What I've Been Learning about Outreach

Congratulations! Your book will be published! Now: What do want to do, to make sure it gets into the hands of readers?

That’s the question I started asking myself about a year ago, when my pub date of October 24 was set. I knew some answers from previous book launches, but not all of them. And the world was vastly different now in 2023 compared to my last launch in 2011.

Authors find readers in vastly different ways too. Book bloggers, podcasts, social media, YouTube, versus print and television and radio media. I knew I needed help, not just in the physical promotion but in learning the new landscape.

If you’re facing publication, you may also be facing your lack of knowledge about, energy for, or clear path through the maze of opportunities that keep springing up. Always new, the methods of sharing our work (like certain social media platforms) that were our go-to are now our gone-by. It’s exhausting to keep tightly aware of everything out there, so we can choose wisely. In the past, I leaned on my publisher’s ability to keep current, but that didn’t always work either—my book might not have been top of list for that season, so it didn’t get a lot of publicity effort. In the end, I was often left on my own, learning as best I could.

This time, this book, I promised myself I’d treat marketing like a new study course. I’d try to be enthusiastic. I’d spend at least the six months, April to October, absorbing everything I could, trying as much as I had energy for. I warned my family that I’d be taking it on like a new full-time job. We had a serious orientation talk, agreed to dive in together, and check in along the way if things got too stressful.

Today I want to share with you what I learned, what I tried, what worked and what didn’t. Results surprised me. Even if you’re a veteran of publishing, you may be surprised too.

I decided to specialize in five different kinds of marketing help—not try to find an all-in-one helper or method as I had in the past. I’d heard that combinations were also more effective today. So I’d research different key marketing pathways, find out what each required, and test them out.

The first thing I learned: The author is what gets promoted today, not just the book. On all my podcasts so far, hosts want to know the story behind the story. They want to discuss the journey as much as the result. They ask deeper, more personal questions—What in my life prompted me to write a story about female pilots? (My mom was one.) Why did I write about sisters being estranged? (My older sister and I grew far apart before her early death, a regret I still carry today.) We talk about the book, yes, but only peripherally, as a backdrop to the life that created it. And I am sure it’s much more intense for memoir writers!

How comfortable are you—or will you be—talking about yourself, to promote the story behind your book?

Perhaps a result of our culture’s love affair with reality shows, where you get to see normal people succeed or fail in front of you, promoting a book nowadays means mining your own thoughts and feelings about it first. I never connected my mother’s story or my distance from my deceased sibling with my novel’s characters or plot when I was drafting or revising. But when I came up empty, trying to answer podcast hosts’ questions, I got to work. It wasn’t super comfortable, but I did discover much more about why I wrote this book and why it might matter to others.

In order to resonate with a podcast listener or a reader today, a story needs to come from articulated purpose.

Why did you write your book?

Because I wanted to show this. Share this. Explore my own history with this.

I didn’t come to such answers easily. Dan Blank, the first marketing helper I hired, led me through a series of important exercises that took me months to think through, as I’ve shared in past newsletters. Once I had enough of the answers in hand, I was more comfortable discussing the inner story of my book journey. I now had a sense of how my own life aligned with my book’s narrative.

We authors are private folk. We spend a lot of time in isolation with our words and images. We may love people, but we write alone. Bringing forth these very personal thru-lines, to connect readers with our books, can feel hard, even painful. I appreciate British author Katherine May’s writing—she writes astonishing books, Wintering and Enchantment. Wintering won the hearts of many, but I imagine it changed Katherine’s personal life as it got well known. In this wonderfully thoughtful video from her Substack, The Clearing, she talks about self-promotion, what she’s learned, and how to do it so it doesn’t hurt so much!

As I went through my interior research, I thought longingly of the days when outreach was solely a publisher’s domain and your do-all publicist handled all aspects. I remember one young, energetic publicist who worked with me on a book released back in the mid-nineties. She was so sincere and transparent, she could sell snow in winter to those living above the Arctic Circle. She was electric with her belief in my book. She successfully landed me on over 100 radio and television shows, as well as in a good handful of print interviews. I wasn’t that great at sharing my inner writing process back then; I used outer research to fill the interview time and came away knowing something was missing in the way I connected with both host and audience. Now I understand why.

There’s actually relief in closing the gap between private author and public persona. It feels authentic to be more transparent with how I talk about my books now. Not everyone agrees, I know. And there is plenty in my life that I keep sacrosanct—I believe in healthy boundaries, too. But I am willing to be more myself these days, where before I thought I didn’t need to be—I just needed to sell books.

When I knew I would be releasing my current novel in fall 2023, aside from hiring Dan and working on that difficult interior research, I talked to author friends who had published recently. I wanted to find out what worked. How much had they done? Several had published with Big 5 imprints and told me they relied on the publisher way too much. They should’ve been more proactive but they hadn’t the energy, it seemed, after the long years of writing, revising, pitching, and finally getting the book in print. They still hoped their publisher would back them, miraculously getting their book into readers’ hands.

Some did. But those who hired their own publicists, navigating a careful dance between the publisher’s publicist and their own, succeeded across the board.

I followed a few of these fellow authors on social media, noting daily posts about blogger reviews, podcasts, articles, bookstore presentations, and book club visits. I listed the choices that repeated with a good response for the energy and effort. That list, culled over three months, narrowed the best actions to five. I explored these five for another few months. Kept even more ideas in my back pocket in case one of the top choices didn’t work. So far, they’ve paid off big, all of them, in unexpected ways.

Please note: social media posts aren’t one of the five. To me, it’s a given that they’d be part of the program.

Pre-orders, Amazon goals, and blogger tour

After a lot of research, I decided to set my book up for pre-orders about two months before the October 24 pub date. I wanted to see if I could achieve Amazon bestseller status in any of the many ranking categories, with a second goal of being listed as a “Hot New Release.” Great exposure, if you can get it; you can also use the success to pitch other publicity, like podcasts.

I found out a week later that while Amazon used to accumulate pre-orders and total them on pub day, a big reason pre-orders were sought after, they’d changed their policies. Total pre-order sales were counted as they came in. Too late to change plans, I figured there was still a small chance I could get a burst of interest and achieve one of my Amazon goals.

A past student had hired a blog tour organizer who placed her novel with bloggers (mostly on Instagram). The bloggers posted a mention, sharing the cover and a blurb at minimum. Some of the bloggers had tens of thousands of followers. I could pitch these bloggers myself, yes, but I decided to hire the work out. I paid Suzy’s Approved Blog Tours $75 for the first blast—a “cover reveal” blog tour on August 18 and 19. Suzy emailed my ebook and the book cover to 18 bloggers.

To see if the timing would help, I also gathered names of anyone I knew who I felt comfortable approaching in an email blast, to ask their help by pre-ordering, explaining what it would mean to me, a little about the book, and the links. I sent that on August 20.

On August 21, my novel became a bestseller in three Amazon categories. On August 23, it became a Hot New Release, which meant it was featured in a special section on the bestseller page. My goals were met, because of the cover reveal blog tour and the generous friends who pre-ordered from my email blast.

I am both amazed and grateful for such results in such a short time—but I also know that my journey has been long and full of trial and error. These methods may work for others, they may not. My sense is that they are cumulative. No one will do the trick, but together they are potential gold.

Trade reviews

I always wanted to have trade reviews for my books, but rarely did this happen with my publishers. The times I went indie, I was a bit scared of reaching out and getting a negative review. This time, I sent ARCs (advance reader copies) to Kirkus, Booklife/Publisher’s Weekly, BlueInk/Booklist, and Library Journal. I received reviews from the first three, good reviews, very positive and encouraging. Kirkus even included their review of my book in their August magazine, exposing me to 15,000 librarians, booksellers, and readers.

Such reviews make great promotional tools since they arrived early in the process. I also solicited reviews from a few other places: Independent Book Review, Midwest Book Review, and Foreword/Clarion which I found through lists on Reedsy and elsewhere.

Blurbs

I still believe in the importance of book blurbs, despite this recent criticism in The Atlantic, so I knew I wanted about 8-10 stellar ones. I had a few in my pocket already from when the book went out on submission from my agent. Most were requested when the ARC became available from my editor.

I have cultivated a community of writers I respect and I choose carefully who to ask. I knew I would supplement the author blurbs with trade reviews for my cover and back cover and “advance praise” front of book. I also created an email signature for my correspondence that listed two blurbs, added it to my media kit, used it in everything I pitched to other media, and included it on bookmarks I made up.

I buy books based on recommendations from other readers who love books. So why wouldn’t I want to get blurbs for mine?

What’s your experience getting trade reviews and/or blurbs for your book?

Street team

A writing friend told me about street teams, also called launch teams. They are a hand-picked group of friends or family who agree to help spread the word about the book before its launch date. They post reviews, share news of the book on their social media, request it at libraries or local bookstores. I send them a weekly email request for five weeks pre-pub and one week after. I created a Facebook page for them to exchange writing and publishing ideas—since many are writing friends. I post news on the Facebook page, as well as in the emails.

I sent each a free advance copy of the ebook so they’d be able to share their honest reactions to the novel in reviews and with friends. I curated a list of about 100 people I felt I could ask. Of those, 55 said yes to being on the street team, and 21 have already shared on their socials or posted reviews. To make this fun, build a community they’d enjoy being part of, I encouraged each person to only participate according to their interest and time. Some don’t like social media, so they do other things instead.

Not only is it fun to have an enthusiastic cheerleading team—especially fun to hear how much they love the book!—it’s giving my novel pre-publication exposure. Others are hearing about it, sharing to their friends.

Podcast tour

My son loves podcasts. I’m not a great podcast listener—or I wasn’t when I began my book launch promotion. And last time I published, podcasts weren’t the hot thing. Now podcasts rank high in promotion value. There are thousands. In every subject imaginable.

Like with blogger tours, I first thought I’d research and book these myself. Two months later, I didn’t want to. I’d booked myself on two, realized I needed help, so I looked for a podcast tour host.

Similar to blogger tour companies, podcast tour hosts do the research and bookings, and some log pitches on Trello, create a Spotify playlist, and send the author social media quotes for promotion after the show airs. You are responsible for listening to a few shows ahead of time. Some companies also create a media kit (very useful for other pitching) and coach authors on how to be a good podcast guest, which I needed. I read about Michelle Glogovac and her collective, decided to book her for my tour. So far, she and Allison, her coworker, have been a dream to work with.

I’ve had several interviews, have six more booked. I find them terrifically fun now that I know how to answer “the story behind the story” of my book.

Although these are my five most important self-promotion activities, I’m still exploring and testing others. I’ll share more as we get closer to the pub date of my novel, and beyond.

Your Weekly Writing Exercise

All author-generated publicity costs money, time, and effort. And patience. Another author’s plan may not work for you. You may want to pay in time versus hiring help. You may know the avenues that worked for your last book or your friend’s book that are different than mine.

It’s old school to believe that books can be well-received without self-promotion, according to Katherine May in the video mentioned above. She talks about how to make the process less daunting, and I learned a lot from watching.

For your weekly exercise, watch her video. Assess your ability, with your current or recent book project, and what you want to do with your self-promotion.

What attracts you and what puts you off about being your own adjunct or main publicist? What might you need to start working on now—or soon?

What resonated with you from these five steps that I tried? Which one might you try?