How much promo do I have to dooooooo?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t love social media. I sometimes feel icky using it, and I’m not certain it’s worth how long it takes me to do a 30 second video (whyyyy am I so rubbish at videos??). School visits can be exhausting – some are brilliant – some not so. And a poorly organised lit fest is just horrendous.
Really, I’d rather be sitting on my own at my messy desk in my pjs writing books and never be on camera ever. That’s the dream.
Do I have to do promo?
Most book contracts include an expectation of some free promo time from the author/illustrator. But it does feel like more and more of the burden of promo is being placed on the author/illustrator, and that social media has increased this burden.
When I first started writing there was no Instagram and Twitter was relatively new. I did school visits for my book and read it in shops, and that was it.
Nowadays, there’s such a weight of expectation on us to do posts, shop window paintings, signings, promo visits, unboxing videos and more. We are asked to show ourselves: show our faces, show our writing desks, show our kitchen table where we unbox, GIVE some of ourselves. For many of us, this doesn’t come naturally.
Despite the fact that, all the lit fests and school visits we do aren’t worth as much as the publisher getting our book into Asda.
It’s hard to escape the pressure to do promo. Although I don’t think individual people often buy books on the basis of a social media post, I DO worry that bookshops might. I also want to please my publisher. I want more deals for more books.
What if I don’t have time?
Let’s start by agreeing it isn’t fair that author/illustrators are giving so much unpaid time. Often, I’ve been the only unpaid person at a promo thing. The publicity person is paid, the shop assistant is paid, the taxi driver is paid. It’s just me who’s doing it all for around 25 pence per book in royalties (on a good day).
You don’t have to do any of this. You could do NONE of it. Just take the advance, put your head down and write another good book. There’s a lot to be said for that approach. But if you want to do promo, be clear (to yourself and to your publisher) about how much time you will give. If you have a job as well as writing, be honest about whether you can take any time off work to do promo.
Set boundaries for the promo tour – eg I do not perform my full school visit on a promo tour. I have a shortened version I do, for a limited promo period, in return for a minimum order. I save my full school visits for fee-paying work. I’m upfront about that to my publisher.
And boundaries for your life. Emma Watson was talking about this yesterday in the Guardian, saying:
“The bigger component than the actual job itself is the promotion and selling of that piece of work, this piece of art. The balance of that can get quite thrown off ... I do not miss selling things. I found that to be quite soul-destroying.”
What if I don’t like talking to people?
If you don’t like school visits, or social media, there are other promo things you could do:
Articles
Q&As
Shop signings
Blogs
Videos for platforms
Decide what you can bear doing. Take control of it and TELL your publicity department what you’ll do. TELL them what you are willing to talk about and what you are not. Be clear.
Am I allowed to ask for travel and stuff?
If you are on promo tour for a publisher, they should pay your travel, your hotel and your food. You should not be out of pocket.
This doesn’t mean the budget is endless. Ask right up front what the expenses policy is. If you start off by being direct, your publisher should respond in kind. I usually say ‘Please can you let me know your full expenses policy for promo events so I can make sure I stick to it.’
Check things like:
How do they calculate the petrol per mile?
What’s their taxi policy?
What’s their food budget per day?
Do they book the hotel or do you? I like to pick my own hotel – within reason. After a long day of events, I often do not want to go downstairs to a restaurant. I want to sit in my room and watch tv, so I often request a hotel that does room service.
(By the way, if you are a Society of Authors member you get a discount at Premier Inn so make sure you have signed up for that).
How do I find the Joy?
I know it is hard when you are zipping up and down the country doing a festival to three people and a cat BUT …
There can be joy.
A writer friend of mine always gets a ‘train picnic’ of treats for long journeys to events. She buys snacks, a mini bottle of wine (or cup of tea) and a glossy magazine. It’s her way of finding the joy and I love that.
I try to see the promo bit as part of my author life and I build fun things around it. I did a lovely lit fest in Devon last week. I love Devon and I love September so I was eking out all the joy. I had a nice hotel and of course I squeezed in a bit of beach, a cream tea and a miniature village (I love a miniature village).
And, even though school visits CAN be exhausting, I do love being in a room of kids who ask me random questions and come up with fantastic stories.
How do I make it more worthwhile?
Maximise every bit of promo you can get out of doing a lit fest or a library reading.
I know we all think we are annoying everyone with our endless posting ‘buy my book’ but you are really not. The way the algorithms work, not everyone will see all your posts, so go ahead and shout about your book fifty times. I LIKE seeing other people’s book promo. Especially if I know you in real life. I will always ‘heart’ book posts.
Ask for extras:
If you are signing in a shop, can they put your book on a table or in a window?
If you are visiting a school, can they mention you in their newsletter? Can they do a display wall of you and your books?
Can your publisher give you postcards/bookmarks/activity sheets to give out?
But my publisher has organised NO events
This happens. It is NOT because your book is rubbish.
Sometimes it happens for legitimate reasons eg the publisher has put more into marketing than into publicity. (Marketing is the stuff they do behind the scenes eg algorithms, promo to book buyers etc. Publicity is the front-facing stuff they do with you eg lit fests).
Sometimes it happens because the publisher has taken their eye off the ball.
You COULD try to organise your own events but equally…
Remember: You are still a good author even if you are not doing events. My excellent Puffin publicist once told me that all the list fests in the world aren’t as helpful as one parent telling everyone in the playground that your book got their child reading.
Your book might do brilliantly without them. And you’ll be way less tired. You could write the next book instead of running up and down the country.
If you do need advice…
The Society of Authors vimeo has lots of fantastic videos with advice on book marketing, social media and school visits.
Another brilliant post, Abie. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this. Quite apart from it being really helpful, I didn't know about the Premier Inn discount... and I stay there endlessly. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻xx