Bad Book Publicity?

By Stacey J. Miller, Book Publicist

S. J. Miller Communications

bookpromotion@gmail.com

They say there's no such thing as bad publicity, and I'd interpret that to mean there's no such thing as bad book publicity, either.

Sometimes, I would agree with that. Usually, I would say that even a lukewarm book review is better than no book review at all, or a combative interviewer is far kinder than the interviewer who chooses to ignore you completely.

But, after seeing the book publicity opportunities recently garnered by Gary L. Stewart, author of the new book, The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for My Father...and Finding the Zodiac Killer, this book publicist has to wonder about that.

Stewart, as you might know (if you've read or seen interviews such as the one he did with CNN's Erin Burnett), believes his father was the Zodiac Killer. He has spent more than a decade believing he is the son of a serial killer.

Now, with every book publicity opportunity that he accepts, he has to share the information that he believes his father is the Zodiac Killer with the world. His book publicity campaign is, in essence, an attempt to teach the public to associate the Zodiac Killer with his book and with his name.

So, the more Gary L. Stewart's book publicity campaign succeeds, the more Gary L. Stewart, and his family members, lose.

Therefore, I have come around to thinking that, for some people, there might, indeed be such a thing as bad book publicity. Gary L. Stewart is one of the authors for whom too much of a good thing is probably a pretty bad thing after all.

This is something authors should not do for book publicity!

Disowning their own books generally is not something authors do for book publicity...but the io9 10 Great Authors Who Disowned Their Own Books list should make an author who's in the midst of a book promotion campaign stop and think. Sure, every author finds it natural to say, "My book is important, and that's why I'm working so hard to enhance its book discovery potential." But what happens when authors specifically ask readers to not buy their books? How does that work out for them?

Consider the case of Stephen King's asking that his book, Rage, be taken out of print (because he felt it had the potential to inspire school shootings). There's a case where Mr. King was likely right -- that particular book was not an asset to our civilization -- and, yet, his desire to see the book eliminated probably inspired as many book sales as the best book publicity campaign might have. ("Oh, yes, I've heard of Rage," book buyers probably all said when they heard King's opinion of his book. "I'll bet I can find a copy now at that online secondhand book shop or the auction site! I'll go for it! And, who knows...if it's out of print, maybe this second-hand edition will someday be pretty valuable!"

So if you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to disown your book, just remember this. If you tell readers, "Please don't buy my book," then you'll probably send sales of that book soaring. That's not the way this book publicist recommends promoting your book...and that's not why this book publicist recommends a book publicity campaign...but, strangely, the tactic probably does increase awareness of books!

Backflip for book promotion?

By Stacey J. Miller, Book Publicist
S. J. Miller Communications
bookpromotion@gmail.com


Would you do a backflip for book promotion?

Book publicists frequently hear from authors who say, "I want a viral book marketing campaign. Do you orchestrate viral book marketing campaigns?" This honest book publicist always responds, "Not on purpose. By definition, you can't orchestrate a viral marketing campaign. Viral marketing campaigns are regular marketing campaigns that go viral. You can set up all the right conditions so that your book marketing campaign has a chance to go viral. You can integrate whimsy, humor, or controversy into the campaign, come up with catchy sound bites, and tap into pop culture events that everyone seems to be discussing at the water cooler. But, no, I can't guarantee you a viral book marketing campaign.  I can only guarantee you a creative book marketing campaign. How does that sound?" Authors who are determined to pay a book publicist to orchestrate a viral book marketing campaign simply make additional phone calls until they find a book publicist who disingenuously promises to do the impossible, and to force a book promotion campaign to go viral.

Authors and publishers: you can't make a book marketing campaign go viral. If you could, though, a book marketing campaign would look something like this. Note that, if this college graduate's blackflip had gone the way he'd intended for it to (in other words, if the blackflip had gone as planned), there'd be no video of his blackflip going viral online right now, and CNN certainly wouldn't have picked it up.

So the question is: would you -- metaphorically speaking -- do a blackflip for book promotion? This particular book publicist doesn't recommend it! No amount of author publicity is worth the pain of that thud! But she's glad the college graduate didn't hurt himself. Onward and upward!