Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3 | Page 20

W HY G ETTING G REAT R EVIEWS I S Y OUR J OB
C AROLYN H OWARD -J OHNSON
E XCERPTED FROM C AROLYN ’ S NEW B OOK
H OW TO G ET G REAT B OOK R EVIEWS F RUGALLY AND E THICALLY :
T HE INS AND OUTS OF USING FREE REVIEWS TO BUILD AND SUSTAIN A WRITING CAREER
M ANY THANKS TO OUR FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR , FRUGAL MARKETING GURU C AROLYN H OWARD -
J OHNSON WHO SAYS , “Y OU NEED THIS ARTICLE ! H ERE ’ S WHY :”
C AROLYN H OWARD -
J OHNSON
A UTHOR /M ARKETING
AND PUBLICITY EX-
PERT / BOOK PROMOTER
P OETRY BY C AROLYN
In spite of a contract or even an advance your publisher may not be a true pub-
lisher. True publishing includes the marketing of a book, Think big names like
HarperCollins, Knopf, and Writers’ Digest, the publisher of Nina Amir’s new Crea-
tive Visualization ( HTTP :// BIT . LY /N INAS V ISUALIZATION ). They assign a marketing budg-
et to your book and an actual marketing department complete with actual human-
type marketers who are trained in the specialized field of not just marketing, but
marketing books. Except for those who write only for pleasure, there is no reason
to publish a book that doesn’t get read.
The sad part is: Even those big publishers need the authors’ help. There is no
free lunch when it comes to the marketing of a book—including the getting of re-
views.
Some publishers—even traditional publishers—may not respect tradition, be
uncooperative or goof. One of my writing critique partners was published with a
fine press. When she learned they had not sent advance review copies of her liter-
ary novel to the most prestigious review journals before their strict sixteen-week
deadline, she was naturally upset. They explained it was a snafu that could not be
fixed. That was no comfort at all. It did help her to know that because thousands of
galleys sent to the important review publications lie fallow in slush piles, the
chances of having a book reviewed by a major journal—even one published tradi-
tionally let alone getting a glowing review—is remote. Because she had me to nag
her, she moved on to alternative marketing and review-getting strategies found in
Chapter Six of this book. Using those methods, she was still able to schedule sev-
eral major bookstore appearances that tend to favor established names and rely
on big-journal reviews in their decision-making process. Nevertheless, it’s not the
kind of loss any author wants to face.
These days most small publishers have no marketing department—or market-
ing plan. In fact, many admit that when it comes to marketing, you are on your
own. No offense, publishers. I know many of you do a terrific job considering the
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
P AGE 13
S UMMER 2017