Yes, publishers are pushing more of the publicity efforts on authors. There are several reasons for this:
1) Shrinking publicity and advertising budgets (plus they generally focus on the “sure wins,” so midlist and new authors have a harder time getting any of the advertising pie).
2) In the past, publishers had several steps removing them from their readers.
Publisher -> Sales reps -> Buyers for bookstores -> Booksellers/Librarians -> Reader (and somewhere floating in there are professional book reviewers)
That’s still the basic format for publishing, but it is swiftly changing. People are buying their books from Amazon, often based on recommendations from friends or ratings ordinary people post on the site. That cuts out the three middle steps. Amazon stocks just about everything in print, so there’s no need for sales reps to decide which books to push on bookstore buyers, no need for bookstore buyers to select which books the store purchases, and no need for booksellers to hand sell or reviewers to review because readers are choosing their purchases based on recommendations from friends and strangers online.
3) Which leads to the paradigm shift in the way readers communicate with publishers/authors/bookstores. Most people reading this post will recognize the vitality of the social media sphere. Now, anyone can feel a personal connection with a celebrity. You can follow their tweets, follow them on facebook, and read their blogs. But not only that, you can respond to the tweets, updates, and posts. So in this shift, authors are coming closer to their reading audience. Before (in that little diagram I had above), authors would have been a few steps further away from readers because they would be separated by the publisher, their pr person, and their agent.
To succeed as a new writer in this modern world, authors must tweet, blog, and put themselves out there for readers to feel a personal connection with them. It’s all about relating to people. Publishers are finally starting to recognize this, and they’re almost starting to force their authors to participate. Some publishers are starting to add clauses to contracts stating that authors are responsible for promoting their books via social media. As for the publisher for which I work, we are teaching our authors how to use social media, so we want (and almost expect in new authors we sign) that they work hard in promoting themselves and their book.
4) Getting a great review in The New York Times does not guarantee a large increase in sales—not anymore. Press attention does not have the persuasive buying influence it once did. Media attention is nice, of course, and should be sought, but it isn’t a golden ticket. What does help is getting great buzz in online communities, great reviews on Amazon and similar sites, and high sales rankings on Amazon. The reason for this is because it creates buzz and word of mouth.
The biggest example of this in recent years is Twilight. I realize everyone and their poodle has been talking about Twilight lately, but that is precisely it—people are talking about it. When the first book came out, it was relatively unknown. When the second book appeared on the market, I started hearing a more about it. I was attending the same university that Meyer graduated from, so we heard word of the books a little earlier than many. By the time the third book pubbed, teenage girls and middle-aged moms were shouting its praises. Now, I’m not sure if there’s anyone on the planet who hasn’t heard of these books. (This may be a slight exaggeration, but still.) What got this momentum going was word of mouth. Girls telling friends, their moms, their hairdressers, their teachers about these books. Now it’s an international phenomenon.
Now, this changing marketplace isn’t all gloom and doom, but it does require a shift in our thinking as authors. I work in publishing and am surrounded by it every day, practically all day long. (I do sort of eat, sleep, and drink books.) So I’ve already accepted what is required to succeed as a social marketer for you own books. I’m not perfect at it, but I’m working hard to build up my own brand before I even get a publishing contract. I’m getting actively involved in reading and writing communities online and trying to listen to what readers want.
It’s more important than ever to understand your audience and know what about your book appeals to them—and what will induce them into buying. You have to offer value, whether in content, excellent writing, escapism, etc. They need to want the book enough to pay for it. So our goal as authors (and I say all of us because the sooner we establish ourselves as authors and start building an audience, it will be easier once we do have publishing contracts) is to know our audience and connect with them. Sell yourself, your book, and your words. That’s one thing we can all do, and since we are writers and interested in doing it online in written form, we can do it well.
These strategies obviously apply to the part of the world in which you live. As some friends pointed out, in Australia there really isn’t Amazon, so some of this doesn’t apply. So you have to adapt the principles of social media to your own situation.
Of course, authors should always seek to connect with readers in real time, face to face. Readings, signings, television interviews, etc., are important, but the revolution I’m talking about stretches to all corners of the earth and not just the people you can speak with at your book launch. Think of it as a multiplicity of efforts; I can and will spend time speaking with the 200 people who come to a signing, but then I will also spend time posting about it where I can connect with an audience of several thousand to million (depending on how large your Twitter, blog, and Facebook audiences are).
We have to change the way we think—all of us. Publisher, author, bookseller, and reader. If we do that successfully, the publishing industry won’t just survive, it will grow.
