{"id":28946,"date":"2015-03-17T07:40:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/?p=28946"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:23:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:23:27","slug":"do-it-yourself-publicity-for-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/publicity\/do-it-yourself-publicity-for-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"How authors can start do-it-yourself publicity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Julie<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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This edited transcript is the first in a four-part series from an interview on Jan. 12, 2015. Julie Eason asks me about how authors can do their own publicity. Prefer audio? You can listen to the podcast on iTunes<\/a> or on Stitcher Radio<\/a>.  Part 2 will be published here tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne: <\/strong> Well, hello, and welcome everyone to the Successful Author Podcast. I\u2019m Julie Anne Eason and I want to ask you a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think your book might sell more copies and help more people if you could land an article in a major newspaper or magazine? Would a TV spot on the “Today” show or your local nightly news be useful to your career? Do you dream of getting great publicity but you can\u2019t afford to pay for an expensive PR agency?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If so, you\u2019re going to love today\u2019s interview. I\u2019m here with Joan Stewart, also known as The Publicity Hound. She\u2019s going to share with us the best do-it-yourself publicity strategies so that you can get the media attention that you and your book deserve and need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan Stewart works with business owners, nonprofits, and organizations that need free publicity in traditional and social media. For almost two decades, she\u2019s trained and coached thousands of people on how to get free publicity that helps them establish credibility, enhance their reputation, position themselves as experts, sell more products and services, and promote their favorite causes or issues without an expensive publicist. She helps people through her live events, her online training, consulting,<\/a> and The Publicity Hound Mentor Program.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan is the author of 10 ebooks on publicity and PR and has contributed to more than 60 other books on various publicity and business topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome, Joan, I\u2019m so excited to have you on the show. Thank you for spending so much time with us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan:<\/strong>  Hi, Julie! It\u2019s great to be here. Hello, authors everywhere! It\u2019s great to be here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne: <\/strong> All right! Let\u2019s jump right in. First I want to start off by defining exactly what is publicity in case people don\u2019t know. Why is it such an important skill for authors to have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Tweet “How authors can start do-it-yourself publicity. #bookpublicity”]\n\n\n\n

Definition of Publicity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joan:<\/strong>  Publicity is the art\u2014and it is an art\u2014of using other people or other websites or other tools to let the world know what you\u2019re doing. That could be to promote maybe a book signing, it could be to let the world know about problems that you can solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the old days, back when I worked at a newspaper, you had to basically grovel in front of traditional media and hoped that they covered you. Now those days have changed. Traditional media has become less relevant than it used to be, because there are so many online tools and websites that help you self-promote and get the word out there to either a niche or a mass market for next to nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne<\/strong>:  Awesome. Is this something that every author can develop themselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan:<\/strong>  Yes, but you\u2019ve got to have a strategy. You have to be willing to do the hard work. Anybody who tells you that book marketing and publicity is easy and you can only do it in 15 minutes a day, they\u2019re lying to you. It’s very hard. So many authors don\u2019t want to market. The authors who are in my Mentor Program and many of them who I\u2019ve consulted with over the years feel deceitful, or they feel dishonest or even dirty when it comes to marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne<\/strong>:  Yeah, what\u2019s what with that? [Laughs]\n\n\n\n

The Importance of Book Marketing <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joan:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. I tell them, \u201cGet over it!\u201d Because unless you embrace marketing your book as a major task that you have to do\u2014and I\u2019m assuming that people do not have money to hire expensive publicists, they\u2019re very expensive\u2014unless you\u2019re willing to do that, don\u2019t bother writing a book. Unless, of course, writing a book and spending all that money writing and marketing a book is just a fun little hobby for you. Then you don\u2019t have to market. But if it\u2019s not a fun little hobby and you\u2019re using it to build a platform and to promote your expertise and to attract raving fans\u2014you’ve got to be out there constantly marketing your book, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definition of Book Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne<\/strong>:  Marketing your book is all about letting people know why they should buy your book, but not only buy it, but what value you\u2019re going to give to them, what you can help them with, how you can solve their problems. Nobody knows that better than you do because you wrote the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you\u2019re spending thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a publicist, that publicist doesn\u2019t know your book as well as you do and they\u2019re not as passionate about that book as you are. Even spending the money, even if you can afford to spend the money, it\u2019s often, I think, a better idea for you to do your PR yourself, simply because you know the benefits of your book better than anybody else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan: <\/strong>You bet, absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne<\/strong>:  All right, so let\u2019s get down to strategies. I love the practical strategies and the brass tacks. I know that forever, it seems that publicity, kind of like traditional publishing, sort of had this secret society shroud of mystery surrounding it and you had to have a secret handshake to get in, and you had to grovel, like you said, to hope that they would notice you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s just not true anymore. Now there are so many ways, just like we can self-publish, that we can also self-publicize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s talk about the top three strategies that you think authors should be using to promote their books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Tweet “How authors can start do-it-yourself publicity. #bookpublicity”]\n\n\n\n

How to Identify the Target Market for Your Book <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Joan: <\/strong>Oh, there\u2019s so many of them! I don\u2019t even know where to start. Let me choose three very, very important ones. The first one is going to seem like a no-brainer, but it\u2019s amazing, Julie, how many authors, have written books already—the books are already on the market—and they have no clue who their target market is for the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Anne<\/strong>:  Absolutely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan:<\/strong> I know this because when they work with me, that\u2019s the first question I ask, \u201cWho\u2019s your target market?\u201d Sometimes they\u2019ll come back and say, \u201cWell, everybody is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say, \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they say, \u201cMy Aunt Sally said she thinks everybody should read my book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, guess what? If your target market is everybody, that means you have to market to everybody and that’s impossible, as you know. Define your target market before you put one word on that document, before you write the first sentence. Identify your target market and ask yourself the following questions: <\/p>\n\n\n\n