Relentless Yet Realistic Optimism

As you shift gears from writing a book to publicizing one, it’s essential to have a grounded mindset to avoid frustration, disappointment, and a frequent urge to rip your hair out. This mindset helps you sanely answer the myriad of tough questions that come with the territory. What are your goals? What is realistic? How can you make those goals come to fruition? 

After promoting hundreds of books, we’ve cultivated an attitude of relentless yet realistic optimism that’s carried us through each and every campaign. We highly recommend it! So let’s break it down.

Relentless. There’s no way around it: promoting a book isn’t something you can finish in an afternoon It takes time to educate yourself about how it's done, to create and execute a plan, and to show up every day and put in the hours. You can’t shoot off 2-3 emails to 2-3 shows and call it a day. This media environment is fractured, fast-moving, and filled with dramatic news, so you need to conduct wide and thorough outreach to elbow your way into the public’s attention. You also need to be persistent: reach out once, then follow up—and maybe follow up again. You can’t give up easily, and you can’t get discouraged. If your book was worth years of hard work, researching, editing, and re-editing, it’s also worth these hours of making sure people know about it. 

Realistic. We wanna let you down easy: Oprah probably isn’t going to shout-out your debut novel. And Obama’s annual list of book recommendations is a tough nut to crack. But there are plenty of other ways to get attention. If you’re an emerging writer without an established platform, or you’re coming out with a hybrid- or self-published book, or you’re an academic covering a specialized topic, understand your pull. This isn't to say don't shoot for the stars—we do say to be optimistic!—but just be mindful about how you allocate your time and resources. So do your research about what outlets cover your type of book, from authors with your background and at your career stage, and go all out in contacting them. Relentless work pays off the most when you are realistic, so focusing on those highly-compatible reviewers and interviewers is the clearest path to success.

Optimism. Once you have a base of outlets that are more likely to come through (think of them like “safety schools” when applying to college), then absolutely aim a little higher than what you think is possible. At that point, what’s the worst that can happen? Silence? Just be sure to tailor your message to the specific outlet you are pursuing. Showcase how your book resonates with their audience’s interests, and then go for it!

So our advice in a nutshell: know your angles, do your research, send out lots of emails — including some reaches—and don’t sweat it if some get ignored.

And do treat yourself kindly in the process, whether that means warm baths, hikes in the woods, a new meditation app, or a glass of wine :)