Book Marketing, or not…
Congratulations! Your second book is published and the press release goes out.
Now what? Well, first of all, the publisher refuses to tell you which outlets they sent the press release to. Oh, they’ll tell you, in 90 days. Unless you spring for their marketing package for a mere $2,000. Talk about losing publicity momentum. No worries. I can tell the press release went out because the “offers” from publicists and marketers started rolling in the day after I was notified that the press release went out.
The “offers” is in quotation marks for a reason.
I have a publisher, Fulton Books. Other publishers reaching out to me, offering to publish my book, is a non-starter, as I have a contract with Fulton. Fulton does some mild promotion at no cost as part of my contract (listing my book on their website, sending copies to their main distributors, etc.). I fell for their optional marketing package with my first book and got a lovely Instagram account, Facebook page, and video showing men in suits, glass-and-chrome hotels, and modern firefighters. My first book was about a fire, true, but set in 1883. They did revise the video, but made me select all the pictures to make it era-appropriate. I did not spring for their marketing package for my second book.
Other publishers/marketers/fraudsters have been reaching out by phone, text, and email since the press release went out. Each of them offering things such as prime placement at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. I researched this, and it is a giant warehouse with bookshelves filled with thousands and thousands of books. Publishers supposedly attend presentations, wander the shelves, and are given a booklet showing all the titles with brief descriptions. Authors are not allowed to attend, nor speak, nor present. Just having your book on the shelf costs well over $1000. If you want your book listed in their booklet, more money. If you want the description in that book or a picture of your book, add more. If you want a presentation about your book, add another thousand or so. The chances of my book being noticed and resulting sales exceeding the cost of this book fair are slim to none. No deal. I asked one marketer, who said he would be the one doing the presentation about my book, if he had read my book, since he insisted it was so great. He said he had. I asked him how he liked the part about the bank heist. He said it was one of his favorite parts. Spoiler alert, there is no bank heist in my book.
Another call came from “Amazon”, offering to read and critique my book for free. Amazon doesn’t do that. Not sure what the pitch would have been if I had accepted this free offer. This “Amazon” caller also texted me. He also texted and called my son. Not sure how he got my son’s number. This isn’t the only contact from book promoters that my son got. I told him to buckle up for more.
I even got an email offering to turn my book into a screenplay and promote it to major movie studios for a small fee ($948). I researched this company and looked up their business address on Google Maps. The company has been in existence for nine months and the owner is 22 years old. I doubt it has connections with any major movie house. The street view of their business is a strip mall in the middle of otherwise empty fields. I zoomed out and they are about two miles from the edge of a small town. There were four or five stores and two cars in the parking lot. Definitely not falling for that one. No legitimate offer should require upfront payment. I’m just wondering how many authors fall for these marketing schemes.
The bright side is that all of the calls, emails, and texts should stop in five or six months. I’m choosing to be entertained rather than annoyed. For now.