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The Whys and Hows of Hiring a Book Publicist

 

For authors who publish their books independently, the question of whether to hire a book publicist is a significant one to answer. Whatever you decide, the fact is that virtually all successful books have a marketing and publicity program when they are launched. The need for marketing is a reality of today's hyper-competitive marketplace in which thousands of books are released every week. It affects all genres and includes fiction and nonfiction books. Readers and book buyers are bombarded with PR from your competitors, and if you don't keep up, it's easy for you and your book to become lost in the shuffle.


If you have the writing and people skills to handle your book publicity campaign DIY, it still takes up a lot of time. Also, during the peak PR period around the launch time, your best energy needs to go into speaking with the media, being interviews and making presentations and appearances. It won't leave much time to manage your PR outreach, and when it suffers, you lose momentum. Authors today also need to be present on social media, and you can't afford to let your accounts go dormant when you're launching a book. So as you're weighing your options, keep time management in your mind.


If you have a limited budget but want to do a professional job on behalf of your book, consider a hybrid model. Some agencies will handle parts of your campaign while you take responsibility for others. One thing that's essential no matter how you do it is planning. It's best to arrange a book marketing campaign months in advance. Leaving things to the last minute nearly always leads to missed opportunities and errors that could be avoided. It's also crucial to settle on a budget and discuss it with the publicists you're considering hiring. They can advise you about what is realistic based o previous experience.


Some internet gadflies you'll find these days make astonishing claims about wildly successful books promoted with nothing more than online publicity – in other words, no outreach to media and traditional PR. It might be possible for some who have social media followings in the hundreds of thousands and are established social media influencers. But for the vast majority of authors publishing independently, relying entirely on online promotion of this type is questionable. If you're serious about writing a book that succeeds, it's wise to plan a thorough and well-rounded marketing and PR campaign. 



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