Author's Edge

Getting Ready for Publicity with a Publicist’s Must-Haves: with Marissa Eigenbrood | Ep. 78

• Allison Lane • Episode 78

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Many authors believe a publicist or publisher will guarantee sales, but the truth is, your book’s success depends on you. In this episode of The Author’s Edge, Allison Lane and Marissa Eigenbrood of Smith Publicity share the essential foundations every nonfiction author needs before investing in publicity. From building a platform and creating an author-centered website to choosing the right social media channel, this conversation gives you the tools to set up lasting visibility and momentum.

If you want your book to be more than a launch-day splash, tune in for practical strategies to grow your audience and make publicity work for the long haul.

In this episode, Allison and Marissa discuss: 

  • [00:01] Why publicity is only one slice of book marketing
  • [00:04] What “platform” really means for authors
  • [00:08] The website mistake that stalls publicity efforts
  • [00:12] Why your name—not your book title—should be your brand
  • [00:16] How to focus on the right audience without diluting your message
  • [00:19] Why publication day is just the beginning
  • [00:22] How hybrid and self-published authors can land major media
  • [00:25] The mindset shift: book costs as business investments
  • [00:27] Why contributor content can be more powerful than features

Marissa Eigenbrood, President of Smith Publicity, is a passionate advocate for authors, specializing in crafting long-term publicity strategies that transform literary voices into influential, enduring brands.

Resources Mentioned:

Ready to finally finish your book or proposal? The Super Secret Book Writing Club starts soon with book marketing genius Allison Lane and bestselling author + book whisperer Samantha Bennett. In just six months, you’ll get crystal clear on your book idea, create a market-ready manuscript or proposal, and build the audience and marketing plan to sell it. Spots are limited - learn more at LaneLit.com/writingclub

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Marissa:

Everybody's working to build that platform. Everybody's working to build that brand. And so, how are you different? And that's where you get to be more selective and be really clear about. What do you offer? What are you talking about? Who are you talking about?

Allison:

​A lot of authors think I'll just hire a publicist isn't that what the publisher does? truth is you are in charge of your book's success publicity is one slice of the marketing pizza. You need to know what publicity is. What's your job, what you can do with the results. And what needs to be in place before you hire a PR agency or just someone to help you before they can actually help you. We're digging into the foundation that most people skip. If you are wondering. When to hire help or how to get ready. This is for you. Marissa Eigenbrood from Smith Publicity is here to open our eyes to what you need to have in place so that your book can be a success that you decide what the success picture looks like. We work with mostly nonfiction authors, and most of those people are doing the thing that makes them an expert and also writing the book. They're not moving away from their specialty or from teaching at the university, or being a full-time paid speaker.

Marissa:

So much pressure and responsibility is on the author today. You've got that core responsibility that makes you the expert and you're adding layers on top not just adding on the layer of writing a book, going through the process of preparing that book for publication. But you're also adding the job of platform building on top of it. And then, that last piece of the puzzle gets added in publicity, publicity takes work, long gone are those days that we could just go out and say, let's get your book reviewed at all of these wonderful outlets. And you just show up for this interview and spend, 30 minutes and we're done. There's so much work and partnership that comes into our campaigns and our work with our authors in article writing, in podcast interviews, the pre-interviews, the interviews themselves.

Allison:

Because we're both marketers, we're going to dive deep and give people a step by step to being ready for a publicist. Before someone can buy your book, they have to be aware of you. And the person who has to become aware of you has never heard of you before. That is the job. The most publicity is in awareness. If the Amazon nonfiction editor goes on CBS mornings and holds up your book like with my client, Tracy Otsuka's book ADHD for Smart Ass Women. That is awareness. Viewers see that and then, they might lean forward and go, I'm interested. That's consideration, let me look her up on, Goodreads Amazon or Barnes and noble.com. And then there's the purchase. In order for that person to lean forward and go, let me learn more about this person. You need a website.

Marissa:

A hundred percent. Yes.

Allison:

You cannot crawl out of your groundhog hole and be like, ta-da! The book is here. because no one is waiting for you.

Marissa:

No one cares that you wrote a book. They care about the value the messages you provide, so, what's most important is how you deliver that value. So, how are we getting that thought leadership out there? People want to connect with an experience, with a trusted expert, with someone they can stay with. You've got to have touch points with the website, socials, newsletter so people can come into your brand ecosystem, then, they're more likely to buy the book.

Allison:

People think, I wrote it and it's out there, but now I have to get back to work. But they do really love the idea that people are going to interview me. No, they're not. They're looking for you to contribute some significant insight that helps the audience. Sweet mother of God, stop reading the book to us. I constantly hear this. What is a platform, how big, what's the number I need can you talk about what is an author platform? What should nonfiction authors focus on?

Marissa:

Platform is your visibility online. It's also how you're talking about yourself, speaker, coach, consultant, expert, whatever, you know, makes the most sense there. Again, it should include a website. For a large majority of nonfiction authors, it should be LinkedIn. If you are more health and wellness, if you're more memoir, Instagram is still really impactful. There isn't a number, there doesn't need to be a number because it's about your audience. The important thing is connecting with your audience through these platform elements that we're talking about? And so, if you are a a coach for executive women and you focus on ADHD, they're going to primarily live on LinkedIn, that's where that content should be shared. No one's going to care if you have a million followers on LinkedIn, or a super engaged 15,000 followers on LinkedIn, if your content's really good, if the engagement is there because you're hitting the right people, those are the most important things to think about with Platform. And then, your media becomes part of your platform household name media placements are those brand elevation points. Featured on the Today Show in Glamour, in HBR, in Fast Company, on Mel Robbins podcasts. We want to be able to talk about those really exciting, well-known names that help to elevate and add more credibility. But at the same time in our work, we put equal stock in where your audience lives. So, let's really dive into the podcast, blogs, websites, associations speaking to your audience and garnering coverage there the most important takeaway is you build a platform that is going to help you connect with your audience and supports the goals that you have specifically, it is far beyond a one size fits all. I'm so glad that you get to decide what your book leads to. What is it a catalyst for? I always ask that what do you want it to do? I think that everyone should be thinking about... what's this long tail, impact the book can have. And when you really think about the book's role as again, a part of all these platform elements, you will sell more books then too. If you think about how the book is a catalyst for more speaking opportunities, you're going to see more bulk buyers with speaking and coaching. There's a lot more value and impact there.

Allison:

What I love you didn't say is choose what you feel comfortable with. You have to be where your audience is comfortable. If they're comfortable on LinkedIn, don't ask them to go to TikTok. And you need to get comfortable being of service.

Marissa:

Meet them where they are. Don't force them to go somewhere else and hold, I love TikTok. I've built my baby registries for my children off of TikTok videos that I've watched. But I don't post on TikTok talk about book publicity and marketing. I post on LinkedIn because that's the kind of author, an individual we like to work with, and I want them to see that messaging over there.

Allison:

Here's an issue I see all the time is authors bring in a publicist before the foundation is even poured. It's like calling in the construction crew before you've drawn up the blueprint or even ordered the wood for your house. So, what needs to be in place before you can actually do your job well?

Marissa:

Recently, a wonderful ghostwriting agents that we work with referred an author to us and they had the proposal ready to go for this really great book. And this author's got a great background, great expert in mental health space. And they said, Hey, we think you'd be great to support him in publicity and get some media coverage to fill out that section, the proposal. They take a look at that proposal and that marketing and publicity section was completely blank. Nothing in there. This guy has a really unique name. So, I start googling. I'm like, oh, where's his website? Where's his social platforms? Nothing. All I'm finding are like medical review pages about him and his practice. So, I'm like, okay, we're not starting publicity yet. We need to talk about, the website, which is now built. So, website, definitely. One of the most important things is it needs to be an author centric or a brand centric website. No more book websites. A book website serves you in the moment, but then it expires because when you go to write the next book or the third book or whatever, you can't add that into the book website from before. You want to add it to your, jane doe.com website versus you the title of your book.com. And that's going to allow you to keep adding your other books, but also your other offerings, the other new keynotes you develop and everything new as part of your brand and your platform. You just get to keep adding into that space. I would say number two is just having activity or star at least starting to get a little more active on one social media platform. We just want to celebrate and amplify the media coverage. So, even if you are on the Today Show, that's amazing. You get that moment in time that you're there. And of course, that link lives on. But if you take that link and you share it on your platforms and then you share it again, a couple months later and connecting to a timely news story and you say, oh, I happen to talk about that in my segment on today. You get to repurpose it and reuse it so many times, and the value of that one placement grows having that one particular platform to dedicate your time to. And even if you're posting two, three times a week, like just get started. Five times a week really builds faster momentum as we find, but I know that's not possible for everybody. So, I love a good two to three times a week, make sure that profile is optimized. The cherry on top of it is going to be a monetization plan. So, we know we're not making our money back on book sales alone. How are you making money otherwise? Speaking, through a course? The paid substack. Let's ideally have one of those things in place. because that's just going to give that opportunity for the return on investment a lot faster. And then, love to see a good newsletter. A newsletter is gold. The emails are treasure because when you're launching your book or when you're sharing your media coverage, those people are just going to be the most engaged

Allison:

so, you need a website. Choose one social and be posting regularly. And you can schedule your posts on LinkedIn. You can even use a automated schedule. Some of them are actually free, you can pay for some if you want, I use Smarterqueue because it lets me see everything for the month and it's super visual. And Then, you have to be the host. So, I love that you said name your website after you. Your name is the only thing. It's your brand that's not going to change. Yep. Yep. You are the brand. Your book is one product. Your speaking is a product. Your media contribution is one product. So, the journalist who wants to ask for your insight for an article is not going to Google the title of your book.

Marissa:

No, certainly not. They're looking up your name.

Allison:

If somebody already owns Allison Lane Lit. My website is lane lit. Or you could do Allison Lane, author but don't make someone know that to get you, they need to go to hot mustard.com or whatever. Because then you're making them do mental gymnastics.

Marissa:

You want to get as easy as possible for them to find you and to stay with you too. I see a lot of people create that main website, but then they will have this offshoot website for this offering or if you go to a different page on their main site, it all of a sudden pops up a new, a new tab and you're all of a sudden somewhere else. And the last thing you want to do is take somebody away from that main hub where they're probably able to make more of their decisions and purchases and everything. Yeah. Keep them in one place.

Allison:

That often happens when a physician will have set up a WordPress site, eight years ago. And they say, oh, that's going to be a lot of work to move things over. Can I just set up the new site and I'll link to the old site? That's like building a new house but having a hallway to the shanty that you used to live in.

Marissa:

Get rid of it. We don't need anymore.

Allison:

And you built a new house. Ugh, nobody wants to go through your old garage.

Marissa:

There's a delicate balance when, again, there, there could be like a financial expert who works for a larger firm. Again, maybe like you're a partner in a certain agency or group where highlighting you as a solo person may not make as much sense. And so, it's figuring out how much of an independent presence do you need? And it, there still should be something. That's where again, you can also really lean into your LinkedIn presence.

Allison:

And then, it's your job to think, then what do I want people to do? You invited somebody over to your house, you're like, I exist. Here's my house, here's my address. Come over for dinner. But you don't make them bring their own food. Or like when you get there, that's when we'll decide what to do. Like if you don't want to be traveling for speaking, don't wait until someone asks you to then respond. Put out there what you're going to offer. People will contact you to say, can we work one-on-one? Or worse. Right. Can I pick your brain? As soon as you have three people want to pick your brain, that's an afternoon, my friends.

Marissa:

There's a big issue when you build a brand and you build a platform, you build a book that is for everyone. We ask that question, who's your book for? Who's your audience? Oh, book's for everyone. If you try to be everything for everyone, then you're nothing for no one. For the most part, it's hard for someone to really, there's so much competition out there. It doesn't matter what your genre is, doesn't matter what your expertise is, there's a ton of competition. Everybody's working to build that platform. Everybody's working to build that brand. And so, how are you different? And that's where you get to be more selective and be really clear about. What do you offer? What are you talking about? Who are you talking about Don't Be afraid to focus first on the core of your brand and your target audience onion, like start at the very core, we're talking about our professional women and ADHD book. Let's actually go deeper zero in on professional women who are moms make sure that everything speaks to that particular group. Their pain points, their challenges I think a lot of individuals get really scared of turning someone away, which returning business away or making someone like they don't belong in this space. But it's okay if they don't belong because you will find the people who do. And that other person will find their home too. Trying to share content and build a brand that's focused on professional women. But then also be able to say, but I can also talk to men too. Your brand looks scattered when you build things around that mentality. So, it's okay to be focused, and it's okay to be limited in what you offer so that you bring the right people in.

Allison:

So many people think this is for everyone. What they really are saying is, everyone should know about this, but not everyone is looking for that. And that's the difference. That's not your job to tell people what they should know. Look for the people who are saying that they have a problem that you know is caused by something in their diet.

Marissa:

Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Allison:

That way you're solving what they say their problem is, even though you know that it might be something else.

Marissa:

Right. And really think about the people that you're already working with. Again, I think in most cases, you know anyone who's an expert and decides to write the book isn't starting from scratch. So, who are you already talking to? Who are you regularly working with? Those are your warm leads already. Those people are going to be most likely to buy your book when it comes out to want to support you, to want to refer other people to you and your work. And so, those are the people to speak to first. They're already there. They're already engaged. They're already in the mix with you. And then, the content after that and how we even think about publicity and the layers that we keep expanding into with that onion over time. We're then having to convince these people as to why you're an expert. They should think about why your messaging is going to be valuable to them. But let's start with the people we don't have to convince first. And that's going to help to build that foundation to build upon.

Allison:

Now, when someone hires you, it's not a lifetime commitment on your part. Mostly I think people hear oh, the publicist I paid however much it could be 7,000 a month for a two month commitment. And then, after the two months, the publicist goes away and then usually the author says, they got me clips, but now what? Now, you got some great coverage, but the publicity is about awareness and converting that to momentum is means you have to have a marketing machine where you leveraging this. Yeah. It goes on your website. Even the commentary of how you prepared for the interview, that is content. Everything you do is content gold.

Marissa:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Allison:

And that's not something that you, Marissa handle for people because you're not their marketing director, is that right?

Marissa:

We know that the value of our work goes so much further when someone has that plan in place for being able to share it we have those discussions. We say, Hey, don't forget to post on LinkedIn, and you can do it more than once. And don't forget to add it to your newsletter and add the logos to your website and your coverage. We don't build the platform. That's why we have wonderful friends like yourself and others who we love to lean into and say, Hey you do this component and we'll come in for the book launch part of it. But we are book publicists, we don't just put all of our eggs in the publication date basket. That's a special day. But if your goals for this book, again, going back to the Catalyst conversation, what is this a catalyst for? The last thing you want is a flash in the pan moment where all of this media happens at one time and then it stops. You want to continue with media coverage well after the book is out. There's even times where we start pr if someone has the platform in place. But maybe they're shopping their book around, they're a year or two out from publishing still. We might do a little kind of thought leadership to just freshen them up a bit with some media coverage and podcasts and article placements and such. A majority of our work is around pub date. Sometimes it starts two months before, sometimes it starts five months before. Depends on, again, goals, resources, assets available, the publishing path, what we have available to us. We tailor everything. We always continue that initial launch plan for a month after. In many cases, we continue beyond that the book publicity world is still very full of the old school mentality that everything hinges on publication date. We just need to see everything right there. But a large majority of authors out there are not a fit for that particular strategy path of trying to work toward the New York Times. It's just not for them. Doesn't mean you can't sell 10,000 books in your first year. Maybe through speaking through consulting and such, and the bulk sales from that. But in the first year, that's not going to support that bestseller, strategy that needs to happen in the pre-order. It really is about building really tailored plans that match what this person needs, what their goals are, and how we can have the greatest impact over time.

Allison:

Your pub date is like your birthday, but yes, after your pub day, your book exists and it's new to the person who finds it today.

Marissa:

Yes, pub day is your book's birthday. And if you have, if you birth a child, a real child, or your book baby here, we think about it. If you nurture it, if you continue supporting it. It's only going to grow bigger and better over time. When you continue to think about how your book is incorporated into your brand, into your platform, into all of the things that you offer over time. It can just keep giving back to you for so long. And you're going to see those book sales naturally. You're going to see it, you work for you and bringing new opportunities into you.

Allison:

Let's talk about pressure for a sec. A lot of listeners are worried they won't be taken seriously unless they get a deal with a traditional publisher. We can blame Kerry Bradshaw because you don't see hybrid publishers in the movie.

Marissa:

Right. Most people don't know about them still.

Allison:

Right. They don't. They think I can self-publish, like printing their book at Kinko's and slapping a cover. Don't do that. That would be terrible.

Marissa:

Please don't, please don't.

Allison:

Versus, I want Random House to publish my book. These two things are so far apart. There are so many publishing options now and every publisher has a different business model. Does your strategy for PR and publicity shift depending on how someone publishes.

Marissa:

I love that question, Allison. And before I answer it, I'm going to give like a little bit of a Smith history because it does feed into this. So, we've been around for 28 years when our founder, Dan, when he started Smith, it was because he saw this self-publishing space that was starting to grow and really boom. And no one would touch them. Even when I started here 16 years ago, if you went to the book reviewer they would quickly turn their nose up if it wasn't from a top, one of the big fives. A lot of a lot of our early days we're figuring out okay, if we're not getting the book review, how do we get coverage? And that's where we got to lean into the story behind the story. The expertise positioning, talking about the book is that supporting resource to how we position the author. In probably 95% of media they want good content from good experts. Does the book look nice that's great. But it does not matter. We get placements with all major business media with national TV from hybrid published and even self-published authors sometimes. You know, again, with self-published is going the right path with that. There's some really great ways you can self-publish. The other side of it is the audience. Are they going to care? The people that you actually are trying to reach, do they care how you're published. I see so many of the speakers that we work with, especially they go hybrid. Because they get to control their IP in such a way they get to just be, they get to make sure it comes out the right time when their speaking season is really busy. It doesn't matter nearly as much as it did before.

Allison:

A lot of my clients go hybrid and not only do they get to control timing a bit more But there can be a different type of partnership. Maybe they don't get an advance. But they get more of the profit immediately. And so, the business model is different. Although, I have clients who have published traditionally who also didn't get in advance and got the same kind of deal everything's changing.

Marissa:

It is. It really is. And I think that a lot of authors get that sticker shop on the front end. If you, especially if you're going to go hybrid, you look at the cost of the hybrid publisher. The cost of what individuals I need to help support my marketing, the cost of the publicist. And all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, it could be all of these price tags at the front end of this work ghost writer as well. Then they say, oh, I'm never going to make my money back in book sales., That's not the mentality we can have. It has to be this is a business investment. This is an investment in myself, not just my book. When you have that mindset, then you can see, oh, if I get one$15,000 speaking engagement, that's going to quickly cover, a good chunk of my publicity campaign that I invested in. If I get, this opportunity here that's going to help cover, a portion of the hybrid publishing route. Thinking about it as a business investment versus just a book investment helps to soften the blow.

Allison:

And opens so many doors. Those costs can, if you don't know what they are upfront, it might make sense to you to spend$5,000 helping somebody figure out your brand. Please don't do that. Please don't spend money where you can figure out your brand on Canva. In my author visibility kit, I walk you through how anybody can do it in an afternoon. And then, if you want to invest in that, super. But don't invest upfront when you'll, you may need those nickels to hire Marissa because you're like, no, I really want to go big and I don't want to do it all myself.

Marissa:

We see that so often where someone comes in and they just say, oh, either I thought my publisher was going to do that for me. And there is still a degree, especially with traditional publishing in particular, there is a degree of that in-house support that you get. But what we usually find is that they are doing the book centric component of it. So, they're going to go out, they're going to make sure that those pitches that say new book are going out to the right people. What they don't have the time to do, understandably, in terms of the number of people and the number of books they have. They don't have the time to do, is to really dig in on the podcast to really find those industry and niche shows or subject matter shows Yeah. That are going to be right for you. They don't have the time to really coach you through a lot of that article writing and such. It's going to help with thought leadership positioning for the long term. And so, we work alongside those teams often. Collaborating together and building the right plan that is going to maximize the resources.

Allison:

When you get to decide what's right for you. You don't have to be a household name, you have to be recognizable to the people who you serve.. Don't make it a sprint. Marketing yourself and continuing to see patients or to teach this semester at the university or whatever your life is. Being an author needs to fold into your life. No one wants you to stop doing the good that you're doing in the world.

Marissa:

There's a lot of campaigns that we launch where we can't position you for breaking news We might send you some things you could answer over a quick text or email to us, that open communication is really important. We can certainly look to where the right things fit, fit in around it.

Allison:

Marissa, where can people find you if they're like, I know I'm going to need this. I know it's not until next year or.

Marissa:

Gosh, I love early conversations. It helps us to say, oh, wait, you need this before we get started. I'm very active on LinkedIn. I encourage people to connect with me there. Feel free to send a direct message and I keep a really close eye on it.

Allison:

I'm so glad that LinkedIn brought us together I was seeing your content and like we have to talk

Marissa:

yes, absolutely.

Allison:

There are many ways to get that coverage, and oftentimes it's not a feature all about you. Being a contributor, that is absolutely. It's so powerful. So credible.

Marissa:

You have to make that value add as clear as possible for someone to want to take any further step beyond what they're seeing

Allison:

so good. No matter what your book is, and no matter who you are or what kind of digital presence you have today, there is always a way to help you reach more people. There's never once in my whole career of eons have I ever said, I don't think there's a story behind this product. There's always a way, and it's always faster than you think if you get some help.

Marissa:

If you haven't even started really regularly posting, it's okay to start today or tomorrow. everybody starts somewhere and you can start today. So, go for it

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