Author Interview: Memoirist Vicki Forman on book publicity, and what a first-time author can expect – and expect to do.

Vicki Forman's fabulous memoir, This Lovely Life, winner of the Bakeless Prize, was published last summer to terrific reviews, and suddenly Vicki and her book were popping up everywhere. In the interview which follows, Vicki discusses what a first-time author can expect in terms of book promotion, her own personal commitment to marketing her book, what that required.

LR: In the guest post you did here last winter, you discussed final pre-publication edits. Now, you're seven months post-publication. What's the view from here? Any surprises?

VF: It surprised me to find out just how challenging it is to sell a book. After all the hard work of writing a book, and persevering until the book found a home, once the book came out I was prepared for promotion to take over my life, but I had not anticipated the real work of hand-selling a book, essentially one reader at a time.

I am so very grateful to the loyal readers who lined up and bought the book, either at readings or from their local bookstores or from online retailers. But it is definitely the case that this a tough market for writers. One bookseller I spoke with confessed to me that he would typically have 20 to 25 sales from a reading with a good turnout. Now those sales were more like 5 to 10 books. That's sobering news for a writer, certainly.

LR: How far in advance of the publication date did you begin your personal effort at publicity? What did you do first?

VF: Once I had settled on a title for the book, the first thing I did was register that URL. I knew I would want readers to find an online presence for the book, so that was most important in my mind. I registered the URL a year before the book was published.

As I moved forward in the production process, I used my personal blog and Facebook status to keep my immediate friends and audience abreast of steps. I posted pictures of galleys and ARC's as they became available. By that point, we were about four months away from publication. As soon as the book was available for pre-order, I started up the book's website and a Facebook group for the book. In my opinion, as soon as you have approved cover art, book publicity can begin.

In May, first reviews came out. The book was published in July, but by June I had a fleshed out website with reviews, excerpts, appearance schedule, an author Q&A and contact information. It's important to remember that a lot of publicity happens ahead of publication, so you want to be ready with your online presence in particular. Think of what your potential readers or reviewers might want to know about you, and put all that up on your website in an organized fashion.

LR: Can you give a quickie breakdown of the different avenues of publicity you undertook, and your gut reaction to how each of those efforts worked out?

VF: The website was always going to be important, for the reasons I list above, and, even more important, because it costs so little. A book or author website is probably the most necessary promotional tool you can have.

Author appearances have a significant, yet intangible importance. As I mentioned before, this was a tough market in which to sell books. However, if a bookstore was willing to have me come and read, I did. I was careful not to sign too much stock (the booksellers seemed to appreciate this gesture) and I was happy no matter how many copies I sold. I can't say enough about the value of face-to-face contact with an audience. Even if I felt like the appearance had a small turnout, I almost always saw an uptick in visits to the book's website afterwards. You also get to hear first hand what readers like about your book, and you get to meet the bookstore folks and develop relationships with them.

I attended several conferences, which had a different, but equally important value. Here I could meet the professionals who might then go back to their organizations and talk about the book. I think there is great reward in being a speaker on a panel at a large conference. You may not sell any books while you're there, but you are getting terrific exposure for your work and your name. You also gain experience in meeting and talking to very different people than you might encounter at a reading. I learned so much from the professionals I met at the conferences I attended, and all that knowledge helped me develop more expertise.

Finally, I did several student classroom and book club visits, both in person and on Skype. Of all my efforts, these were the most rewarding moments, honestly, because I could talk at leisure about the book and the process, and really get to listen to the readers and what interested them.

It would be nice if there were a formula for rates of return on each promotional effort, but I haven't been able to come up with one that I could justify with real numbers. Rule #1 for me has always been, "say yes" and figure out how to make it happen. I did anything anyone asked me to do. I did readings and appearances; I spoke on panels at conferences, I did print, radio and TV interviews. And yes, guest blog posts. All of it.

LR: Were you following a plan or was it more a matter of gut feel?

VF: I was very fortunate to be mentored by a great friend who is also a fantastic writer and an absolute maven in promotional efforts. I asked her a lot of questions, listened to everything she said, asked again if something didn't make sense, and, most importantly, followed every last bit of her advice. Then I bought copies of her book for my friends, by way of support. I cannot say enough about getting advice from someone who has done it already. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, and you should learn from someone who has done it well.

LR: Were you shocked at the amount of time you needed to personally spend on PR?

VF: I wasn't shocked by the amount of time (anything will take up however much time you give it, whether it's book promotion or cleaning your cutlery) but I was surprised by how distracting it was. I don’t know how anyone writes while doing publicity. There is no routine, no rhythm to your days, no end to the tasks. I loved every interview and bookstore appearance, but I did find it daunting to be out on the road, being "on" and being ready to answer any and all questions, to give long readings (in some cases) or tough ones.

You've worked so hard to even have a book, you have to give it your all on the follow through. Especially with a first book, you want to show publishers and booksellers that you've really done your job. While it's hard to know what efforts directly translate into sales, it is important to try everything and see what sticks.

Book promotion is a part-time job in the two months leading up to publication, a full-time job in the six months after publication, and then a part-time job again for a final two to three months. I have appearances scheduled up through May. By then, the book will have been out for nearly a year.

LR: Was it difficult to know where to put your efforts, whether you were using your time and energy wisely?

VF: The main goal in book promotion, to my mind, is momentum. You want to do whatever it takes to keep the momentum going. Update the website, schedule readings, send out complimentary copies of the book, all of it. I would not worry about coming up with a formula, because all publicity is good publicity. I felt everything was a good use of my time and attention.

LR: At any point, did you consider hiring a PR person?

VF: I had offers from people to write up plans, but I declined. It seemed like if I had a "to do" list and didn’t do everything, I'd feel like I'd failed. I preferred to focus on the traditional promotion I knew (readings and appearances) approached the media contacts I already had to see what they might want to do (interviews, etc.) and then followed the "say yes" rule. It worked out fine for me not to have a strict plan. Ultimately, the best spokesperson for the book is you, the writer.

A friend in publicity told me at the start that she didn’t ever look at sales of books she was promoting because she would just get depressed. You simply can't know how effort will translate into sales, or if it will.

However, like any effort, I do think it's important to have goals, and for them to be reasonable. That way, you can feel good about your accomplishments. I set a goal at the start, and that was to sell out the first print-run. If I could achieve that goal, I would allow myself to feel good about my efforts. Four months after the book was published, I sold out my first print run. I let out a deep breath then, knowing that if I felt like I had to stop right then, I could. I didn't stop, and I haven't, but I have learned how to pace myself a lot in the process.

The most important thing to remember is that if you're lucky and your publisher keeps your book in print, the book will go on selling long after you've done all your hard work. It's also important to know that (hopefully) this is not the only book you'll write (or promote). This is a first step in a lifelong career.

LR: What did the publisher do to help promote the book?

VF: The publicity manager was fantastic. She was responsive, got me a TV interview, worked hard at keeping the book alive and in front of people. But I also made it clear to her that I intended to do everything I could myself on the book's behalf as well. I would say we worked as a team when it mattered, and we worked individually when it mattered.

I was very fortunate. My publicity manager was a treasure. She had wonderful things to say about my book, and with every mention told me she was thrilled the book was "getting the attention it deserved." That being said, it's important to be realistic about what to expect. Have a good, long conversation at the start about what is reasonable, what the publisher will do and what you should plan to do on our own. I would never expect the publicity manager to arrange readings, for example, unless I couldn't get them on my own. Her time is much better served on the things she can do that I can't, like reaching a magazine editor or radio show for an interview. That being said, she was more than willing to do so, and sometimes, if a bookstore turned me down, I would ask her to step in.

LR: Any little tricks you found helpful?

VF: Two gems of advice: first, don’t buy author copies (they don't count towards sales). Buy copies yourself, discounted if you have to. Second, send everyone who asks for it a copy of your book, with a nice note, of course. I don't mean family members, but professionals or reviewers or bookstore folks. I probably sent out 50 copies on my own, book rate. I don't regret a single one.

LR: For your next book, what will you do differently in terms of PR?

VF: I'd love to have someone else maintain my website, and I'd make sure I have my own photos from all my events. I fell down on the job on that one, and I wish I hadn't. I would have liked for the website to be more current or updated more often, but with travel and all else I didn't get to do that as often as I'd like.

LR: Because you wrote about very personal matters, did you avoid certain publicity to shield your family?

VF: For one article, a magazine wanted to send a photographer to shoot us as a family. I asked my husband and he said yes, and that was that. I told him he could say no and I would have been willing to tell the magazine they couldn't have family photos. So while I was prepared to protect my family, it turned out not to be an issue, thanks to my husband.

Otherwise, I actually had to work very hard to ease fears in some audiences that they should feel free to ask me any and all questions. It felt important to me to acknowledge that while the subject matter was tough, I was coming out to talk about the book, and that meant I was approachable and open to any topic or discussion.

LR: What about costs – you traveled for some PR activities; were you able to share those with the publisher?

VF: Sadly, there was no real "budget" for travel. I took some money from my advance and used that to fund the publicity. I made sure to do as much as I could wherever I went (scheduling readings when I was in a city for a conference, for example). I booked hotels on Priceline, or stayed with family members. I don't regret any expense I incurred. It was all 100% worthwhile.

LR: What were the most enjoyable, and the most miserable, aspects of promoting your book?

VF: I loved being out and talking about the book, writing, and the issues the book raised. I hated worrying about sales, although I worried anyway.

LR: What do you know now that wish you knew at the time of publication?

VF: How much work it is to promote a book. I feel so much better informed, and ready for the next time around. Other than that, I feel everything I did was in service of the book. I had planned a flyer and a mailing and wish I'd had the time and resources to do it, but I'm not kicking myself that it didn't happen. I wish I'd had more opportunities for book clubs. Those can be hard to arrange but so satisfying.

LR: It's interesting to see how certain publicity opportunities happen. You had a review in the Yale Alumni Magazine; did you contact them directly, or did they respond to information from the publisher? The excerpt in The UK Guardian?

VF: Typically a publisher will ask a writer to fill out an "author questionnaire," which is essentially a very extensive checklist of avenues for promotion, including any and all press contacts, alumni associations, etc. These questionnaires are both daunting and important. In my case, I discovered I had avenues of promotion I had not considered, and those included several alumni associations as well as the pubic affairs offices of schools where I taught. Some of these I contacted directly, some contact came from the publisher. In some cases, good national publicity -- a mention in Elle Magazine, an interview on Salon -- brought in further interest, like the excerpt in the Guardian UK.

LR: In an article in the New York Times science section about the trauma parents endure when their newborn is in neonatal intensive care, your book is mentioned. How did that come about? It seems like such enviable exposure, and yet it doesn't appear to have come through normal book publicity channels.

VF: That contact was so fortuitous. I had an old college friend who became a huge champion of the book. She mentioned it in a Facebook post. One of her friends is a writer for the Times and saw the mention. She contacted my friend, who put us in touch. The rest was the kind of kismet a writer dreams about.

LR: Your book won the prestigious Bakeless Literary Prize. How much did that, and its association with Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, help with PR efforts?

VF: The best part of winning the Bakeless Prize (second to publication, obviously) was the opportunity to attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference last summer. The book had already appeared, and I was able to be part of a prestigious conference, as a published author. Of course Bread Loaf and the Bakeless bring attention in and of themselves, and being associated with a prize brings a level of gravitas to a book one can't manufacture.

LR: How much do you think it helped that you already had web presence – a blog, active in social networking, a long-running column at Literary Mama?

VF: Every agent and publisher will tell you the importance of having a platform. For me, the audience I'd discovered for the blog and column helped enormously, but not just in terms of bottom line sales. Over the years I've written my blog and column, I learned which parts of my story resonated, how to tell them, and how to talk about them. This is great training for a writer out on a promotional jaunt, because you want to be able to convey your message clearly and effectively. You want to have answers to potential questions, and you need to be able to talk to anyone and everyone (strangers and friends) about your story. The blog and the column helped me learn how to do this. These outlets help you attain a level of professionalism in terms of your work and your career that's absolutely essential.

Yet, in my opinion, there is a fine line between being visible on the web and in other arenas, there is also a fine line between being not visible enough and too visible. I've begun to think writers can wear themselves thin, and that the public only wants so much. This is true in terms of a web presence or any self-promotion. I was telling a friend the other day that I thought too much exposure could damage a writer. In the past, we didn't know all the details of a writer's life, and in essence we read that writer's work in order to learn more. Now, we might just know too much.

I have become a lot more careful on Twitter and Facebook, for example, in terms of how often I post, or what I post. I take my cue from some writers (who shall remain nameless), whom I feel I "hear from" far too often. If you're a writer, don't tell me about your trip to the vet with your cat. Tell me about a breakthrough writing moment. And don’t tell me five times a day. There's a chance I might not buy your book if I'm already weary of you and your words.

LR: Thank you, Vicki. I cannot imagine wearying of your words.

Publishing House Editors Share Inside Scoop

Let me call your attention to a long but informative and lively roundtable over at Poets & Writers, with four publishing house editors. A few of the take-aways:

P&W: What do you wish writers knew about you that they sometimes don't?
GARGAGLIANO (Scribner): I think most writers don't realize that every editor goes home and reads and edits for four hours—that they're not doing that in the office. That in the office they're advocating for all of the authors they already have….
P&W: What else?
GARGAGLIANO: I think it's important for writers to remember that we're not their enemy. We love books and we're looking for books that we love. CHINSKI(Farrar, Straus and Giroux): And ads are not love. GARGAGLIANO: And ads do not equal sales. BOUDREAUX (Ecco): If those two things appear in print—that we're working nights and weekends and ads don't sell books—we have all done a fine job here….
P&W :What have your authors taught you about how to do your job?
GARGAGLIANO: To be honest with them. I often have the impulse to protect my authors and treat them as if they are more fragile than they actually are. It's better if I can have an open conversation with them. If I start that early on, the better our relationship is going to be going forward, and the easier it will be to talk about tough things. That took me a while to
figure out.
BOUDREAUX: They teach you over and over and over—and this is so obvious—but they will always have a better solution to an editing problem than anything you could come up with. If you just raise the question, they will solve it. The universe of their book is more real to them than it could ever be to anyone else.

In addition to the above topics, they discuss a wide range of publishing issues, from how to tell an A+ agent from a B+ agent; the impact of electronic books; and many other areas.

Read the whole interview here. At the end of the attributed quotes is an "after the interview" section where the editors get to anonymously vent a little and also call out their current favorite agents and competitors. Definitely worth the time to read the entire piece.

No Cereals, Restaurants, or Morticians: It's a WRITING Blog !

This is a writing blog. You'd think that this would be clear from my blog's name, the standing blog description on the left margin, and the nature of each and every post. Sigh.

I worked full time in public relations for about a dozen years. I know the drill. And I'm sure that the PR folks I've heard from just so far this week are only trying to do their jobs. They are doing them poorly, however.

Or else why would a PR rep for a cereal company contact me about doing a blog post on their two new flavors? Or an event producer try to plug a conference about restaurant development? And what was the point of that mass-emailed news release for a future reality TV show about funeral directors?

Maybe these folks figure that since it doesn't cost anything to put more blog writers on their email distribution list, why not. What annoys me most is that when I worked directly in PR – and now, when I coach authors through their own book marketing & PR efforts – I was/am adamant about the importance of targeting requests to media which actually cover your client's/product's area of interest.

PR folks, this is a writing blog.

While this is amusing in an annoying kind of way, it brings up something I've wanted to address here – the subject of sponsored blog posts. As in, bloggers who write posts about a product, event or person in exchange for something – money, a gift card, merchandise, services. Some bloggers mention the exchange up front by way of disclosure. Others don't. I'm not condemning the practice; I'm sure some publicists and bloggers are completely transparent about it and that in many cases no promises of positive press are proffered. Still.

I have not yet, and don't plan to, do any sponsored blog posts here.

I do accept review copies of books from publishers and authors, but always with the understanding that it may or may not result in any blog coverage, and that any mention it does get may or may not be positive. I receive far more books than I could hope to read anyway, and those I do occasionally write about represent a small fraction. By and large, I usually only write about a book or author on the blog because I'm genuinely interested. I just feel better that way, and I want my readers to know that I'm passing something along because I find it has value, not because I got something valuable.

One of my writing-related business ventures is working one-on-one with authors (especially first-time authors) to help them develop a book marketing and publicity plan which they can implement themselves, with on-going coaching support from me. To date, I have not covered these clients or their books on the blog, and don't have any plans to do so. In future, if I do, it will be with a clear note about that relationship.

Now that I've cleared this up, please excuse me. It's lunch time, and I'm thinking of having cereal. And you won't have to hear about which one I like best. At least not here. Ever.

This is a writing blog! And I kind of figure you'd want me to keep it that way.

Guest Blogger Linda K. Sienkiewicz on Self-Promotion for Writers: Make it Shameless Please!

While an MFA student, I met many different types of fellow student writers, and when it came to how they talked about being published, most fell into two extreme categories – born self-promoters who confidently pointed out their many publications, and incredibly modest types who hardly ever mentioned their published pieces.

Linda K. Sienkiewicz was mostly in the second group, but belongs in the first. From the first, she struck me as a writer intensely interested in improving her craft, across several genres and in many areas of interest. You wanted to be in her workshop, she always asked great questions following a faculty presentation. Yet Linda rarely mentioned her accomplishments, and unless you were lucky enough to spend a quiet one-on-one lunch together (as I was), you might conclude there wasn't much to tell. You'd be wrong. Linda is a Puschart Prize nominee, has authored a poetry chapbook, been published in dozens of quality literary journals, and is a frequently published humor and erotica essayist. More people should know about Linda's work. That's why I'm so pleased that for her guest post today, she's summarizing a panel from last week's AWP Writers Conference about…self-promotion.

Please welcome Linda K. Sienkiewicz.

When you have published a book, the notion of self promotion as being shameful is flat-out wrong. Publicity is an act of generosity. Promotion should be a joy. It is a writer’s duty and right.

This is what poet Todd Boss, novelist Marisha Chamberlain, nonfiction author Jon Spayde and poet Margaret Hasse said in one of the most exciting and well presented of the AWP conference seminars -- Shameless Promotion: Get the Book to the Readers. It was also one of the best attended, with writers sitting on the floor in the aisles and standing in the back. Their subject is an important issue because it is very hard for some humble writers to embrace "selling" themselves.

Boss, Spayde, Hasse and Chamberlain say authors need to deep-six the underlying assumption that if one has to put effort into marketing themselves, it might indicate there isn’t enough talent to carry the work. It’s foolish to believe that your talent should be recognizable to all and therefore, that there should be no need to promote your work.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way, and with marketing budgets at publishing houses being slashed, you don’t want to have a box full of new books and no plan. This was something echoed in other presentations I attended, given by editors and book publishers from small presses and to trade houses.

Authors must start their own pre-book buzz, plan their readings and signings, launch a website, and basically sell themselves. There’s no need, however, to dole out thousands of dollars to hire a publicist. Create your own shameless marketing plan and fund it. And do it in the spirit of sharing yourself with the world. This is your right and your duty.

To demonstrate, attendees were given a nifty card with the four authors' color photos and bios (with, of course, their books and publishers listed) on one side and 10 “Shameless Book Publicity Tips” on the other:

1. Schlepp your books. You never know when a conversation might lead someone to say “Hey, where can I buy your book?” and when they do, you better have a copy on hand. Don’t feel guilty either. Feel good about promoting the reading of good literature. Look the person in the eye and say thanks.

2. Embrace your “authority” as an author and an expert. Spayde says it’s not inflating yourself. As a writer, you know things; you’ve done research, honed a craft, worked with editors, and undoubtedly have expertise to offer others as a speaker. Speak, teach, and interact.

3. Become a local laureate. Boss offered to be the laureate of a local coffee shop. It’s true that the coffee shop didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded good, and now he’s hosting a monthly poetry series there with 40 or so attendees. Everyone in his town knows who he is, a copy of his book is in the coffee shop where patrons can read it, and he got a feature article in the city’s newspaper’s arts section.

4. Write to your heroes. I remember reading this in Carolyn See’s book Making a Literary Life. Write fan letters to those writers or publishers you admire, and do it without expectations. When you give yourself to other writers, you never know it what ways it might come back to you. Because writing is a solitary act, we need to remember to let other writers know that what they’re doing matters to someone.

5. Blog, but blog deep. The value in this is, simply, human connection. Think about making connections and inviting response.

6. Do a little publicity daily (365 days a year). Who can’t devote 15 minutes a day toward publicity? Make a list of ideas and adjust your schedule to fit in a daily task, like a publicity multi-vitamin.

7. Snag private commissions. This was Boss’s idea. He says creating a poem for someone for a special occasion is a joy that has given back to him many times in many ways.

8. Map your fans, and travel. Collect emails and keep records of people you meet and are/were affiliated with. Contact them. Stage a themed reading with a few other writers. Go to book clubs. Cross promote. Collaborate.

9. Court opinion leaders. Think about who your ideal readers are and what organizations they might belong to. Think non-profit, leisure groups, hobbies and politics. Find the names of those who run and attend these groups and get them a copy of your book.

10. Memorize and record your work. Yes… think performance! Writers are communicators and the world is expanding in many ways. Launch a virtual tour. Get on YouTube. Record a CD, DVD, or podcast.

The message I took home is that promotion is more than self-service. Writers have an obligation to share their work with the world. We build a better world by our literary presence. As Boss states, his work is a reflection of his true spirit as a human being; “therefore, its celebration is blameless.”

The four enthusiastic authors maintain a website where you can read more.

Poetry, Publicity, Reading, Contests, and is the Publishing Sky Falling?

►Okay, I'm heading out to a poetry master class (some people just have too much time on their hands, right?), and after the class, I'll have an hour lull before the evening readings, which is when I plan to read my copy of New York magazine, starting with this the sky-is-falling piece that so many publishing and media sites are buzzing about.

►At lunch yesterday with a new novelist friend, I was telling her that one of the reasons – in addition to excellent prose and fine storytelling -- why her latest book was such a satisfying read for me, is the place I found myself both physically and psychologically when I sat down to read it. So it is with complete simpatico that I read Erika Dreifus's post about what one of the late David Foster Wallace's works meant to her.

►Even though I have a background in public relations, I still keep picking up great new (and new media) tips from Publicity Hound, relevant to positioning and developing one's "brand." I keep passing these along to friends with books to promote.

►Contests. Good, bad and sometimes, very, very ugly. Poet Stacy Lynn Brown recounts a tale which starts with a familiar hanging-in-there-and-continuing-to-submit scenario, leading to an eventual contest win that came with a publishing promise…then it turns depressing: deceit, lawsuit threats, disillusionment, and other unsavory situations. And, she names names. There's a response from the small press she indicts, and I suppose only the two of them know the "real" story. Still. Those who enter contests (me included), might take note.