All the Marketing You Cannot See
That doesn't mean it's not there
Hey friends,
There’s been a lot of publishing news lately, hasn’t there? And a lot of discourse. And a lot of opinions! I’m trying not to do a lot of either of those things, and ultimately failing, lol. I’m afraid today’s newsletter will ALSO have some opinions, discourse, and opincourse, a horrible word I just made up.
A lot of people think they know a lot about publishing, me included. They are not always right, me included. Many writers think they know a lot about publishing (me included!) because they read a lot about publishing and have had some interactions with it in various ways and, well, they’re not always right, either. There are publishing people, people in charge!, who are saying things under oath that many people think are not true, are disingenuous, and/or are leaving out whole swaths of the publishing ecosystem. Yes. I agree. (Well, I don’t agree those people are committing perjury. I am not qualified to make that call.) BUT. Here’s something I want to share with you, in case it informs you in anyway about the discourse, your own publishing journey, and/or publishing in general.
I just got a marketing overview for a book that’s coming out sometime in the future. I will not tell you which one. I will not be showing you particulars of this because it is none of your business. This isn’t a marketing plan—it’s the current state of the marketing plan that we saw at some point in the past. I could compare and contrast the two, see what has worked and what hasn’t materialized, but it wouldn’t be useful at this point. Much of it hasn’t happened yet because it’s not supposed to happen yet, and that’s fine. There’s no batting average to calculate here.
But I want to share with you, in a way, what the marketing team is doing for this book that the author will probably never, ever see. That the author probably wouldn’t know about much of this if the team had not told us. But it still happened! Call it Schrodinger’s Marketing Blast.
So here are some things the publisher is absolutely doing that you, the author, might never see (or others who are not the author might not even notice or clock as marketing):
Online and social media ads: Are you the market for your book? Hopefully! But we all know algorithms are Not Great. There’s no guarantee you will see ads for your own book, of course, but they are there!
Industry-facing advertising: Do you subscribe to Shelf Awareness? Have you ever heard of Edelweiss or NetGalley? Maybe not! But lots of industry people look there—including and especially BOOK SELLERS—and it’s absolutely an important marketing avenue.
Galleys or ARCs1: These days not every book gets galleys and that is even more common for heavily illustrated and/or four-color books like graphic novels, picture books2, and cookbooks. But when they do get made, they’re sent out to people! Some go to reviewers and media outlets, and you never see that online, unless, of course, they post pictures of the hundreds of galleys piled up in their offices (yikes). But those mailings can turn into reviews and press, which is great, but that can happen MONTHS after they’re sent out. You don’t always see the path between those two things. Other galleys go to giveaways, often on Goodreads, and we’ve told you not to go on Goodreads, so maybe you didn’t see that either. Other galleys are sent to influencers or writers (maybe for blurbs but also just for fun) or other (what we call) big mouths in hopes that they will post about the book online. We hope they do! They all won’t.
Social media assets and influencer mailings: This is the stuff you’re more likely to see, if you’re looking. (Do you follow your publisher/imprint on social media? It’s harder to see their stuff if you don’t!) It’s also very likely they will tag you in these posts! Share these posts! Check your feeds! Hopefully, too, influencers will tag you/your publisher in these things when they post. But if you’re not logged on, you’re not going to see it. (I know, I know, I’m sure you’re logged on. Don’t @ me.)
Library marketing: Library marketing doesn’t get HALF the love it deserves. You know who buys a lot of books (and ebooks and audiobooks)? LIBRARIES! This is even MORE important in kids books. There are many librarian-focused newsletters and magazines and social feeds that publishers use to promote books directly to people whose WHOLE JOB it is to buy, read, and recommend books to people. Authors see almost zero of this marketing, unless they happen to be librarians! Just because it’s not flashy doesn’t mean it’s not effective.
I know it feels like I am defending publishers here when it is my job to speak up for authors and yeah, I’m aware of that, too. At the author level, I will always speak up for my clients who are not getting a fair shake in whatever way we see. For example, if I’d gotten this marketing wrap up and it was two lines long, I would be speaking up! Or if we had gotten zero marketing info at all! But on an industry-level, I want to work to dispel some too-easy criticism that denigrates the hard work of people I know care about books. There is never enough money, time, labor, or opportunity to market and publicize books in the way each author deserves. But that is rarely your marketing team or publicist’s fault.
And this is not all the marketing (and not really any of the publicity) a book, and this book, will get. And it doesn’t include any the author will do themselves directly to their personal network. The real secret to marketing is proliferation and repetition—getting to the most (relevant) places the most (effective) number of times. That’s why marketing plans are usually a lot of little things that don’t look like much (emails! social posts!) but can, hopefully, add up to a lot. There’s no other magic here. There’s no one true way that works all the time. And just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
XOXOXOXOXOX,
Kate
Advance Readers Copies. These and galleys are early copies of the not-final book made for promotional purposes.
Picture books sometimes get things called F&Gs, which stands for folded and gathered, which is kinda just like a fancy, color print out of the book. Someone somewhere told me they heard someone thought these were called effin’ gees and wondered why everyone was so mad at them. looooool (Wasn’t there a band made up of authors called the Effin’ Gees????)
Yes, to all of this! I covered books for a media company for six years and would receive between 3 and 12 galleys A DAY, nearly every day of the week - and that's not including e-galleys, which seem to be infinite. Literally thousands of books a year. Publishers send awesome pitches, there are so many good books out there! AND... many times those books were covered months after they came out (or, yes, not at all) because that's just what was possible. Occasionally authors might email, wondering why their book hadn't been covered, or if it still might be, and I have so much compassion for that labor of love. It's hard when the only honest answer, really, usually, is: because it's literally 45 books deep on my desk and that's just the order I happened to open the mail that week. I don't know that there's really a way to solve for that - at least not at the media or "influencer" level. (Hopefully I remember all this if/when it's my own book being publicized one day!) Thanks for always sharing an illuminating and thoughtful perspective, Kate!
Well said. The lack of time and money in the publisher's budget to do everything one might hope or dream could be done to market your book does not mean there is no marketing going on. I'm a literary agent and I see publishers marketing teams work very hard at the tasks you describe.
My beef is more with a convenient tendency for publishers not to clarity to authors, at the outset, how uncertain any sales impact will be. They also need be clear about what the author themselves ought to do, if they are able. Book success is such a long shot. Authors need understand that. When that is clear then they stop blaming the publishers marketing team for lack of effort.