I’m into book publicity because it’s something that I weirdly enjoy. I don’t hate or dread it. I find it fun to come up with ways to reach readers. I’m an outlier.

My Adventures in Book Publicity Part 1 | Goals

Each edition of series My Adventures in Book Publicity will feature a campaign or organization close to my heart!

My Adventures in Book Publicity

Goals

Promoting Your Book

Now that it’s a little over a year and a half since my debut story collection came out, I want reflect on what went well and what I would do differently in hopes that it will help others especially small press traditionally published authors.

I also want to help myself remember for my next book! How quickly we forget these things once we stop doing them.

Publicity can be a touchy subject for authors. Some don’t think it is their job—although their publishing contract would likely disagree. Most of us have signed contracts that indicate that we do have be involved in some form of promotion and be available for interviews, podcasts, festivals, etc.

But how do you get those publicity opportunities without some self-promotion—especially if

• you don’t have an agent,

• aren’t with a big five press,

• aren’t a famous author, and

• don’t have unlimited time, money, and resources?

I’m not here to convert anyone on the virtues of self-promotion. I’m just going to outline what I did and what I would do differently.

I’m into publicity because it’s something that I weirdly enjoy. I don’t hate or dread it. I find it fun to come up with ways to reach readers.

I’m an outlier. I know.

I probably like publicity because I’ve run literary journals and for a short time ran private writing workshops and studied marketing. Once I learned how to promote other writers and my courses, I applied that knowledge to myself. I also l have a community-focused approach to my literary life which makes self-promotion more enjoyable.

I’m in the small/independent press traditionally published literary world although much of my advice can apply to writers involved in any type of publishing. [Incidentally

Jane Friedman

has a very handy template about the different publishing paths that you should check out if you are not sure what world you are in or want to be in.]

While Anecdotes was my debut short fiction collection, I am the author of five other poetry collections (3 full length and one co-authored chapbook which were traditionally published and one self-published collection) and I’m also a screenwriter and experimental filmmaker.

Naively I thought I had a handle on my own self-promotion. And while I did to some extent (I’ve run online journals since 2011 and this newsletter since 2021) in the end

• I took on more than I could handle,

• was not able to execute all of my plans, and

• I burned out.

So there are a couple of things that I would do differently the next time around.

If you have a book that is timely or highly anticipated or you are famous then you probably don’t need to be involved so much in trying to generate publicity. Your press or agent will be able to deal with it and just send the requests your way.

Lucky you!

But for most of us, we have to do something to get our work out to readers and to generate some interest.

When writing about self-promotion, book publicity, and marketing from an author’s point of view, I struggled to figure out where to enter this discussion because there are about ten different entry points. No wonder book promotion is so overwhelming for authors!

Like where the hell do you start when there is so much to do?

It’s sort of like planning a never-ending wedding—not that I would know—I got married in Las Vegas!

So, I have decided to get to the very heart of the matter and begin with goals.

Goals

By my own standards (i.e. my goals—not comparing with others) Anecdotes exceeded my expectations. It won an award and was nominated for four others. It received reviews and it got some attention—podcasts, social media, and most exciting to me it sold out a couple of modest print runs. My goal with this project was to connect with readers around shared concerns and to that extent I achieved my goal.

Others have more lofty aspirations which is fine. Bigger awards, more money, attract agents, etc.

The great thing about goals is that you get to set your own.

I like to have low expectations to avoid disappointment. I also like to have my literary goals not focused on external validation but rather on connection with others and connection to the reason why I’m writing the book in the first place.

This attitude took me years to come to after many disappointments and self-perceived failures including self-perceived failures before this book even launched.

But focusing on connection was what helped me stay grounded.

My writing is political, feminist, anti-empire, etc., so finding readers who care about those things is the most important thing to me especially during these years of climate and social collapse.

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It may sound tacky but self-promotion can begin years before your book is finished.

I had initially submitted Anecdotes as poetry but quickly realized it was a book of prose and flash fiction. My publishers agreed but the book needed to be extended. I signed the contract with a small advance in 2019 with a projected publishing date of fall 2021. And then as we all know, the pandemic hit in early 2020. I could not write during this time and entered one of my most terrifying bouts of writer’s block I’ve ever experienced. Prior to this I didn’t really believe in writer’s block—but during the pandemic, I definitely had it. Book*hug was accommodating and allowed me to delay publication, which I am eternally grateful for because it gave me the room to write the book I wanted and needed to write.

Knowing I had a book on the way (even if I had trouble writing it) and a future but unknown publication date, gave me time to think about how I would promote the book that I couldn’t write. Even though this very specific and weird situation happened to me, others can learn from it.

If you know you want to have a book published in the future, it is never too early to think about self-promotion. I self-promoted years early because of my writer’s block, but I will take this knowledge with me for future books. With my poetry books, I never thought about self-promotion until about three months before the books came out which is far too late.

Because I used to teach private online workshops and had studied marketing, I knew that the most valuable thing to a marketer is having an email list. I had several but legally (due to anti-spam laws) you can’t convert these addresses for a different purpose. I couldn’t for instance suddenly start spamming The Rusty Toque or my writing workshop list with emails about my own writing. You can send one email inviting subscribers to your new list and then you have to suck it up if they don’t want to come along. And many—actually most—don’t.

I don’t remember how I even heard about literary newsletters, but I thought it might be a good idea to start a

Substack

to help me out of this terrible writer’s block. My goal was to write about the writing process and my block and begin to develop an email list.

Of course, I don’t like anything to be just about me, so I quickly invited others to contribute guest posts and interviews, and before I knew it, I was running a literary newsletter—a hybrid of a personal newsletter and a literary journal.

I do NOT recommend every writer start an online journal!

This is a tremendous amount of work—made a little easier for me because I had done it before. I support and publish other writers because it is something I like to do. It is not transactional; I don’t do it to get something from others. This kind of excessive community effort is not always in my own best interest because it sets my own writing back. But I was desperate to connect with others and engage in an activity that felt normal during very uncertain times. This is how Send My Love to Anyone came to be in January 2021.

I will write more about email lists and newsletters later, but right now I want to focus on goals.

I’m a big believer in goal setting. When you have a serious intention, this can propel you to take the necessary actions to achieve that goal. If you put on your running shoes, you’re more likely to go out for that run or walk.

My overall goal for my writing is not literary or material success (I mean I wouldn’t turn down money or fame but I don’t really think it’s possible with the kind of writing I do and what I’m interested in), but rather my goal is to connect with other people and readers about issues I care about out such as patriarchal violence, the climate crisis, addiction, oppression. So it makes sense that my “marketing” was and is community focused because that is my main goal in life and my values.

It wasn’t always that way. At other points in my life I was driven by delusions of grandeur or desperate for external validation. And sometimes that still slips in when I’m not attending to my larger goals.

Apparently I have also now entered the “fuck you 50s” (an expression I recently learned) where I don’t care about the things I used to think were important.

Wherever you are in your writing journey, think about what your goals are. What do you really want out of this?

Hopefully you can move beyond external validation earlier than I did and to something more meaningful about the work you are writing.

What are your goals for your book or writing? Share in the comments!

My Adventures in Book Publicity Series

Curious about my debut story collection? Check it out at Book*hug Press.

Kathryn Mockler is the author of the story collection Anecdotes (Book*hug Press, 2023), which won the 2024 Victoria Butler Book Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award, 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, 2024 Fred Kerner Award, and 2024 VMI Besty Warland Between Genres Award. She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020). Her films have screened at TIFF, EMFA, the Palm Springs Film Festival and most recently at the Arizona Underground Film Festival and REELPoetry/HoustonTX. She runs the literary newsletter Send My Love to Anyone and teaches screenwriting and fiction in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria.

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Featured Campaign - The Sameer Project

Each edition of series My Adventures in Book Publicity will feature a campaign or organization close to my heart!

The Sameer Project, a grassroots aid organization led by four Palestinians in the diaspora, is proud to announce our first tent encampment project that provides shelter and specialized support to displaced families in Central Gaza.

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