Customer Reviews

The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Firstly, I would warn self-publishers that this book is not intended for you. This book is a guide to working WITH a publicist. If you can afford such an expense then proceed to purchase, but most self-publishers are not in that boat (yacht).

Secondly, I took issue with the author's promotion of manipulating Amazon feedback through recruiting as many friends and family as possible to give 5 star reviews. It is because of this abuse of Amazon feedback that I gloss over the positive feed back and read the one and two star reviews to get to the ugly truth. Sometimes these low ratings are baseless; most times they are credible critiques.

Lastly, if you want to get an idea for the REAL value of a non-fiction book, take a gander at the number of USED copies available and the lowest asking price. If published within the last 5 years and still relevant to its topic, a truly valuable book tends to stay within $3 to $5 of the Amazon price and if recently published, won't have an excessive amount of used books available. A better alternative to this book (that would be valuable to self-published and traditionally published alike) is The Complete Guide to Book Marketing by David Cole.

What this book does most effectivly is provide information that every writer should know about once the book is actually in print. Some Amazon critics say that Lissa Warren gives too much credit to the publicist in the book, or accuse her that the author should kiss up to his publicist, but that's because these readers probably have no people skills.

What Lissa Warren was really trying to say is that it's important for every author to build a good relationship with his publicist because so much of his success depends on it. The publicist isn't his slave once his book is in print, and these Amazon critics who gave Lissa only one or two stars probably don't understand that.

Lissa details every bit of information with simplicity, making the confusing process of book publicity much more clear and visible in the reader's mind. She explains how things can go wrong (such as during a book reading event), and how to deal with them in a professional manner. In all, her book builds confidence in an uneasy writer who doesn't exactly know how to approach the publicity aspect of his book.

plain and simple: excellent

This book is an excellent resource for the newly published author faced with navigating the treacherous shoals of post-release publicity and the acquisition of an appropriate publicist to interface with the media and influence the sales of the title. Writing from a publicist's personal experience, Warren has distilled information designed to aid the author in choosing a publicist and participating as much as possible in the promotion of the book, hopefully creating a successful marriage between the creative process and publicity.

One would assume that finishing a manuscript and the validation of acceptance by a publisher (or self-publishing) would leave the author with nothing more to do than a few interviews while cashing those large royalty checks that have begun to roll in. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work that way and the author has only reached the next phase of his endeavor. Bridging the gap between this daunting realization and the actual work ahead, Warren walks the reader through the role of the publicist, the criteria for choosing a publicist, establishing a good working relationship, the publicity process from start to finish and behind-the-scenes activities an author can do to accelerate the progress of his book in the market, all while maintaining the dynamic of the publicist/author relationship.

There are insider author stories and personal anecdotes to soften the blow, a reminder that while the machine is huge, we are all human, with expectations, dreams and the will to be successful, given the right tools and effective marketing skills. There are ten proactive suggestions for garnering media attention, tips on putting together a press package, frequently asked questions and advice from professionals in the field, editors, critics, radio producers and booksellers. Warren leaves no stone unturned, covering every aspect of the process, from interviews to creating a buzz and making a pitch to the reading audience through various media events, including author tours. The Appendix offers samples of press materials that may be created by the author or in coordination with the publicist, promotional letters, press releases, interview Q & A's, etc.

I have only one caveat regarding a suggestion found in the FAQ section of the book, where the author recommends that the author have friends send reviews to Amazon.com: "It's important for you to ask friends, family members (with different last names than yours, of course) and colleagues to post reviews." Further, there is a suggestion to post a number of these, knocking less favorable reviews off the first page. I reduced my rating one star when I realized (after scrolling through the earliest Amazon reviews) that the author followed her own advice, unnecessary considering the quality of the book. That this suggestion is made in the publicity community is discouraging, if not surprising. Other than this misguided suggestion, this book is an important contribution to a successful author's bag of tricks. Luan Gaines/2006.

This work is a complete, concise guide to garnering book publicity. Whether you have published with Random House or iUniverse, the role of the author in publicizing his own work is often the key to brisk sales. An author can't just publish his work and then sit back and wait for the royalties to roll in. It just doesn't happen. Most authors don't have the platform enjoyed by Bill O'Reilly, who shamelessly hawks his books every night on national and international TV to fans of "The Factor."
Not to worry, publicity expert Lissa Warren spells out the essentials of book promotion. This work is packed with ideas and activities to catapult an author's work to success. As a literary agent, I am recommending this book to all of my author/clients. Thank you, Lissa Warrem!

Wow! As I perused the website of The Virginia Festival of the Book to catch a glimpse of what fellow authors I will share the day with, I came across Lissa Warren. As she mentions in her book, visual presentations do attract more attention than plain text. Consequently, my attention was drawn to the title of her much needed book, The Savvy Author's Guide to the Book Publicity. I feel like I'm forever indebted to Lissa Warren for offering such a complete reference to parenting paper children. I'm the father of two now. One of my books is a newborn, and after reading this book I feel confident to make sure this book is raised the right way. Oh, I rushed right out the hour I found out about her book (last night). Five hours later, it was read. Yes, I did take a few pages of notes. How could I not? I highly recommend it. In fact, I will bring it to the attention of the many aspiring authors and poets who are understandably all too eager to write and release a book within two months. It's always hard to tell them they should add about a year to that plan. I tell them to "Research. Learn the pros and cons of the different types of publishing. Learn about author/publisher contracts. Spend enough time editing the manuscript." But it's difficult to explain that all of that is the easy part, and that a homeless paper child, like many stray animals, may get "put to sleep" (remaindered). It's sad. It is. Yes, conceiving the paper child is the easy part, but then you have to make sure your newborn books find homes filled with bookmarks, reading lamps, and loving readers. Fortunately, Warren tells us exactly how to do this in her book, including an ample appendix and detailed Table of Contents for easy referencing. Ha ha, I read it first! Now look out world, 'cause here I come!

--Éric L Farrell, Author & Poet
Seeking Solace: Finding Peace and Comfort in Times of Distress
Verbalizions of Enlightenment: The Secret to the Pain
Host of WordStage Poetry Lounge & TOUR (Virginia Festival of the Book 3/27/04 8PM)

The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity helped me tremendously in planning my future publicity campaign. You'll learn when to begin your campaign, who to approach and where, along with advice for doing it yourself or hiring a freelance publicist. All authors faced with having to promote their own books should know the information between these pages.

My only wish with the Savvy Author's Guide is that I had it in my hands when my co-author and I were developing the publicity plan for The Renegade Writer. Warren's book gave me a view of the book publicity machine that I haven't seen before, and showed me where our plan was weak. While we have a great publisher, we don't have a dedicated publicist on our team, so this book IS my publicist. The best thing about the the Savvy Author's Guide is that it gave me some great ideas about how to generate even more buzz for our book. I appreciate the listings of book events, expos, freelance publicists, and media trainers. This is a book I'm going to keep close at hand as I develop proposals for more book projects!

Diana Burrell, co-author of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success

I'm an advertising professional (and a short-story writer with her first collection), and I've read a bunch of books on book publicity. Most were mediocre and full of useless hype. This one is competent and efficient: well written, informative, and no-nonsense. It will clue you in on the essentials, and give you examples of relevant and intelligent press materials that you can adapt to your own use. It alerted me to the fact that, whether my publisher thought so or not, I REALLY needed a professional press packet, and it helped me create one (galley letter, bio, Q&A, releases, photo, etc.) in less than a week.

Intelligent publicity can really help a good book get noticed. If I had the money, I would hire Lissa Warren to publicize my book. This is the next-best thing.

A Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity has been very helpful in preparing me for dealing with the whole publicity process. Once you finally send off your last edits, this is the book you are going to need on your bedstand as you leave the realm of writing and enter the realm of selling your book.
I am impelled to write a review of A Savvy Author from the scathing and unfair review written by KDCmarvel below. I looked at the other reviews written by this marvel and was unsurprised that they were equally negative. I assume that someone savvy enough to have written a book and have landed a publisher, will be able to be unswayed by childish rantings. As always, read the reviews by reputable sources before making your decision to buy or not.

I have dozens of friends and acquaintances who have labored years to get a book written and published and then, when their book came out, were hurt and baffled that their book wasn't promoted and didn't sell. The Savvy Author's Guide can help first-time authors help realize their life dreams of getting their book out there into the hands of thousands of people.
The little secret that The Savvy Author's Guide lets you in on is that there is a short window, three to six months, after a book is published when the tide of public opinion will lift the book and it's sales, or it will sink to oblivion. Lissa Warren provides hand-holding advice for the author who needs to switch gears from laboring for years behind a computer to spending a few months out on the hustings and in front of the spotlight promoting his or her book.
I know most authors don't have a lot of money to spend on buying books, but this is one you will need.
I tell my new author friends that if they only buy two books, one should be The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published (by Bykofsky and Sander)(which, for some reason, is weak in the chapter on book publicity) and the other is this book, the Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity.