Book marketing will fall even more squarely on authors’ shoulders
Even before the pandemic, most authors undertook marketing for their books on their own. It’s been years and years since publishers offered these services to anyone but top-tier sellers.
Bogel had tour dates scheduled across the country during the spring to promote her recently released third book, Don’t Overthink It. She made it to Connecticut and New York in early March but then had to cancel the tour. Inspiration struck, though: She reached out to other authors with works to promote and organized the Stay at Home Book Tour, a series of events in late March and early April hosted via video conferencing. Readers and fans logged in at a set time to hear authors discuss their works.
“What we were trying to do with the Stay at Home Book Tour was replicate as closely as possible going to a free event at your local indie bookstore,” says Bogel, who promoted the tour on her book-heavy lifestyle blog, Modern Mrs. Darcy. “I think it can feel really frustrating to have a major means of promotion pulled out from under you. It’s an easy way to connect with readers and good for sales, but also for morale.”
It has gone so well that Bogel envisions doing additional virtual book tours in the future. Publishers may feel options like this (which require no work or money on their end) are the way to go post-pandemic, too.
