My last panel for NASFIC was on Marketing. I shared it with J.F. Holmes, former military guy, small press guy – Canon Publishing, a military SF publisher ; and Michael Green Jr., a well traveled data scientist.
Marketing is a tough subject. It doesn’t come instinctively to writers – the skills and mindset necessary to write a novel, are not necessarily the skills and mindset to go out into the marketplace. But appallingly, it’s being dumped on writers more and more.
Unless you’re a runaway best seller, or they sniff that about you, major publishers leave marketing to writers. So much so, that Amazon has a special program where traditionally published authors can buy advertising – imagine that, pouring your advance into advertising your own book, so that the publisher can make enough money to give you another book, and an advance that you can pour into advertising for them.
Small Presses, also mostly leave marketing to the writer, although some of them make efforts for you. I’m sympathetic mostly – running a small press is incredibly hard, requires all kinds of time, more skills than any one person has, and is typically a labour of love. They offload marketing to the writer because they have no time, no money and not the first clue about marketing in many cases.
Of course that makes me less interested in small presses. If they’re not doing anything that I can’t already do for myself, and the area that I’m weak in is the area that they’re weak in… what’s the point. A small press that partners and helps teach or educate you on marketing is great, I’ll sign up. If not, then why bother?
