That's simply not true. It's a complete myth that books sell because the writer promotes them. I know self-published writers have to promote, but commercial writers imply don't have to do so in order to sell books. Readers buy books. They don't buy writers. Readers don't care in the least about writers until after the writer has a book the readers love, and talk about to all their friends.
I really disagree with this. Yes readers buy books. Yes they do listen to friends on what books is good and ratings on reviews. But, that isn't always the case. Commercial authors- big or small press and self publishers- should always be willing to promote their work. They may not have to work so hard if they have a big house behind them, but they have to be out there. If you aren't you will fade away even if you have a best seller.
Now, I don't know as much about the BIG publishers but I know small press has to work their tails off with promotions. A lot of it is simple stuff such as a weekly reminder, or a blog post once a month about writing processes. But some of it really is difficult. There's review sites, interviews, podcasts, etc that can help an author reach new readers. Not every publisher has the ability or time to do all of this. Therefore, a lot of it gets tossed back over to the author. Some are lucky enough to hire a promoter but most do the best they can with what time and effort they can put in.
Take a look at the bestseller list, find all the first novels that have appeared there, which is a bunch, and tell me how many of these writers you even heard of until after their first book was on the list. Publishers promote books. They simply do. Reviewers and critics also promote books, if the books are any good. What the writer does really means nothing until after the books is selling well enough to make readers want to know whoever write it.
And how many authors fade away after that best seller?
A sustained writing career involves active participation. Even big publishers do not have the ability to continuously promote an author for months or a year after a book comes out. They have too many authors and books and it get too complicated to keep track of.
Big publishers rely on the author to do their part in promotion. That includes BEFORE the book comes out not just after. Promotion includes interviews, contacting reviewers, getting on podcasts, and doing readings and signings. If an author isn't doing at least some of this to garner attention, the book will not do as well.
For instance: Publisher X has 3 new authors who are launching series next month.
Author 1 has had a little success in self publishing and has a total of 14 books out but has very little social media presence and isn't interested in doing extra promotion.
Author 2 has had several short story sales. Posts once a month on blogs, sometimes participated in social media, and has just started going to conventions. Willing to do some promotion but not a lot.
Author 3 is a new author. No real background except a few short story sales. Has a big social media presence, is excited and willing to promote the book, looks for promotion sites on their own. Participated in conventions and has scheduled some readings and book signings without prompting from the publisher.
If they are all writing the same genre (say these are all mid-list authors), which one will do better?
In my experience, Author 3, even though they don't have much experience. The difference is, that author is willing to connect with people. Readers may be the ones to buy books, but the author is the one who sells them on that buy. Author 3 is willing to be out facing the public, convincing them that this is a good book.
Books sell because they're good, because readers can't stop talking about them, and tell all their friends, who tell all their friends, etc. All promotion does is let a reasonable number of readers know the books exists. It doesn't take many readers to start an avalanche. The promotion every commercial publisher does lets this happen, even if the writer does nothing.
Being a "good" book doesn't make it a best seller. How many classics were total flops when they first came out?
How many of those best sellers were rejected before they found a publisher?
The word "good" is too subjective. I might think a book is good, but not the person standing next to me. A good promotion plan selects venues where the most people who enjoy that genre stop in at. If you have a horror book, you probably aren't going to promote it at a historical romance site (although it could happen if there's a lot of crossover.) Readers will decide if that's a good fit for them.
Truthfully much of the commercial promotion is very generic. They submit to certain sites for reviews; they take out advertisements in certain venues. There's lots of gaps. And it's up to the author to fill those in.
There's a reason publishers seldom pour money into a book until after it shows it has legs. Until this point, there's no reason at all to believe any kind of promotion will help and, in fact, all the promotion in the world won't help, unless a lot of readers love the book. When the time comes to put the writer on the road, to give the writer true promotion money, the book is already a success. Ignore this when a publisher pulls a stunt like giving a first time writer a two million dollar advance, but for the vast, vast majority of novels, it's true.
So above you are saying a publisher does all the promotion and the author can sit back and write the next book? But now, you say that a publisher doesn't pour money into a book until it can stand on it's own?
Well if scenario #2 is true, who's doing the promotions? The author or someone the author has hired to promote the book. I completely disagree that no kind of promotion will help at all. Any type of promotion helps. Making Facebook posts, talking about pre-orders, scheduling an online/virtual/booklaunch party, being on panels at conventions, writing blog posts ALL help sales. The more an author is talking up their book (promotion) the more word will spread and the better chances they will have sales.
Very few publishers schedule book tours anymore. If an author wants to do them, they usually have to do that themselves. Authors pay for these with the money they earn. I'm not aware of any mid-list or even best-selling (unless it's a mega superstar) author (in the speculative fiction field) who are on tour on the dime of the publisher. But again I could be wrong.
As I said, all you should have to do is take a look at first novels that are bestsellers to dispel the writer as promoter theory. I know a lot of writers who spend far, far more time promoting a book than they spend writing new books. None of them are making any money. Most of them are losing a lot of money because they're spending it on promotion, rather than earning it by writing more books.
Well every bestselling author I know of promotes their books. They do interviews, seek out review sites, go to conventions, readings and signings. I don't know if the publishers set this all up but I doubt it.
There's a big myth as to how much promotion someone should be doing. Truthfully, most of it is easy stuff that can be taken care of in an hour a day. (FB/Twitter/forums and blog) Other stuff, such as finding reviewers, podcasts, etc do take more time for research.(2 or so hours weekly) Taking a day or weekend away from writing to go to a convention can be priceless. But most of the time 10 hours a week covers everything. Plenty of time for writing. And a lot of the easy stuff doesn't cost anything.
But if you want to have a sustained career, an author has to have some sort of public presence for promotion. Publishers cannot be relied upon to do the work. Smaller publishers can't always do this. Even large publishers won't keep a sustained promotional push for long. Therefore, it really is up to the author to either promote themselves or to hire someone to promote them.
Um, no.
