What do You Mean I Have to Be My Own Publicist?
Conversations about book publicizing I've had lately (and a new way we can make your life better!)
Hi friends,
It’s book week! That’s bananas! In three days, the book will be released in the world, and in six days (I’m told) I will get to hold the book in my hands for the very first time. Phew. It’s all very exciting. If you want to support my book, here are a bunch of ways, including buying your very own shiny copy that will come with fun swag if you order it in the next three days.
Today, I want to talk about the world that I’ve been living in with this book for the past four months: marketing and publicity. If those words make you want to flee, worry not! I have good news at the end.
Research, Teaching, Service…Marketing?!
Academics, maybe more than any other profession, are constantly expected to be insta-experts on things they were never trained to do, and adept at skills they have no interest in acquiring.
When I work with folks who are trying to leave academia (another world is possible) we brainstorm a list of the roles they’ve performed over the past few years: project manager. Assessor. Curriculum designer. Researcher. Data analyst. Editor. You can keep making your own list, but you know what it’s like.
Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time talking with people about the frustration of having to become a publicist for their own work.
There’s a story that floats around every once in a while about a scholar paying $8000 to contract a PR firm for access to reporters at national presses so her article received national attention. There’s another story about a writer who published a book with a university press that had an anemic plan to market his book, so he paid $10,000 to a boutique literary publicist. A lot of writers want to write a trade or crossover book, and then get daunted by the idea you need 10,000 social media followers (a “platform”) to sell a book (even if you’re the world’s foremost expert).
People come to me with these stories understandably taken aback by the idea of paying thousands of dollars to market their work. On the one hand, why are we marketing things at all? We do research! It’s peer reviewed! We put it into the world! Shouldn’t its contribution stand on its own? Why are we selling a product instead of just producing good work? Capitalism is the worst.
On the other hand, there are really good reasons for wanting a broader audience for your work. Citation counts matter for tenure/promotion/etc (and feel good!). Many of us feel a professional and ethical obligation to communicate about our work beyond the 12 people who read our professional journals, especially since most journals either charge an exorbitant fee to read or to publish open access.
And scholars have different ideas about what their academic identity is/ought to be. Some of us want to be what my dad calls a “talking head,” out there writing op-eds and being interviewed on panels and invited to speaking engagements, and the path to getting there isn’t always clear. Others of us very much would like to focus on the research itself, and want nothing to do with fame or fortune (lol fortune).
At the very least, the book writers among us will be expected by their publisher to fill out a marketing and publicity document with anxiety-filled questions at every turn: potential blogs that might cover the book? Who might endorse it? Where should we submit it for awards?
I know many (many) writers who get so psyched out at the prospect of this form that they hide from their publisher after the book is in production and could be in the world.
Friends, there’s a better way. You write the book, let us handle the marketing and publicity.
**(What the heck is the difference between marketing and publicity? Marketing uses your resources—word of mouth, email marketing, paid advertising, social media, conference presentations, etc, and publicity is attracting attention so that other folks use their resources to spread the word—blog posts, reviews, best-of lists, podcasts, etc.)
A New Service from Epilogue
As you know, my goal at Epilogue is to create a writing community of support so you can focus on doing important research that puts great ideas into the world.
Academics and scholars need unique things when it comes to marketing and publicity. Whether publicity and marketing feels stressful or exciting, we can help you connect you to the people who will be excited about reading your book.
We’ve worked with writers as part of our editing and consulting packages over the past few years on creating marketing and publicity plans for their books, and now we’re so excited to offer that as a standalone service.
Whether you want a 30-minute strategy session, someone to help you with publicity documents, or a custom package of speaking tours and swag, we can help make that a reality. And to thank you for being a reader of this humble newsletter, we’re offering 25 percent off these services from now through August 15. You can read about each plan here, and email us to schedule a free 30-minute consultation call at any time.
You wrote something great. If the idea of finding blurbers or submitting the book for awards feels overwhelming or fills you with anxiety, don’t give up—let us help!
Write all the things so your audience can read them and be smarter!
Kelly
A crowdsourcing question
I am writing a piece about book workshops, and I was wondering if any of you have ever had a positive experience with a workshop. If you had a good experience, shoot me an email!
Housekeeping
You can pre-order my book!
My book will be available for the world to read on June 15, and is now available for pre-order! So many of you have asked how you can support the book—thank you! Right now, the best way is to preorder a digital or paperback copy, and to pass it on to anyone else who might want to read it.
Also…
Summer planning sessions! In the month of June, we can meet for 30 minutes to figure out how to make the most out of your summer. Backward planning, goal setting, productivity hacks—whatever you need to feel good come August. Details about logistics and payment are here, and the Calendly link to register for a session is here. Please indicate on Calendly that this is a planning session! My plan is to host these again in September for a just-in-time intervention into the fall semester, so stay tuned!
Coming soon - The Book Workshop quarter one is underway, and it’s a blast! If you feel like you’d benefit from a writing community during the semester, there will be a few seats open for new folks to join us in August. I’ll also have information about the fall writers’ circles in mid-June, so keep an eye out for that.
Editing/coaching - We have no more coaching spots for the summer, and only very limited editing availability. If you’d like to work together in the fall, this is a good time to reach out!
As always, I feel so lucky to have all of you as part of my community—thanks for doing what you do!