Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 3 Volume 9 | Page 17

lishers—may not respect tradition, be un-
cooperative or goof. One of my writing cri-
tique partners was published with a fine
press. When she learned they had not sent
advance review copies of her literary novel
to the most prestigious review journals be-
fore 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 thou-
sands of galleys sent to the important re-
view 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 re-
view—is remote.
Because she had me to nag her, she
moved on to alternative marketing and re-
view-getting strategies found in Chapter Six
of this book. Using those methods, she was
still able to schedule several 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 marketing
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 profit mar-
gin in publishing these days. Let’s face it,
you can use help, and you don’t need to
deal with disappointed (irate?) authors.
And, authors! We are ultimately responsi-
ble for our own careers. Sometimes when
we wait to take responsibility, it is too late
in the publishing game.
F ALL 2019
Some publishers charge the author an
additional or separate fee for marketing.
Many who offer marketing packages do not
offer a review-getting package. If they do,
the review their authors get is a paid-for
review, which is definitely not the route
you want to go. More on that later in this
chapter.
Many publishers do not even have lists
of people to contact who might help your
marketing with endorsements or reviews.
Further, many big publishers are relying on
bloggers for their review process more and
more as print journals and newspaper book
sections shrink or disappear and as they
begin to understand that grassroots public-
ity—reviews or otherwise—can produce a
very green crop. And bloggers? Well, that’s
a resource pool you can easily plumb your-
self.
My first publisher supplied review cop-
ies only upon written request from individ-
ual reviewers. They did not honor requests
generated by their authors’ initiatives. This
meant that I could not count on them to
supply books to reviewers I had successful-
ly queried for a review. Unless the reviewer
accepted e-copies (and many reviewers
don’t!), I had to order copies directly from
the publisher and then reship them to my
reviewers. This method is slow, cumber-
some, unnecessarily expensive, unprofes-
sional, and discourages authors from trying
to get reviews on their own.
Publishers should offer review copies to
a list of reviewers—even unestablished
grassroots bloggers—who have been re-
sponsive to their authors in the past. And
they certainly should not charge an author
for review copies. Publishers have a profit
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W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE