Writing Your Book Is Not Enough

You’ve outlined your book and written a few tight sample chapters. All that’s left to do is get it picked up and then you’ll be on your way to the TED circuit, right? Won’t your publisher take care of the rest?

I wish I could tell you it was that straightforward.

There’s no small measure of confusion out there among writers who aspire to be traditionally published—specifically around who's responsible for marketing their book. I'm hearing some indignance among writers on Twitter (or X if you insist) about being asked to develop a plan for getting their books into readers' hands:

"What, authors have to be marketing experts now? The houses are just going to sit back and let us do all the work? Pff. They're supposed to handle everything! That's the whole POINT of traditional publishing. Otherwise why not self publish?"

This might've been true in the golden age of publishing, when competition for readers' attention wasn't split 1000 ways, books were the key way for people to learn, and profits were assured.

That's so far behind us now. 🔭

The industry has changed, and yes, you need to figure out how your book is going to make money. While a traditional publisher will put a bit of time and energy into fledging your book, they're not going to organize your book tours, buy your ads or book your speaking gigs.

While there are all kinds of exceptions, in general: trad houses put most of their marketing $$$ behind mega authors and books they know are going to kill it (and those are pretty rare—it's always a gamble). Publishers are looking for compelling ideas that they know will find an audience.

But it's on authors to expand that audience. A good marketing plan can make the difference between getting signed or not. If you’re writing nonfiction or memoir, you’ll build out this marketing plan as part of your book proposal. If you’re writing fiction, it’s easier in some ways and harder in others: you’re less "on the hook” for guaranteeing sales to a defined audience but because fiction is a game of hypotheses, a publisher is looking for a deeply engaging, tightly woven, emotionally compelling story. And that magic formula takes a bit of work to hit.

Writers who get a little sniffy about the expectation to develop a strong marketing plan might wonder whether traditional publishing offers any advantage. Why not just self-pub and drive sales yourself? What’s the difference? That’s easy: the advantage of having your book traditionally published still and always will be that mark of legitimacy that many authors seek. Also, publishers handle all the production work—design, layout, copy editing, typesetting, indexing and images if these are part of your book, as well as printing and distribution. That’s a lot of steps that you won’t have to worry about managing yourself.

Margins are tight in publishing. Caution and choosiness on the part of publishers is high. Spend the time to develop a good plan to market your book and grow your audience. You've got to prove to a publisher that you're a good business bet.