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Chat with Jayel Gibson , author of the award-winning Ancient Mirrors series, about the Two-edged Sword of Book Promotion - Publicity vrs. Advertising. Jayel, who has mastered the art of online selling with her four-book series, will be taking your questions all day Thursday, July 16, 2009, via our blog comment forms. Just add a question to her post that day and she'll stop back and answer it for you.
Out of all of the conferences and workshops I have attended in my search for information on book promotion, a two sentence quote from literary publicist Kathryn Hall stands out in my mind:
"Thinking your publisher is going to make you rich and famous (and promote your book) is like giving birth and thinking your obstetrician is going to raise your kid. It ain't gonna happen. Difficult as it is to realize, in today’s economy authors must take full responsibility for the promotion of their own books."
It is the most honest and straightforward statement about the author/publisher/book marketing relationship I have ever heard. Self-publishing, subsidy publishing and traditional publishing have one big thing in common. Regardless of the publishing venue, the author is responsible for promoting the book long term.
Promotion includes both publicity and advertising. Some experts, like Al Reis, author of the classic marketing book, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, believe that you shouldn't waste your money on advertising until you have established name recognition and credibility through publicity. Others say both advertising and publicity are necessary from the start. But, every expert agrees that you can't just publish a book and do nothing to attract readers. I have discovered that advertising only pays off for the independently published author when it is focused on the book’s target market. Publicity, on the other hand, need not have such a specific aim.
So, what’s the difference between advertising and publicity? Advertising is a content you pay to present. Publicity refers to free content about you that appears in the media—what others say about you. An old adage says: Advertising you pay for, publicity you pray for. That's because publicity has at least ten times the credibility and staying power of advertising.
Here are a few ways author publicity stacks up against advertising in comparable situations:
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Conferences:
Offer to teach a workshop at a conference or on a heavily trafficked online forum on a topic in which you are an expert. Concentrate on providing helpful and useful information to participants. The host of the conference or online forum will explain how qualified you are when introducing you and promoting the event. Impact: If you've offered quality information, you will have established yourself as an authority.
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You could pay to sponsor the same conference or forum. People would notice your name, if only peripherally, but they'd be there for the expert's information, not the sponsor's message. Of course if you could afford to sponsor nine out of ten online conferences, your name might stick.
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News Releases:
For as little as $250, services like Internet News Bureau and PRWeb distribute news and feature stories to hundreds of thousands of online and print journalists, who include reporters for the web sites of large traditional media companies. Some will write your press releases for a reasonable fee. (Search for "press release distribution" to locate these companies.)
Your press article or press release may be re-printed as is (if it was well written) or a reporter may interview you and write her own story. Either way, if the medium running your story has a big audience you could get hundreds or even thousands of interested readers as a result.
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You'd easily spend 10 times as much to run the same information as an ad, and people would rush by your message - unless it was really revolutionary - to get the information they came for.
However, if you know the media in which you are advertising hits your target markets, you can have an impact with the right kind of advertising. This type of advertising offers something the audience really wants in a format to which they can relate. Remember, hype is out, real is in.
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Online Mailing Lists and Discussion Groups
Become active in online mailing lists and discussion groups relating to your readers. If, for example, you write ‘how to’ books, consider posting ‘Top Ten Tip lists’. Do not include self-serving trumpetry.
Over time, you'll establish yourself as an authority and attract readers.
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If you posted a message that was essentially an ad in a mailing list or discussion group it would be eliminated by the moderator, ignored, or possibly flamed by subscribers.
If you sponsor a list or group online, be sure to keep your message fluff-free, without dancing monkeys and annoying popups, overs and unders.
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Submitting articles to other sites
Write articles with information that could be helpful to the readers of online newsletters and other online media. Advice, how-tos, and Top 10 lists are the best formats. Ask permission before sending your article to the list moderator, editor or webmaster, each of whom will identify you as the author and tell visitors how to reach you.
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Sponsor online newsletters and advertise in other online media. This is effective with frequent and long-term repetition.
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E-mail signatures
Use your e-mail signature file to promote your site and services. That way, when you use e-mail to participate in a discussion or post to a mailing list, everyone will know from your signature who you are and how to reach you.
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Put a blatant ad in your email signature and risk having your message end up in a SPAM folder. A blatantly commercial e-mail signature is not acceptable to the online community. However it is acceptable include a log line and website address in your signature. Be sure to include your name and the name of your book and website, your site's URL, which should not exceed four or five short lines.
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Inexpensive and Effective Advertising
Two inexpensive and effective methods of advertising include bookmarks and posters. Both of these are well received as giveaways by book stores and libraries when presented personally by the author. Colorful images of book covers, combined with short endorsements, ISBN and author website address on bookmarks and posters are great ways to promote author name recognition and books.
The most important rule of advertising is that your message must be repeated many times to be noticed, and many more to entice readers to buy. The most important part of publicizing your book is to do it steadily over a long period of time. Publicity is an ongoing process with a cumulative result. When people start saying "I just read another article about [author]," or "That author said something very interesting in an interview," you'll be developing credibility that no amount of advertising can buy.
 About Jayel Gibson:
In addition to a full-time writing career, Jayel Gibson serves as an adjunct professor at Southwestern Oregon Community College where she teaches writing for publication. She is a two time Teacher of the Year award recipient for her innovative use of technology and video gaming in the classroom. Ms. Gibson is also the online book club moderator for Realms of Fantasy Magazine. She has been a contributor for Louisiana Parent’s Magazine, Dallas Child Magazine, Tweens & Teens Magazine, Education.com and Thefatherlife.com. For more information visit www.jayelgibson.com
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