Here’s What to Expect From Your Book Publicity Campaign

At Guide My Brand, we’ve worked with a lot of authors over the years. And in fact, we love working with authors to spread the word about their new book far and wide. In fact, we just created two new book publicity campaign options for our clients because we love working with authors so much! 

But we also know that everyone has different expectations for publicity. And because of this, we are extra intentional about setting expectations for a campaign very early on to ensure success and client satisfaction. 

Here’s what you can expect from your book publicity campaign: 

• Book reviews are no longer king. 

I’ve been doing book publicity for twenty years now, and the truth of the matter is that each year, outlets shut down and there are less and less viable book review outlets. Combine that with the fact that there are more and more books coming out a year (up to 4 million a year) and it isn’t a winning combination. 

Yes, we will still pursue reviews, but we know that there are other options like podcast interviews and placing book excerpts that are going to be even better opportunities for you. 

• We will pitch your expertise along with your book. 

There’s a lot of competition out there. Which means we may have to tap into your expertise outside of being an author to get the best possible coverage. We call this bringing the book in the “side door.” Now, keep in mind, we will make sure what we pitch you to is an angle we can tie to the book (that’s what we are promoting after all), and we run every pitch angle past our clients first to make sure they are 100% comfortable with what we are pitching them to talk about out in the world. 

Here  are some examples of “side door” pitches for your book. If you wrote a children’s superhero series, we may also pitch the fact that you are a children’s librarian and can speak to the popularity of the genre. If you wrote a business book, we may herald some of you impressive professional accomplishments to seal the deal on an interview. 

• Publicity takes time.

Something else authors need to keep in mind is that publicity takes time. Oftentimes, we may only get a couple hits in our first month working with a new client. This is typical. Why? Well, the first half of that month is spent reading our client’s book, creating pitch templates and researching ideal outlets to reach our client’s target audience. Then once we have our client’s total approval, we then pitch each outlet individually. We know that while this takes time, it’s the best way to get coverage. 

Would we love to get ten hits right out of the gate? Absolutely. But it’s just not how it works. With our book publicity campaigns, we also wait six weeks following the end of the campaign to send a final report. Why? Because again, it takes time for PR hits to go live. 

We know that hiring a publicist to help promote your book is a significant investment. But it’s one that we know is worth it. You took months (or sometimes years) to create a book that you are proud of. Now, let’s make sure people know it’s out there. 

We’d love to chat about your book publicity goals. Book a free discovery call with us here.