CHAPTER 1, Post # 5

PUBLICITY vs ADVERTISING

CHAPTER I

What is the difference between advertising and publicity? You pay for advertising. Publicity is free. Except in topic specific books, where a specific audience can be targeted, for the most part advertising is a poor return on your investment. Say for example an author wants to advertise their book in a magazine like Hydroelectric Dam Engineering or Sumatran Tropical Bird Diseases. Our in-house engineer would get more milage writing a magazine article for his specific audience on “Hydroelectric Dams” which would be read by all the magazine readers. An advertisement tucked away in the back pages is more likely to be passed over unread. Also, an article establishes your credentials gives you credibility and you will be paid for it. We’ll cover magazines and other print media later.

The time to begin your promotion is when you have a signed book contract.
The publication date might be nine months or a year away. You still have long months of editing, reediting, copy editing, line editing and galley printings before that happens and the last thing you have time to think about is promoting you book. If you wait you’ll be too late.
So how do you get your book out in front of the public?
You have four choices:

1. Hire a national publicist.
A full time publicist (full time for you and a dozen other clients) can charge $5,000.00 a month and they are worth every penny. Most are hired for an average of three months, the general life span of a book. They will organize a full national book tour for you; contact the media, arrange travel plans, book you into hotels and supply you with literary escorts.
Others will charge you by city. Usually guaranteeing you two radio and two TV interviews plus ink -- coverage in newspapers. They charge anywhere from $2,000 to $3,500 per city or area which might include two or three cities in one urban area, like Dallas-Fort Worth or the North Carolina Tri-city area.
Even if you have the funds to hire a national she might not take your book. After an initial conversation or meeting she might realize there is nothing she can do that will help you increase sales. Not all books and authors, are promotable, in the sense of an equitable return on your investment.
There is a useful list of book publicists in the Literary Market Place.