Questions: on publicity

I start to answer questions below. Please add to the list at the original Questions post here. And away we go!

Jessica Burkhart asks:

I’m curious about what level of promotion you did for SSG. With a four-book series, did you hire a publicist or handle everything yourself with the help of your publisher? I’m trying to figure out the best approach for me, so I’d love to hear what worked (or what didn’t) for you. 🙂

Level Seven. Sorry, Buffy the Vampire Slayer moment. 🙂

It’s worthwhile to keep in mind that SSG was not a four book series until a few months ago, when I sold the second two books. I think it’s great to sell the series (and my publisher has been doing an excellent job of that with the connected covers and the excerpts for each subsequent book in the back of the previous), but when I was promoting my first book, that’s what I was doing. Promoting a book. There was only one. Now that there are two, I promote two. When there are three, well, you get the idea.

I did not hire an independent publicist. I considered it, and I even talked to a couple of them. The (very) few who deigned to return my phone calls quoted me outlandish prices. The kind that would pay my living expenses for a year. That was obviously out. I spoke to a couple of writer friends who had hired (cheaper and not so much cheaper) independent publicists and though I got both good reviews and bad, in the end I decided it wasn’t for me. You’re going to have to talk to others about it.

Luckily, I have one of the best publicists in the business right at my own publisher, and she’s been great in helping me develop and implement my book promotion plan, not to mention arranging lots of great opportunities for me. But there’s not much I can speak to there because not only does every single publishing house handle this differently, but every single publishing house handles this differently with every single book. At some houses or with some books, an editor might handle certain aspects, or a publicist, or a marketing department, or the author herself. It all depends.

What works? It depends what you mean by “work.” You’re more likely to get reviews if you send out ARCs, quotes if you ask for them, etc. But if by “works” you mean “works to bring in readers…” then I don’t have a clue. The only thing I can think of that I know “works” is distribution and co-op. People are more likely to buy a book if they see it. So what all those other things, articles and appearances and etc. are designed to do, in my opinion, is to make the book more visible.

But you can make yourself crazy trying to do everything out there that you can do, or spend all your money on the different ways to promote your book, or spend all your time promoting, and none of it writing. Not good. Pick what you want to do based on what is easiest, cheapest (or at least most reasonable), and appeals to you — because it plays to your strengths, or you think it’s fun, or you like it from the consumer side.

I designed and made secret society pins because they were such an important plot point in the books and I thought they’d be fun. My publisher loved them too, and actually incorporated them into the paperback covers. My friend Marianne Mancusi made pins because the cover of her book already had a pin on it. But that doesn’t mean I think “pins work.” It wa somethign I liked that tied in well with my novel. To compare, Marianne is a big fan of MySpace and its networking potential with her readership. But I don’t like MySpace. I have a hard time using it, and I hardly ever go to MySpace pages. So I’ve never gotten into MySpace, even though I can understand that it works for others.

So those are my current feelings about promotion. I love doing the stuff I do, but I think to prevent driving yourself crazy over it, you need to treat your promotional efforts as ends in themselves. Don’t blog because someone has told you to. Blog because you like blogging. Otherwise, you will be disappointed in your effort/results ratio. Same thing when you are looking at the cost/results ratio. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I have more books out, or when I expand into the YA fantasy field in the coming years, but that’s where I’m at now.

Hope that helps!

Don’t forget to keep asking questions at the original question post.