clippings. I sent those to newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, and alumni publications. I constantly monitored the media to see if there was a news event that related to my book topic. If there was, I immediately contacted radio stations explaining how my book related to the event, what I could offer their radio show, and that I was available for interviews.

I probably need to stress that even when seeking publicity for my book signings, I didn’t simply say here’s my book, I’m available for an interview. I always provided a reason as to why they should want to interview me. I provided them with a story angle. I told them why their listeners, viewers, and/or readers would be interested in what I had to say and/or how it related to their audience.

I also set up talks with writers’ organizations, book clubs, high schools, and anything else I could think of. And I ran ads in Radio-TV Interview Report, a publication monitored by radio and TV producers as they look for topics and guests for their shows.

4. Which marketing activities have been the most helpful in selling your book?

With that first book, initially, I think the postcards helped most. Current friends wanted to support me, so they bought the book. Friends from the past were curious about what I was up to, so they bought the book. I believe my friends all over the nation are the ones who pushed the book onto the New York Times bestseller list.

After that, a book review appeared and proclaimed that Wasted had been banned in the oldest town in Texas. I jumped on that. Whereas my publisher had insisted x is your sole market. I insisted that x, y, and z were my markets. I sent a press release announcing the ban, along with copies of the review, to media that targeted those y and z markets. They jumped on the story and gave me coast-to-coast publicity. I then used those stories to get more publicity.

Finally, I think the radio interviews helped. I’d check my Amazon sales ranking before an interview, during it, and afterwards, and I could see the positive results.

One note: I inundated my publisher with my press clippings, which I believe kept them excited about the book. That meant their sales reps worked harder to keep the book on store shelves rather than letting it die a natural six-week to six-month death.

5. Which marketing activities have not worked for you at all?

This is kind of a tough question because what works for one book might not work for another and what works for a first book might not be right for a fourth book. Or what works for my book might not work for someone else’s book. For example, I’ve had friends who got scores, if not more than 100, radio bookings from Radio-TV Interview Report. For me, that was a waste of money.

Though I insinuate that I was disappointed with the publicists I hired, as I mentioned before, I could track improved Amazon sales after doing a radio show they booked for me.

And while I rarely do bookstore signings anymore because I lose money on them due to the travel expense, I found them highly beneficial for the beginning of my career. They introduced me to bookstore staffers and readers who never would have looked at my book. That meant that they talked about it and recommended it. The signings also got me at least a week’s worth of great in-store display and promotion, when, normally, one or two copies of my books would have been relegated to a bottom shelf. And they allowed me to get radio, TV, and newspaper coverage that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Believe me, it’s a great thing when you’re sitting in a bookstore and a TV crew comes in to interview you. Customers start flocking over in curiosity and start buying.

6. What was the biggest misconception you had before you started promoting your work?

I’m not sure I had a lot of misconceptions. I know I didn’t expect the publisher to help me much on PR. And I knew that they only give a book a few weeks to succeed before moving on to the next book. But I guess I did expect them to put out a decent press release and send review copies to more than a few outlets. After all, I spent hours filling out their marketing questionnaire, i.e. my background, marketing angles, people and media outlets I knew that might promote my book and why they might promote it, etc..

No, my biggest misconception was their myopic view that only they know what works marketing-wise. I have a Masters of Business Administration degree in marketing and I live in Middle America. So I guess I had a fantasy that they’d respect my expertise and what I know about the market in which I live. But, no, they didn’t. And they don’t. They say, we’ve been doing this for years, we know who your market is, we know what works and what doesn’t, and you don’t.

But my theory is that what may have worked 20 years ago isn’t working today. The proof of that is the decreasing sales and profits experienced by the major publishing houses. So the other half of my theory is don’t say anything when they tell you don’t know who your market is and don’t say anything when they tell you your marketing ideas are wrong. Just go implement them on your own. If you don’t succeed, at least you know you gave it your all. And if you do succeed, well, your publishing house might take all the credit, but who cares … because you’ve got a bestseller.

7. How vital is social media such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to your marketing?

My books have all come out prior to the mass popularity of social media. However, since 2004, when I started work on my next book, which should be out in 2011, I have been prepping my marketing plan. I have a list of blogs that I want to hit up for PR. I have my own blog on writing that I’m trying to grow. And I have a smaller blog that primarily deals with the topic of my next book. Eventually, the two blogs with be integrated.

I have my Facebook account and really try to work it. I have my Twitter account, though, admittedly, I don’t “get” Twitter. I have my YouTube account and am prepping videos for it. And I have my BlogTalkRadio account, for when I need that.

Though I don’t know if Twitter and Facebook will be as important five years from now as they are today – after all, look how myspace has almost disappeared for anyone other than musicians – I do think social media is imperative to follow and utilize. For example, I have Facebook friends all over the U.S., England, Turkey or Greece (I forget which), and the Philippines. Previously, if I wanted to hit those markets, I had to be on CNN. And believe me, I find national and international TV to still be my best promoter. But those aren’t always available to first time authors. But Facebook is. In a matter of seconds, you can post a few lines there and have people all over the world reading about your book. And that’s a heck of lot cheaper than sending out postcards.

8. How vital is niche marketing to promoting your work? How do you identify and reach out to your book’s niche audiences?

I’m known as a true crime author. That’s my niche – my x target market that my first publisher insisted was my sole market. My publisher further insisted that a great book cover and great photographs inside the book is enough to market to my niche. So I left that to my publisher and worried about the y and z general markets.

My next book is not true crime, and I think my publisher sees its target market as the general public. I see it building in the niche world and expanding to the general public. As such, I used the Internet to research the leaders within that niche, contacted them, and became friends with them. They introduced me to other leaders, as well as participants, which eventually created a huge email list. I then used MySpace and now Facebook to further develop that list.

In other words, I’m networking within my niche – I meet one person who introduces me to three others, and those three others introduce me to nine others.

As I get closer to publication, I will utilize this email list to create buzz for the book and then sales.

9. Other than sales, what benefits have you experienced as the result of becoming a “bestselling” author?

It gives you credibility.

10. What advice do you have for new authors when it comes to marketing and promoting their books?

Step 1: From day one, start creating your marketing plan. That means making a list of possible PR outlets. And it means getting out there and schmoozing and making friends. The greatest thing I ever did for my career was joining and volunteering for the Writers’ League of Texas. I worked on publicity for one of their fundraisers. That gave me an introduction to people in the media. Eventually, those people gave my book PR support.

Step 2: Don’t necessarily confess this PR obsession and game plan to your agent and editor. There’s a time to mention it, and it’s not when you’re writing the book. If you do, they’ll think you’re sacrificing your writing for PR. So wait until the book is done. If they then give your ideas a dismissive wave of the hand, let ‘em … then go do your own marketing plan. They’ll appreciate it when the sales get tallied.

Step 3: When everyone tells you stop with the PR, keep going with it. You’ll extend the life of the book and wring out additional sales. Think persistence, persistence, persistence. Be persistent, persistent, persistent.

About the author:

ABC’s Primetime Live has referred to Suzy Spencer as Austin, Texas’ best-known true crime writer. She is the author of Breaking Point, the story of Andrea Yates, a Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection; Wasted, a New York Times bestseller and Violet Crown Book Award finalist; The Fortune Hunter (St. Martin's True Crime Library), which was called “riveting” and “blockbuster” by the Globe; and Wages Of Sin
.

She has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC World News, Primetime, Dateline NBC, and numerous shows on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, Oxygen, and the E! Channel.

Spencer holds a Masters of Professional Writing and a Masters of Business Administration, both from the University of Southern California.

Currently, she is writing a book about Americans’ alternative sex lives, which will be a lead trade paperback for Berkley Books.

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