Not my own, mind you.
This is an article Chris Gavaler wrote about promotion after his first novel was sold to Harper Collins. It highlights the increasing trend of authors being expected to handle and pay for their own publicity. Not that this is an issue for me yet, mind.
Decent article but somewhat dated; after all, this is almost ten years ago, before social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) really took hold in society, which can reach 10-100x as many people as an author can in person, at a fraction of the cost. This does not include sending electronic copies to review blogs, conducting email interviews, etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think the take away is that an author has to be their own biggest promoter and not rely on the publisher. Amanda Hocking is all in vogue right now. Read her own words: she says that her self-promotion is endless and exhausting.
Self-promotion doesn't have to be expensive. It will drain your energy and time.
Yeah, that really is the takeaway. I do keep seeing and hearing that as the message- that one shouldn't expect that the publisher will promote the book for them.
ReplyDeleteI did think it was a little disturbing, though, to read about authors spending their advances on self-promotion. You're right, it doesn't have to break the bank the way it used to, but then again, time and energy are also finite resources.