I’m making a video about it on my idea girl consulting youtube channel.

Pat McL

I know one author who promoted so smartly that she blew her modest print run out of the water, and her publisher HAD to go back to print because of reorder demand. You think she got her publishers’s attention? Oh, yeah . . .

Which brings up a topic related to bestseller lists, and that is velocity. If your print run is big enough to make the lists, you’ll need to design your promo plan to send readers out to buy your book within the first or second weeks. You want to compress as many sales as possible into that early period. Otherwise, you might have an impressive sell through, but you lose your chance on the lists.

Robin’s Question #5: Does an author base her promo budget on where she is on the list and her potential to break out?

Answer: You have to have goals before you put your plan together. When you’re a midlist author with a print run that will not put you on the lists, your goal is to achieve the highest percentage sell through possible. Publishers (and they key accounts) look much more closely at sell through than they do at bestseller list credits. (For authors new to the biz: sell through is the percentage of books sold to books printed.) Publishers expect a much higher sell through for hardcovers than mass market paperbacks, BTW.

If your print run puts you in the running for bestseller list placement, your goals are twofold: sell through AND list placement. In the latter, you’re at the mercy of who’s also out when your book is out.

Answer: A budget you can afford! When someone comes to us, after a brief chat about the book, our first question is, what is your budget? Budget dictates how you go about promoting. But do not second mortage the house.

The answer is: Yes and yes. Touring is just one tool in the PR counselor’s “tool box,” but putting on a productive tour does involve knowing how to approach the stores (chains are different than indies); what media are receptive to authors in what markets, etc.

As for when an author isn’t touring, you still need to let readers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, etc. know about your book.

A wise agent once said, “There’s one thing you can guarantee if you don’t promote your books, and that is that you will have absolutely no impact on the sales of your books.”

Glad the blog raised some questions, and very good questions! In the interest of readability, I’ll answer reach of your questions separately.

1. I’d rather not think about the minimum time before a book is out to hire a publicist; I’d rather focus on the optimum time to begin the process. Ideally, you, as an author, and your publicist of choice, would hit the ground running with a plan before the publisher has the initial pub meeting for your book. That time will vary depending on the format for your book and your position on the publisher’s list. It wouldn’t be a stretch to begin the process of looking for a publicist a year before publication. For a mass market paperback, it’s smart to have a plan in place seven or eight months before a book goes on sale. When you approach promotions from a minimum-time-before-publication strategy, it’s much like running downhill: difficult to get your feet solidly under you and hard to incorporate new opportunities that arise after you put your plan together.

Thanks for your great question:

Do you find that the type of novel determines the type of promotion needed?

The type of novel can affect the type of promotion needed. For example, if you’re writing a graphic novel, what you do will be different from promotions for an historical romance. Again, it comes down to knowing what works for what demographics. But–back to basics–first define your audiences, and then figure out how to reach each of them.

I don’t know who’s saying that if you’re new, it’s not a smart time to promote, because that’s one of the most important times to promote, whether you hire a professional or do it yourself.

Everyone–readers, booksellers, reviewers–love to read a debut author’s novel! This is your time to distinguish yourself from other authors and what they write. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity . . .

Love that you agree with my points. I do want to point out, though, that if an author doesn’t have much of a budget for promotions, she should work with two or three author friends who write in the same subgenre and co-op promote. Alas, it takes time, but not as much money . . .