DIY Marketing For Authors
This past week I connected via Twitter with publishing and social media consultants Jon Reed and Suzanne Ashley. Their Publishing Talk blog is right up my alley and I recommend it for anyone involved in publishing - authors and publishers alike.
A recent post discusses authors using socia applications to promote their books - a great way to build the author platform we publishers often talk so much about.
Our Facebook Group is now approaching 250 members. Many thanks to everyone who has joined, contributed, posted links, images, and discussions. It’s come as no surprise to me that the most active members of this group are authors. This supports a little theory I’ve had for a while:
Authors are doing more with social media than publishers.
Well, that may be true but it’s not for lack of trying. I suppose sheer numbers might indicate there are more authors in social applications than publishers, but that stands to reason. Many of us are pushing into this space and although it is too slow for my taste. For example, our For Dummies brand is experimenting in Facebook, our Wrox imprint has a Facebook Group and a Twitter Stream. But for now these efforts are currently the work of a few ambitious individuals.
When I worked in publishing houses, the main complaint from authors - rightly or wrongly - was usually to do with marketing. Usually an accusation of a lack of marketing when a book didn’t sell. Which may have been for any number of reasons - possibly including poor marketing, but possibly also including unrealistic sales expectations, and simply publishing in a niche with a small readership, or in an area that was already crowded with competing titles.
Given the volume of titles produced, and finite resources, people and time, publishers must also prioritize. But authors have always had a role to play in marketing their own book, and the more successful ones are proactive about it.
Similar Posts
- My Twitter Alter Ego, and the Question of Brand in Social Applications
- What’s the Use in Twitter? Where is the Value?
- David Berlind on Twitter as a Content Platform
- Why Facebook Advertising is not the Answer
- Book Marketing for Authors: The Author Questionnaire
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Comments
Great post. It emphasizes the point that book promotion, when done right, is truly a join effort between the publishing house and the authors. Each brings something to the table that the other can benefit from. And each has the ability to do things that the other cannot do. We have the ability to work with an account to get books into a promotion - not always so easy for an author to do that. Authors have a unique voice and by speaking in the community, online or otherwise, they bring a certain weight to a discussion that I couldn’t possibily have. The first authors to complain about book promotion are usually the ones who have done nothing themselves, unfortunately. My first question when an author starts to make rumblings is have they filled out their author’s questionniare. If not, what are they waiting for? I need to know about their contacts, and suggestions for promotion. If they have, and we haven’t acted on it, then shame on us. It’s not easy work promoting a book, but if we do it together, and work hard at it, it can pay off for everyone.
Ellen, you are absolutely right. The publishing process should be a partnership where all parties have responsibilities towards and rewards for success.
Very soon I’ll be writing a bit about author platform and the author questionnaire (AQ) you mentioned.
I like reading it.