3 book-marketing truths that made my head spin

I've been a professional author since 2017 and I'm *still* shook

Hi, friends! Last week I had my big Marketing & Publicity [M&P] meeting for The Last Ferry Out, wherein my agent and I met with my editor and the marketing and PR teams so they could walk us through their plans for promoting the book between now and when it comes out 5/20. It’s an opportunity to brainstorm, ask questions, and talk about how we’ll, uh, talk about the book.

This was my fifth M&P meeting with essentially the same crew, and at the beginning, my publishing team joked, “Do you want to run it this time?” Here’s the thing: As a former magazine editor, I feel like I understand the public relations side of the equation pretty well. (You’ll find some of that wisdom here.) The marketing side, though? Surprising, even all these years later. Borderline baffling. Jaw-dropping, even.

Good advice; weak marketing strategy. (Photo by cottonbro studio)

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page: PR (aka publicity) is everything done to get journalists to cover your book. Marketing is all the ways publishers get a book in front of readers other than traditional media…think: advertising, brand partnerships, giveaways, influencer mailings, etc.

Today I’m sharing three truly head-spinning facts about how publishers market books (with the caveat that I can only speak from my experience and what I’ve witnessed with author friends…and with the additional context that I love my publisher and trust that they know what they’re doing). Buckle up…

Shocker 1: