Book Marketing Buzz

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is David Liss, author of The Devil’s Company.

Having now published six novels, I can officially announce that the marketing experience for each book an author writes is going to be unique. For my first novel I was lucky enough to receive the debut author treatment, with lots of publicity, stories in major magazines, radio, television, reviews in just about every paper that did reviews. When I wrote my second novel, I discovered that you very rarely get that kind of treatment twice. The world loves a first-time author. Second time authors are just workhorses like everyone else.

Promotion for my new novel, The Devil’s Company, however, is going to be particularly different since this time around I will not be going on the usual book tour. My publisher decided to skip the travel, in part because I toured for my previous novel 9 months earlier, and in part because, in light of the current economy, they are freaking out about money. Instead of sending me to fabulous cities and putting me up in excellent hotel and feeding me terrific food via room service – and who wants that anyhow? – the focus will be media, internet, and direct contact with readers.

Even as we speak, lots of radio appearances are being cooked up, especially the all-important NPR presence, but because my books in general, and The Devil’s Company in particular, deal with economic history, I tend to do fairly well on the AM talk shows. In the past I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get on television, even local television, and even with a topical novel. Last year I published The Whiskey Rebels, a novel about the first financial crisis in American history that happened to come out during the most recent financial crisis in American history. Despite the depressing numbers in the publishing business, the hardcover sold well, but even so, local TV was scarce and the only national television I managed to get on was Canadian. This time I’ve got another topical historical novel – a major company faced with drastically altered market conditions that force it to change the way it does business (think GM or Chrysler, only in the 18th century and lots of plot twists), so we can hope for the best.

There is also the push for reviews, but print reviews are harder to get than ever before. Most newspapers and magazines have drastically reduced the staff and space previously dedicated to books. That’s why the internet is more important than every before. There is real interest among readers for news and reviews of books, and we are trying hard to make sure as man book-sites and blogs know about the book and review it.

As with my last book, my publisher has managed to get early copies of the book into readers hands, mostly through book-related social networking sites like Goodreads and Librarything. And then there is the virtual book tour. Finally, I’ve revamped my web page and launched a blog that is updated (almost) daily. I’ve always enjoyed having direct contact with my readers. I like meeting them on tour, and corresponding with them via email. I like my readers to feel like I am an actual person and not just an abstract concept. And I am an actual person. Really.