Write Your Own Posts!
Why should you write your own publicity posts rather than depending on a publicist or someone else to do so? Read on to find out!
People ask questions before they decide to hire me as a publicist--and rightly so! You should always ask anyone you want to hire a lot of questions to make sure you are getting what you want. One question I get now and then is, if I arrange for an author to have a blog tour, do I write the blog posts, too? My answer is always no. And if there is a follow-up, "WILL you write my posts for me?" My answer is also, always, no.
If I write a blog post for someone else, no matter how hard I try, that post will have elements of my voice in it. It will have my beliefs in it, my ideas. It wouldn't reflect YOUR voice. It won't match your style, or any of the things your readers are coming to you for. Blog tours are supposed to help people find your new book and tempt them to read it. If someone reads a blog post that I as a publicist wrote, and then they pick up your book to read because of it, they might feel betrayed by the differences they see. That's because an author has an invisible contract with a reader. There is an element of trust involved, that the author will provide something the reader expects of them. This is one of the things that keeps readers coming back to an author time and again. Kristan Higgins makes me laugh and cry, sometimes simultaneously. Robin Hobb takes me on an emotional journey every bit as harrowing as the journeys her characters take. Cressida Cowell will crack me up for days and make me feel like I am a viking boy. Kelly Barnhill's books will magically suck me in and hold me by the heart until I finish. A well-written and thoughtful blog post will reflect these same aspects, and often the author doesn't even have to think about it. It's just part of who they are.
No one can tell a story like you do. No one else in the world. That's why readers pick up YOUR books. Not someone else's. You owe them honesty, at least. If you don't have the time to write blog posts, that is fine. You don't have to write blog posts. There are some other things you can do. But don't ask someone else to write them for you, and for the love of any god out there, don't use AI. When I see an article that is written by AI, I automatically assume everything that person does is also AI, even their book. Because why wouldn't they do that if they could get away with it? AI steals from other creators, it takes up resources like water (in Texas, there are towns that are running out of water right now because the AI farms are using so much), and it's just not any fun.
Connecting with readers is rewarding. There is nothing better than to reach someone new and inspire them to read your book. When someone comments on your posts, it forges a connection. Your readers want to know the real you. The person behind their favorite book, not some pretender. It's better to not write posts at all than have someone else do it. What would happen if it came out that you didn't write your posts? Imagine how bad, how embarrassing that would feel. And just like with AI, people would wonder how far it goes. Do you actually write your own book? You don't want to break that trust with your readers.
Like what you read here and want to support this page to help keep it going? Check out my Patreon, where members get exclusive content and early access to articles and videos. Or, for a one-time contribution, you can go to my Ko-fi page. I truly appreciate your support.
Publicity vs Marketing: What's What?
Authors should know how to market their books. They should also know how to publicize them. But what’s the difference? A quick guide.
Many of you may know that I had a career as an author publicist several years ago, and honestly? Sometimes I miss it. I found it to be really rewarding to help people find new-to-them authors and books, and to connect authors to new readers. One question I used to get all the time was, "What's the difference between publicity and marketing?" Well, today I'm going to tell you!
When I hear authors say, "Ugh, I hate marketing my book!" often they really mean they hate doing publicity. Publicity is anything you do to draw attention to your work. Posting on social media, doing YouTube videos, writing blog posts, press releases, interviews, book signings, convention and event appearances, reviews... all of that and more is publicity. Publicity can be thought of as "earned attention," meaning that you are doing stuff to get attention for your work. You are writing a blog post, you are posting on Facebook or TikTok, you sent your book out for reviews, and you're talking about your book using your elevator pitch. It's work that you put in to spread the word about your book. But, it's also things other people do as well, like reviewers and people talking about your book.
Publicity can be consider PART of marketing. But marketing encompasses a whole lot more, and can be a bit more complicated--and expensive. Marketing can be summed up in the briefest terms as the stuff you pay for to promote your book. Advertising is the most common form of marketing. When you pay BookBub, Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and other places to feature your book in some way, that is marketing. When you pay a bookseller to put your book on an endcap, that's marketing. Goodreads giveaways and creating swag to give away at events also counts as marketing rather than publicity. Building your social media presence is marketing, as is creating an effective website. Getting your book into book clubs, and creating partnerships for merchandise is also marketing.
Marketing involves numbers and knowledge about SEO, keywords, metadata. Having an understanding of statistics really helps in marketing. You want to know what keywords will attract your audience. You want to know how to balance keeping your existing readers happy while attracting new readers at the same time. And you definitely want to make sure you are creating the most effective advertising you can so you get the biggest bang for your buck. No one wants to pay good money for an ad that isn't going to work.
Now, there is some overlap between the two, and some things--for example, social media--can fall into both categories. Growing your social media following and creating a posting strategy to accomplish your goals is often considered marketing, while the content of the posts you write could be considered publicity. With the amount of overlap, sometimes it's hard to tell what it is you are doing. Is it publicity? Or is it marketing? You'll find that experts often don't even agree, so don't sweat it too much. The important thing is that you (and your team, if you have one) are doing the best things possible to spread the word about you and your book.
Like what you read here and want to support this page to help keep it going? Check out my Patreon, where members get exclusive content and early access to articles and videos. Or, for a one-time contribution, you can go to my Ko-fi page. I truly appreciate your support.