by Stacey J. Miller
The problem with so many book promotion campaigns today is that they solely focus on promoting your book.
Well, you ask, isn’t that why you’re hiring a book publicist?
Until very recently, that would have been true. It was sufficient to promote your book then. But the book publishing industry has changed, and authors’ promotional needs have evolved, too.
Today, few books exist in a vacuum. Most authors — and perhaps you’re one of them — routinely produce compelling blogs, book trailers, podcasts, articles, Web sites, and other digital offerings. Each of these creative endeavors presents another opportunity to enhance your visibility, spread your message, and help you build your readership.
That’s why your book publicist should incorporate all of your digital offerings into your book promotion campaign — not just once, in your media kit, but on an ongoing basis. There are promotional opportunities that are unique to each type of digital product you create, and you should pursue each of those possibilities individually during your book promotion campaign. But your publisher, and your book publicist, may be unaware of that.
Authors’ offerings aren’t limited to what they were five years ago, and book publicists aren’t limited to promoting authors the way they did five years ago — or even six months ago — either.
You need a book publicist who:
- Understands that promotion for authors is no longer about stepping up to the table with your money and rolling the dice only on garnering book reviews and interviews.
- Knows which author promotion tactics are guaranteed to work.
- Integrates search engine optimization, tagging, landing pages, RSS feeds, article and press release banks, backlinks, video sharing sites, bookmarking, building community, and social networking into your campaign, and creates a cohesive plan for helping you build your brand both online and in the bricks-and-mortar world.
- Devises and deploys strategies that will bring readers, buyers, clients, the media, and others to you — as they reaffirm your credibility, help you stay ahead of the competition, and let you find out the true meaning of the phrase “viral marketing.”
You need a book publicist who doesn’t wait until galleys are available to pitch your expertise, and who isn’t finished with your promotion campaign six months after your book’s publication.
You need a book publicist who understands that your book is only part of the big picture.
Of course, book promotion still means promoting books. But it also means promoting everything an author produces, beyond books, using the most cutting-edge strategies as well as the traditional venues.
You’ve worked so hard to write your book. Don’t short-change your effort and compromise your investment by missing out on opportunities to rise above the noise. Ask how we can help.
Stacey J. Miller is a book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications, an independent book publicity firm. Visit her online at http://bookpr.com/.