The Missing Link in Book Promotion
Authors & booksellers need a better way to reach gatherings of readers
Not only was that a hell of a book launch, but it taught me a fundamental publicity lesson: the absolute best way to sell books is to put authors in the same room with large groups of readers to talk about the stories behind and inside books.
Hello Loreates,
Today’s post comes from decades of personal experience as an author, plus recent frustration as I’ve watched author friends reeling in confusion over disappointing book launches. Even some of their widely anticipated Big Books with Big Advances have fallen flat on release. Meanwhile, with more book releases, more book podcasts, more online book groups, and more authors competing for readers’ attention, the old William Goldman quote, “Nobody knows anything,” seems increasingly true. But so is the less famous end of that quote: “Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” This post is meant to address part of the education in book promotion that every author (and publicist and publisher) needs to know but that far too few do.
The best way for most authors to sell books is to talk directly to large groups of avid readers in person. But the link that connects authors with author events is largely missing in the book industry. That wasn’t always the case, but it seems to be now. Depending on how you look at it, this is either terrible news or a career opportunity.
Save the Date!
Tuesday, May 12, at noon PT
Well Published, Live! with Karen Shepard on her Paris Review publication and writing about mixed-race families
I’m delighted to invite you to my next Well Published, Live! with novelist and essayist Karen Shepard. We’ll be chatting about her latest publication — an extraordinary epistolary essay just in time for Mother’s Day!—in The Paris Review and about the unique challenge of writing mixed-race stories.
Just Books & Author Events
Once upon a time in the 1990s, there was a bookseller named Warren Cassell, who pretty much single-handedly invented the “third place” of bookselling. Online shopping was still in the future. Warren owned a tiny (600 sq. ft.) bookstore in Greenwich called Just Books, and of course he took orders by phone, but the store’s customers made up only a fraction of his business. Apart from the books he sold through his legendary Christmas newsletter and gift service, the lion’s share of his sales occurred at book events, which he produced with and for local corporations, law firms, women’s social groups, faith organizations, schools, libraries and charity foundations. Warren also hosted monthly Book Breakfasts at the Stamford Sheraton.
One of those Book Breakfasts in 1997 put my family novel Cloud Mountain on the map. I shared the stage that morning with Angela’s Ashes’ Frank McCourt (who unpleasantly sneered, “I never used lesson plans” after Warren, himself an avuncular gray-ponytailed former teacher, introduced the Great Author with an innocent quip about McCourt’s teaching career) and the prolific novelist Anne Rivers Siddons, out then with Fault Lines, who memorably described her writing career as “a disease.” The event filled the hotel’s double ballroom, as it did every month, with about 200 readers and publishing pros, including my editor, publicist, and publisher. The room was so big that the family pictures projected for my presentation rose two stories high (my parents, also in attendance, were so proud!). Afterwards, we three authors signed books for what seemed like hours.
Hot Tip: When you do a book event, DON’T just read from your book. DO talk about your inspiration, research, and methods for writing the book.
Not only was that a hell of a book launch, but it taught me a fundamental publicity lesson: the absolute best way to sell books is to put authors in the same room with large groups of readers to talk about the stories behind and inside books. This was the holy grail that Warren had discovered and elevated to a bookselling art, and it became my go-to method for promoting books. I’ve spoken at hundreds of major author events over the years. And that’s true of every successful author I know.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the high-priced ticketed events that typically get —and pay—featured speakers through lecture agents. I’ve spoken at a few of those gatherings, too, and they do sell books, but lecture agents tend to prefer speakers with an established level of bestselling celebrity or professional renown. Few authors clear that bar, and most organizers of author events can’t pay the kind of fees that lecture agents require.
