Book Marketing Is Part of Publishing: We Just Gotta Live With It

The argument that marketing is just too, too crass for authors doesn't seem to go away, does it? 

It feels as if more is a work here than rational argument. Do the literary minded feel threatened? Do those who market their books feel both deprived of writing time or feel they are being discriminated against by the literary world? Do we in the publishing industry really want to behave like politicians?

Here's the thing. Marketing as always been part of publishing. It's just that these days publishing houses' budgets are smaller and many authors' marketing skills (by necessity or preference) have blossomed. A book simply is unlikely to sell unless someone is doing the marketing. So what about a nice balance of writing and marketing for any author.

Publishing is a partnership and authors have always been partners--even if not full partners--in the marketing of books. It takes the author to do book tours, to sit on panels, to sign books, to be interviewed on the Today Show. Always has. Always will. So if authors extend those skills to benefit their books while balancing that time against writing or taking a reasonable amount of time away from writing to get their book on the right track...well, isn't that what is best for book, author, publisher—and the reader who can't read a book unless he or she knows about it.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .