Dear Publishing Colleagues

To My Dear Colleagues in Publishing,

I know many of you are looking at this Books section and wondering how the hell you are going to make any noise for your titles considering there's so much on the page -- videos, slide shows, reviews, link outs, splashes all of it changing before you've even had a chance to read something you heard about on a publishing blog, which by the way, is at least a day behind everything else on the web.

So let me see if I can offer you a little guidance, because there are a bunch of surprises.

#1. This is NOT a book review section. Let me say that again, because I know about 72,000 publicists just plotzed because they have no idea what to do other than ask for a review. Huffington Post Books is not a review -- there's a reason those sections in newspapers are dropping like flies. Book reviews tend to be conversation enders, and when you're living in the age of engagement, a time when people are looking for conversation starters, that stance gets you nowhere.

And now you're thinking, If I can't send you books to review, how does anyone get attention for them on your site?

I thought you'd never ask.

#2. Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog. You, your authors, your authors' friends. And especially editors. Yes, you can come and blog about the books you love, the ones you are publishing, just make it clear to the reader who you are and what your relationship to the book is. Look. At some point, you got that manuscript or proposal in from an agent, you fell in love with it so madly that you were willing to face the firing squad (aka acquisition board) in order to sign up the book. To get past that hurdle you had to be a hell of an advocate, and you had to believe deeply in the author you were asking the company to invest in--because your job depends on your instincts being right. And when your life depends on that decision-making ability, you have to speak more passionately and eloquently about that book than than anyone else can. Don't you think readers of the books section will be moved by that? I do. Take a look at Bob Miller's piece about Joann Davis's book if you need an example. He's ahead of the game as usual.

#3. If you're not willing to step out from behind your desk, if you're not willing to let the world know how you feel personally about the books you stake your job and reputation on every day, then ask a blogger to review a book. But be careful how you do it (publicists, sit down and hang onto your desk, I'm about to make your already overwhelming job harder). If you think you're going to send a generic pitch to a blogger, take a look at Jonathan Fields' piece to find out what can happen. The web is all about authentic relationships, so start creating them. Human to human, not "corporate identity" to "potential publicity vehicle."

#4. Forget the publication date. (Sorry, watch for fainting publicists again.) Ten days before is not enough. Four weeks before is not enough. Between two and four months--you heard me, two to four months. Around the time you're thinking of sending to long lead magazines (for any lay readers, that's the monthly magazines, and we pitch them about 4 months before publication date) is when buzz on the Internet needs to start because remember, when the editors and producers you contact begin thinking about whether or not they are going to have your author on TV or feature your book in their magazine, they're on Google looking for early buzz.

When was the last time a good old fashioned pub date blast really worked (unless you're Dan Brown or Sarah Palin)? Does a book even stay in a store long enough for it to work? Arianna said the following at a recent Publishers Lunch, "From publication date to oblivion, you have about three weeks to make a book work." Now is that really long enough?

#5. Start a conversation with our readers. For the first time, you can reach your readers directly instead of waiting for a large chain store or a major media outlet (getting that is like winning the lottery) to promote a book to the point that it becomes visible. Huffington Post had 27 million unique visitors last month and 2 million unique comments. These are book-loving and idea-hungry readers. Invite feedback. Ask their opinion. Tell them what you love in books, what gets you out of bed in the morning, but whatever you do, speak personally, authentically and from the heart because they can smell an adapted press release a mile away.

Next time we'll talk about your Facebook pages. Oh boy do we have some work to do.

Get HuffPost Books On Facebook and Twitter!

 

Comments

[OregonRusalka]

As a long-time reviewer of (mainly) non-fiction books for widely-read publications, I see the role of the book reviewer quite differently from Ms. Hertz. Perhaps it is because I am NOT within the publishing industry! I see my role as guiding interested readers to good books and scaring them off of bad books. Most of the books I review are genuinely good; but there are the heavily publicized clunkers that make me crazy.

Buzz can be every bit as misleading as publicists' memos and blurbs. With affiliate marketing, buzz will soon be no more reliable than publishers' blurbs.

My other role as a reviewer is to really encourage good writing, good editing and good book production. Some publishers (big name ones!) are notorious for publishing books without copy-editing, so loaded with typos and misprints that the book becomes unreadable. Some large publishers work hard getting the early chapters looking good so that browsers will buy the book, while the second half is repetitive crap! If you don't have honest, unbiased reviewers who make no more money off the book that what they are paid for the review (if they are paid, if they are lucky), who is going to tell authors and publishers the truth about what they have produced? And who is going to tell readers what is a waste of their money?

[Keith Thomson - Huffpost Blogger]

What if, purely hypothetically, the author is too busy with trying to somehow turn in his sequel due in 71 days to blog as often as he once did before, ironically, his blog got him a book contract?

[Amy Hertz - Huffpost Blogger]

Um, watch for advancements in cloning? (Kidding.) Or, what if you once in a while posted updates on the writing?

[KimmerieWeiss]

Great post. I'm happy to say that our IT department is equipping HCI authors with their own blogging turf via our website and well in advance of their pub dates. We'll just have to get them to stretch out their blogging efforts to include other venues. I do some of my own blogging for personal pleasure and professional outreach all with the overarching them of book-ism. As an aside, after fifteen years in publicity I finally figured out how to save the industry and throw a bone to much deserving unknown authors. For every appearance made by a celebrity touting his/her book, they must bring with them and recommend another book by either a first time or hardly known author. Think about what that would do for book sales. All kidding (sort of) aside, best wishes with your blog. It's given me much to think about and I've already shared it with several departments here.

[Norman W Wilson]

An excellent article by Amy Hertz. However, if a writer, published or hopeful, spends his/her time blogging, commenting at various sites would it not cut into actual time writing? Nearly everyone these days is advocating self-promotion. And that's good providing that's not all you do. The name of the game is writing.

[Callie Oettinger]

Per your comment about writers needing to write -- writers need to promote, too.

Blogging is a better use of time than doing a bookstore tour or other traditional book PR strategies. As with everything else, writers need to balance their writing and promotional projects. Steven Pressfield talks about this quite a bit in the Q&As he's done with different bloggers, and in the Writing Wednesdays series he does on his blog. http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/

Steve is a writer, who is blogging three-series a week (one about writing, and two about current-event topics which he is passionate about), in addition to doing Q&As with bloggers, and writing a new book. That's a lot of writing, but he's figured out how to do it, has a schedule, and sticks to it.

Since Steve launched his blog in June, he's connected with thousands of readers - some long-time fans, and some new readers of his work.

And yes, I'm a publicist working with Steve. I'm not posting this comment here just to promote his site, but more to show it as an example of what authors can be accomplish.

It takes times. Read Jonathan Fields' (who Amy references) piece about his own book promotion. You have to get things going in advance, as has been done for long leads in the past - and then you have to stick with it. Commit.

[debbsmith]

For twenty years I lived in the belly of the beast as a reasonably successful (at times *very* successful) novelist, publishing with New York giants like Bantam Books and Little, Brown. While my situation appeared to outsiders to be the Holy Grail of writing careers, behind the facade it was isolated, frustrating, capricious, political, badly managed, vengeful, and often flat-out incomprehensible.

I moved to my own small press, BelleBooks, which I and a clutch of writer friends have run on a shoestring for years. I started writing my big fat southern novels for BB, essentially self-publishing them. Now I have a substantial career again. Not only as an author, but as an editor and publicist for the many other authors we publish.

My press's model is based on reaching readers, not bookstore shelves.
We Tweet, we Scribble, we post on Facebook, we blog, and we are building an enormous network of book-blogging readers and reviewers. We're getting tremendous traction with our books, longterm. We make YouTube videos-- simple book trailers, but effective.
And it's working.
There's a vast world of bloggers out there, all talking to each other about the books they love and the reasons they love certain books. Many of those novels are not on the radar of major reviewers or publishers, but they have a loyal following.
And a growing army of readers who don't need a bricks-and-mortar bookstore any more.
Deborah Smith, editor, publisher, author
bellebooks.com

[Charlotte Safavi - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Amy. Enlightening! Heard about this blog through a local writers group in DC...Web news travels far and fast.

[Joel Watts]

Excellent points, Amy. Although I am not a writer; I am blogger, a reviewer and a reader http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us/resources//). I feel that the companies who interact with us on the blogs, whether through offering free books for review, or extensive blog tours to announce their new books, it adds that human interaction which does prompt us to become fan favorites of the publishing houses.

When publishers take the time to add human interaction, or authors, it makes me that much more likely to read other titles from them and to promote them.

[Caitlin Price]

Great advice Amy!!

[cybermome1207]

well I'm not an author or a Huffpost blogger. I'm a blogger and avid reader of books. One comment about this section and blogging in general.

Blogging/and social media is immediate. But it defeats the whole purpose if authors only blog here and other places to sell their book. And that includes Facebook too.

Blogging is interactive......

[Mark Bloomfield]

Why do so many insist on the fantasy of having the book 'in the store'? (yeah, that rhetorical. I know why - but..) The author (and publisher) need to focus their attention on creating demand with readers. People know how to get books they want. Bookstores (both indies and chains) are pretty good at getting things people ask for ... and with half a million new books alone every year, it's impossible for them to stock even a sliver of the new titles published every year on spec!

[BLStander]

Brava! I look forward to your next dispatch.

#4 should be Pre-empt (not Forget) the Publication Date. I am constantly amazed at authors who don't start thinking about putting up a website or making publicity/promo plans until 3 months (or less!) before pub date.

Blogging helps build community, but it's not always effective at getting people to go out & buy books. Which is why I tell my authors to do real-world events in addition to maintaining an online presence. ("Meet the Author" parties are great because more drinks=more book sales.)

It's true that readers can smell an adapted press release a mile away. Sometimes they're not even adapted--much less personalized or spelled correctly. I've gotten several pitches that begin "Dear Editor/Reviewer" when I'm neither. If the publicist had glanced at my blog for 5 seconds they would have seen that I do a very few interviews & no reviews. And if they spent another few seconds looking at "What I'm Reading Now" or "Books I've Read Recently" on my sidebar, they would have known not to pitch, say, a violent thriller or vampire romance.

[MJRose]

Oh boy are you right Amy - about everything and its great to have one more voice to add to the chorus of us you are joining who want change in this broken biz.

Of everything you said the two week comment is so critical! No other industry in the world thinks 2 weeks is enough to do anything for a product. Even 2 months is short. It takes at least 6-8 weeks for anything to even reach pubic consciousness enough to start trending and start to register. It takes over 30,000 people to know about something and talk about it till you even get to the beginning of a tipping point.

And giving a book 2 weeks of coop is equally bizarre- just as a few people start to read it and talk about it - its gone. It also forgets about all the people who buy the book and don't start reading it that day - but don't even get to it for weeks.

All this is part of the reason that trade paperbacks seem to do so well when they catch on - it's because booksellers don't return trade paperbacks as fast as hardcovers or mass markets and hence they have a shot at being discovered.

I hope everyone reads your column -and the ones to come - and you continue to help those of us who are so very desperately trying to shake things up.

[Angie Cordeiro - Huffpost Blogger]

"...The web is all about authentic relationships, so start creating them. Human to human, not "corporate identity" to "potential publicity vehicle..."

nice ;-)

[Karen Dalton-Beninato - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Amy! Your section is off to a rollicking start and yes, there are publishers plotzing already. Thanks to social media friendships I've interviewed authors, activists and entertainers here on Huffington and am looking forward to doing more of the same on the Books page. P.S. 27 million uniques? Fine, I'll start spell checking ;)

[Gina Frangello]

Hi Amy--
I'm an occasional HuffPo blogger as well as the Executive Editor at Other Voices Books, an indie press with IPPY, Lambda and SCIBA awards under our belt and a small budget that makes me love all things online, i.e. free. I'm also a fiction writer with my second book coming out in May. These opportunities you're outlining are really valuable for both editors and writers. So long as this blogging component remains only part of a vibrant section including a book club and other features that are being generated separately from self-promotional efforts on the part of industry insiders, this seems like a great plan. My one worry would be that if the general public is afraid all they're going to find here is authors and editors and publicists blogging about their own books, will they visit? It's a great "inside track" forum for the truly bookish, but the genius of HuffPo is how many wildly divergent people are attracted to the site for a kind of central content that has a wide range of appeal beyond any one industry, so I look forward, here too, to a mix of industry passion and HuffPo style.
Meanwhile, how do we get started?
And thanks for putting this out there!