Didn’t you work too hard on this book to leave its success in the hand of a random subjective jury or a fickle industry?
My Adventures in Book Publicity Part 4 | Planning
My Adventures in Book Publicity
Each edition of series My Adventures in Book Publicity will feature a campaign or organization that I am supporting.
What it Feels Like to Launch a Book
For those of you wondering what it feels like to launch a debut book into the world—or any book for that matter—well it can feel like an exercise in exclusion.
Were the gym teachers sadists when they handed the bats to the best athletes in the class who also happened to be the most popular and anointed them team captains? Of course these boys chose their friends first (the system was rigged) and then the rest of us were either picked or passed over until we got to the final sad kid. Fortunately most stopped paying attention once the stars were selected—nobody else really mattered.
Because of my uneven abilities, my placement in the draft pick was never secure. While I generally was not good at sports and pretty terrible at catching, I could run fast and hit the ball decently, so I often was picked in the middle or second to last and sometimes last.
Worse than the order in which you were chosen was the anticipation of waiting to hear your name. The feelings of excitement and dread were something close to torture as you stood frozen in the silence between the humming and hawing of the captains looking at you then past you until finally fixing their eyes on someone they assessed was better than you.
I remember holding my breath and thinking pick me during these minutes that felt like years—not because I cared which team I was on, but so this excruciating public display of humiliation would end.
That we had to live through this a couple times a week in gym class and at every recess made it all the worse.
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And that’s what book launch season can feel like only with higher stakes because this isn’t some random game that you most likely didn’t choose to play, but your most prized accomplishment—your book!
An author has a role to play in the promotion of their own book—particularly small or independent press authors. In the publishing world, the system favours those with big presses, big agents, private publicists, money, time, connections, and other resources.
You can throw your hands in the air and do nothing, and often it will be the case that nothing will happen—unless by some chance of luck you get shortlisted for an award, but even then you have to make the most out of that opportunity.
Didn’t you work too hard on this book to leave its success in the hand of a random subjective jury or a fickle industry?
As I discussed in part one of this series, the first step for me was figuring out what my goals were in terms of what I wanted my book to do. It’s ideal if these goals are connected to something you care about like your ideas rather than something you have no control over such as sales or awards.
Next I tried to develop a productive mindset to carry me throughout my book promotion which can last up to and beyond two years if you want it to.
Just because the publishing world moves on from your book within three to six months, doesn’t mean you have to.
Milk your book for all its worth.
But in order to milk it, you need a plan.
I’m writing now what I would have liked to have read when I was first promoting Anecdotes. It would have made me feel less alone to know that other writers felt shitty or insecure.
