My Marketing & Publicity
Promotional Guide
for book creators at any stage of their career.
I offer this information to everyone, at no cost.
Please consider reviewing Pedro & Daniel on Amazon: HERE
Move The Needle . . . A Needle . . . Some Needles
Marketing Tips For Authors (and other book creators)
by Federico Erebia
The writer’s primary job is to write the best book they can write. Once it’s written, many authors choose to move on to their next project(s), and they do very little to market that book before, during, or after its launch. Well-known and prolific authors may have well-oiled, marketing and publicity teams working to promote their books, and the author simply attends events planned by their team.
But what about a debut or early-career author? Or an author waiting for their first contract? Can they, should they, think about marketing and publicity? The answer, of course, starts with, That depends . . .
Because there are as many approaches to marketing a book, as there are books, and you could start marketing yourself, before you have a book to promote.
I’ve heard many authors ask, “Do I really need a website?” or “Do I really need to be on social media?” and the response is often, “You don’t need a website. . . . You don’t need a social media presence. . . . You can’t ‘move the needle.’”
Those responses may be technically correct, but I have a different perspective, with a That depends undercurrent.
Before I started my writing career in 2021, I had spent thirty years honing my woodworking – cabinet and furniture making – while working part time as an internist and HIV provider. My clients were primarily word-of-mouth referrals, but I also shared my work on social media [primarily Facebook]. With a mixture of talent, hard work, persistence, good luck, and intuition, I’ve had my work featured in various magazines and newspapers:
FEWorks
A Boston television program featured a story about me and my unlikely friendship with a squirrel.
Persistence, luck, and intuition lead to a Boston NPR interview about my self-published picture books about that squirrel:
NPR Interview Part One
NPR Interview Part Two
In other words, I have more M&P experience than the average debut novelist.
In the last two years, I’ve observed dozens of book launch campaigns. I was fortunate to have been chosen for the Poets & Writers publicity incubator [a three-month, weekly intensive in marketing and publicity basics]. I’m also learning from hundreds of other debut authors in my debut groups.
The culled information in this presentation scratches the surface of many book promotion topics. It is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive.
Let’s start by defining the word needle, as in You can’t move the needle.
Two years before the launch of my debut novel, I was a complete unknown in the publishing industry. My Pre-Launch Campaign goals were to increase awareness of my name, and of my book. Those were the needles I wanted to move. I believed that in time, name and book recognition would lead to the movement of a third needle: book sales. But my ultimate goal was a fourth needle: getting reviews on Amazon [more on that later].
The following anecdotes occurred before my first trade review was published [later, I’ll explain why this caveat is important]:
I live in a suburb of Boston. When I walked into the New York Public Library in February 2023, the librarian recognized the book tote bearing the distinct Pedro & Daniel book cover. She knew who I was because of my Twitter posts. She showed me that she had already ordered my eARC, because of the early reviews and other information I shared in my posts. At that time, digital ARCs had been available for two weeks, and physical ARCS were weeks away.
When I walked into a New Hampshire independent bookstore in March 2023, the bookseller knew my book, and he showed me the Pre-Order requests he had already received.
I did not know this out-of-state librarian or bookseller, but they knew about me, and more importantly, they knew about Pedro & Daniel.
I had moved my needles. Folks were aware of Pedro & Daniel months before its launch in June 2023. Without my efforts, when would they have known about it?
But those are anecdotes, and my scientific background tells me that data are needed to support a claim.
THE FEDERICO EREBIA MARKETING & PUBLICITY GUIDE FOR BOOK CREATORS
is also visible in an interactive Google Document HERE.
Marketing Tips For Authors (and other book creators)
by Federico Erebia
The writer’s primary job is to write the best book they can write. Once it’s written, many authors choose to move on to their next project(s), and they do very little to market that book before, during, or after its launch. Well-known and prolific authors may have well-oiled, marketing and publicity teams working to promote their books, and the author simply attends events planned by their team.
But what about a debut or early-career author? Or an author waiting for their first contract? Can they, should they, think about marketing and publicity? The answer, of course, starts with, That depends . . .
Because there are as many approaches to marketing a book, as there are books, and you could start marketing yourself, before you have a book to promote.
I’ve heard many authors ask, “Do I really need a website?” or “Do I really need to be on social media?” and the response is often, “You don’t need a website. . . . You don’t need a social media presence. . . . You can’t ‘move the needle.’”
Those responses may be technically correct, but I have a different perspective, with a That depends undercurrent.
Before I started my writing career in 2021, I had spent thirty years honing my woodworking – cabinet and furniture making – while working part time as an internist and HIV provider. My clients were primarily word-of-mouth referrals, but I also shared my work on social media [primarily Facebook]. With a mixture of talent, hard work, persistence, good luck, and intuition, I’ve had my work featured in various magazines and newspapers:
FEWorks
A Boston television program featured a story about me and my unlikely friendship with a squirrel.
Persistence, luck, and intuition lead to a Boston NPR interview about my self-published picture books about that squirrel:
NPR Interview Part One
NPR Interview Part Two
In other words, I have more M&P experience than the average debut novelist.
In the last two years, I’ve observed dozens of book launch campaigns. I was fortunate to have been chosen for the Poets & Writers publicity incubator [a three-month, weekly intensive in marketing and publicity basics]. I’m also learning from hundreds of other debut authors in my debut groups.
The culled information in this presentation scratches the surface of many book promotion topics. It is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive.
Let’s start by defining the word needle, as in You can’t move the needle.
Two years before the launch of my debut novel, I was a complete unknown in the publishing industry. My Pre-Launch Campaign goals were to increase awareness of my name, and of my book. Those were the needles I wanted to move. I believed that in time, name and book recognition would lead to the movement of a third needle: book sales. But my ultimate goal was a fourth needle: getting reviews on Amazon [more on that later].
The following anecdotes occurred before my first trade review was published [later, I’ll explain why this caveat is important]:
I live in a suburb of Boston. When I walked into the New York Public Library in February 2023, the librarian recognized the book tote bearing the distinct Pedro & Daniel book cover. She knew who I was because of my Twitter posts. She showed me that she had already ordered my eARC, because of the early reviews and other information I shared in my posts. At that time, digital ARCs had been available for two weeks, and physical ARCS were weeks away.
When I walked into a New Hampshire independent bookstore in March 2023, the bookseller knew my book, and he showed me the Pre-Order requests he had already received.
I did not know this out-of-state librarian or bookseller, but they knew about me, and more importantly, they knew about Pedro & Daniel.
I had moved my needles. Folks were aware of Pedro & Daniel months before its launch in June 2023. Without my efforts, when would they have known about it?
But those are anecdotes, and my scientific background tells me that data are needed to support a claim.
THE FEDERICO EREBIA MARKETING & PUBLICITY GUIDE FOR BOOK CREATORS
is also visible in an interactive Google Document HERE.