I am often asked by established and new authors about publicity.

As in, what should I do to publicize my book? Or, what do you do, Cathy?

To be quite honest, I’ve gone round and round with the social media/marketing/PR question endlessly. By the end of my own debate,  I want to poke my eyeballs out.

My publishing house does a lot for me in terms of advertising and marketing, which I am utterly grateful for, and it helps enormously, but what else do I do, personally?

Basically, I only do what I like to do because I don’t like doing what I don’t like to do. I am too old for that.

Here is what is worth your time, in my opinion, and what I like.

1) Create A Website. A website, professionally done, is a needed banana.  (I just made that phrase up for fun)  It’s where readers learn about you, your life, and your other books. They can write to you here, too.

2) Facebook. Of course. No brainer.  Easy and fun, readers can chat informally with you, and you can post funny/thoughtful/interesting things about your life and books. Do not over post. Do not make them sick of you.

3) Amazon and Goodreads. Set up author pages. Once it’s set up – it’s set up.  You add a photo of yourself looking as good as you can possibly look, some bio information that you’ve probably already written for your website, fill in a few questions, add photos here and there, link your blog in, make sure your book covers are up correctly and, voila, you’re done.

4) Speak at Book Groups. I love them! I will go to book groups if they’re 15 minutes from my house in Portland, Oregon, because they’re fun and interesting and I love to chat with women. I also skype with book groups and speak with them on speaker phone.

5) Blogging. I try to blog about my books, writing, and what’s going on in my own little world.  Life and deadlines sometimes get in the way, but if you can blog once a week (which I don’t because I’m swamped and need to spend time daydreaming) you should.

I love Jane Porter’s blog – current, short entries, lots of photos, fun, personal. http://janeporter.com/janeblog/

You can also feature other authors, and they’ll post your interview on their blog. I post excerpts of my books sometimes, which is easy, to help promote them. (Like I did here, in running my own covers down the side of this web page!)

6)  Pinterest. I made up a board (Think of Pinterest as an online bulletin board) for each of my novels and will do so later for my short stories in the anthologies. Simple to set up, you don’t need to keep going back to it. You pin pretty pictures to your boards, add a tagline to advertise the characters in your book, the plot, etc. and you’re done. Readers get an idea of your book via pictures.

A question you might have is, So, Cathy, what about running from book store to book store and giving presentations about your book?

If you are already a popular, well known author, (John Grisham, Geraldine Brooks, Khaled Hosseini) this could be a very worthwhile venture, especially because the publishing house picks up the cost.

But I’ve known authors who spent endless hours, days, weeks, months promoting their books, driving from book store to book store like a reading robot. That is not for me.

For one, unless you’re a Big Gun in the writing world, that cost is on you – the hotels, the gas, and the food when you’re on the road. Plus, you set those things up, you talk to the manager, you find a date, you go and speak.

I have also heard, repeatedly, from other authors, even well known ones, and from managers of bookstores, that often no one shows up, or it’s only 5 – 10 people, and they sell a few books. This is not worth your time. It’s smashingly bad for the ego, too.

If you do take yourself on a bookstore tour, you have to ask yourself at the end of it, and be brutal, how many books did you sell on those jaunts? Was it truly worth your time and effort and stress? Was it worth the time away from writing and the distraction? Did you lose money on it? (Probably that’s a yes).

Zipping to one bookstore after another is not for me.

I go to Powell’s when I have a new novel out.  There’s about 60 – 80 people, and they sell a bunch of books. It’s pleasant, we laugh, I talk, I like it. I like Powell’s.  Do I think that if I went to other bookstores that I would have the same turn out? I don’t. I know a lot of the people who come to Powell’s, they’re friends and neighbors, regular readers.

I do talk at library events and have found that that’s worth it because I can meet readers, and I can sell a bunch of my books. Plus, I truly like speaking at library events.

You absolutely must balance social media/marketing/PR for your book with your writing and your life. That stuff can eat up your time like a hungry Godzilla with extremely dubious results.

But HERE’S THE TRUTH, as I see it, the utter and inglorious truth.

What do I think really sells books?

Writing an outstanding book.

I absolutely believe that word of mouth is the best advertising. It is far, far better than doing all of the things I just listed above and will give you much less of a headache.

For example, I was at a book group recently and the women there talked about how they told all their friends, sisters, and neighbors about my books. That, above all else, is the best marketing. Sisters will read what their sisters loved. Friends will read what their friends loved. Neighbors will read what their neighbor on the other side of the fence read. You know how it is, women talk about everything – men, sex, decorating, movies – and books they love.

If you write an intriguing/gripping/thought provoking book, it’ll sell. Will you be a millionaire? Maybe. Most probably not. But you could definitely make a living.

Do the six things I posted above, but concentrate almost all of your energies on writing well. Writing excellently (Is excellently a word?). Write the best damn book you can write. Write your ass off.

That, truly, is your best publicity.