As an author, you have to wear many hats. Writer, accountant, editor, public speaker, etc. Today, I want to talk about two of those hats: marketing and publicity. You may think, Liz, that’s the same hat. I’m here to tell you: it isn’t. You need both of these hats to be a successful author. So, let’s define marketing and publicity and then dig into how each can help you reach your audience.
Marketing
Marketing is promoting and selling a product or service. Typically, money is allocated and spent to get the product in front of buyers. For authors, it’s putting your book out there for people to notice and buy. You can do it using things like online adds, preorder incentives, special editions, or social media posts. It also includes any book swag you create to promote the book like bookmarks, pins, etc. If you hire an artist to create character art for promotions, that’s also marketing. Any time you pay to promote your book, it’s marketing.
Publicity
Publicity is when the media gives attention to someone or something. This isn’t typically a costly thing, but it takes time and effort to get people talking about and promoting for you. Instead of being paid promotions, these are earned promotions. You’ve done something worth talking about—you wrote a book! Now you get people to talk about it so more people before aware of the book. Publicity includes things like book reviews, interviews, bestseller lists, book tours, and book awards. The idea is to get you, the author, in front of an audience and get them interested in what you do. Yes, you will promote your book, but you are the one people see and get invested in. If you play your cards right, people will go find your book once they’ve seen the publicity.
The Difference Between Marketing and Publicity
In case the difference between marketing and publicity is still blurred for you, let me give you a simple way to remember the difference. Marketing is something you pay for, and publicity is something you hope for. You can pay to get your book in front of people, but publicity is all based on how many people you can get talking about you and the book. I like to think of marketing as book-centered, and publicity as author-centered. Marketing is getting the book in front of an audience for them to buy, and publicity is getting the author in front of an audience for recognition.
How Marketing and Publicity Help Authors
Now that we understand the difference between marketing and publicity, let’s look at how each help your author career.
Marketing Advantages
Marketing is great to get new readers interested in your book. Since they don’t know you yet, incentives like a pretty book edition or fun book swag may make the purchase worthwhile for them. Also, your paid adds may reach a new demographic that you can’t contact through your normal channels. It’s like taking a megaphone and blasting your message across the entire mall instead of trying to talk to shoppers in groups of five or six at a time.
Mostly though, marketing helps get your book stuck in people’s heads. There is a concept in advertising called the Rule of 7, which states that a customer needs to see a product seven times before they might think about buying it. Getting one person to watch you in seven interviews is way less likely than them seeing an add pop up online or in stores. Marketing may be less personal and more expensive than publicity, but it’s still very effective.
Publicity Advantages
Publicity is a way to keep loyal fans and also give new readers a powerful nudge in your direction. If they see a great book review or notice your book on the bestseller list, they will be more likely to think your book is worth reading than if a random add pops up. The best promotion any book can get is through word-of-mouth. If someone you trust tells you to read a book, you’re more apt to do it than if a stranger recommends it. Influencers, book awards, and spotlights in popular media interviews are trusted sources that readers listen to all the time. If you get recognition from them, you gain more readers.
While publicity lacks the quantity of marketing, it makes up for it in quality. If people are promoting a book that isn’t their own, it comes across as more genuine. If there is an interview or book signing with an author, the promotion feels more personal. Readers get to know the author and want to invest in them, sometimes making a fan for life instead of just for that book. Publicity’s impact can be smaller than marketing’s, but it will go deeper.
Final Thoughts
Marketing and publicity are both important for an author’s career. You need to get the message out wide and also make a meaningful impact on the readers. So pay to get your book noticed, but also search out those opportunities to get yourself recognized. These are both tried and true avenues to make a profitable business so don’t shy away from either. Use the tools you have to promote your books to the best of your ability.
Thanks for reading!
Write a tale
Leave a trail
0 Comments