The book publicity timeline
I spent a goodly amount of time the other day copying 200 press releases and folding them because I’d missed my department’s deadline for sending the releases to the printing house to be copied. The book is a paperback reprint we’re publishing in April, but in publishing we work so far ahead of time that three months early can be late.
Although timing will differ slightly from house to house, here are some common deadlines. (This is the 30-second — actually, make that the 10-second – version of book publicity, since I don’t want to write a book now and you don’t want to read one. At least not here and now, at any rate.) If you do want to read an actual tome about publicity you can try books like Publicize Your Book, The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity or Publicity: 7 Steps to Publicize Just About Anything – none of which I’ve read, by the way, but I like the titles.
Four-six months before publication:
Publicists: Mail galleys to long-lead media outlets (including monthly magazines and trade publications).
If you’re not a publicist: Make sure to share your thoughts about the book’s promotion with the publicity department. For example, what do you think are the book’s key points? What would attract readers’ attention? (And the attention of journalists?) What’s the target demographic? (Is there a demographic we should be pitching that is not immediately obvious?) What ideas do you have to market and promote the book? In what media outlets would you like to see the book covered? (Yes, we’ve heard of Oprah. And The Today Show.)
If you would like galleys sent to your personal media contacts (some authors will have more than others depending on their profession), you should let the publicist know earlier rather than later. Although it may make sense to wait to send the finished book to certain people (rather than the galley), if the publicist has the names early, then s/he can make that determination. FYI, you cannot approach the same person to blurb and review the book for reasons that should be becoming obvious to you right now — if they didn’t already occur to you.
Also, a book’s web presence (website, blog and / or social networking profile) should be established so that journalists can find information online when they receive galleys.
Publicists: Schedule bookstore events (if an event is appropriate for the book).
If you’re not a publicist: Make sure the publicist knows about any significant markets and / or bookstores. Make sure your schedule is clear around the time of the book’s publication (and if it’s not because, say, you’ve won a trip to the moon, let the publicist know). Bookstores need time to organize and promote events (both online as well as in print newsletters) and they often won’t schedule events with less than two months notice. If friends have promised to organize events, get in touch with them and keep the publicist apprised of what’s going on — keep in mind that most bookstores don’t have the staff to sell books at offsite events (like your friends’ parties) if fewer than about 100 people attend.
Four-six weeks before publication:
Publicists: Mail finished books to the media.
If you’re not a publicist: Publishing houses receive finished books (called “bound books” four-six weeks before the publication date of the book). This gives us a head start to get finished books to the media before they appear on shelves. Basically, everything you should have done before *really* needs to be completed now.
***
And that’s my 10-second spiel. Which can pretty much be summarized as: it’s never too early.
How to get involved in online book promotion
Today, Buzz, Balls & Hype bemoans diminishing marketing budgets and suggests authors and publishing houses work together closely to maximize their efforts.
***
One area that is particularly conducive to a publicity novice jumping right in is the online arena — blogs, discussion groups, wikis, etc. Although all publicity and marketing departments maintain increasingly large lists of bloggers, there are so many blogs that change so frequently, it’s impossible to keep track of all of them. This is where the author comes in.
Did you write a book about the Civil War? Or knitting? Or pets who are heroes? Look up blogs and discussion groups about those topics. Use a site like Alexa or Technorati to determine which of those blogs get the most traffic. Check the blogroll (the blogger’s list of favorite blogs) to find other related sites. Blogs that appear on a lot of blogrolls are obviously more popular than those that do not.
While finding a handful of blogs might take an afternoon, becoming a part of an online community can take weeks or months. Bookmark the blogs. Better yet, add them to your RSS reader. Read the posts regularly. Comment when you have something wise or funny to say. Get to know what a blogger likes to cover, their tone, how frequently they post. Get to know other commenters.
Right about now, you’re asking whether it’s worth spending the time to do this. First, if you had the wherewithal to write a book about knitting, please tell me you at least have some interest — book promotion aside — about what’s rocking the boat in the knitting community. And second, blogs and websites link. They link to small sites, which link to medium-sized sites which link to larger sites. Freelancers who write about knitting visit these sites. Print reporters who cover crafting visit these sites. So yes, it’s worth taking the time to do this.
