It was fun to be on this panel called Marketing Boot Camp with web designer and branding consultant Franklin Parrish, novelist Leslie Pietrzyk, and moderator, Lauren Mosko, who is an editor at Writers Digest Books.

195,000 books are published each year, only about 1700 get reviewed (a
number that is growing smaller), and most books have a shelf life that
is, as one editor commented, shorter than the shelf life of milk.
Getting publicity for your work is often the most difficult and
discouraging thing a writer has to do. Whether you are self-published,
published by a large commercial press, or about to be published, you
must, as a writer, know how to market your own work. This involves much
more than giving readings or making oneself available for book
signings. Marketing your book often being begins with marketing
yourself and starts long before the release date. It involves such
things as creating a "brand," having a website, blogging, sending out
mailings, designing your own advertising, writing press releases and
more. In this workshop learn what you must do in order to survive in
the publishing world.

Franklin Parrish of M19 Media talked about the importance of branding and creating a memorable and consistent impression of yourself in print, on the web, and in every contact you have with the public. He also offered some great advice for the design of web pages and told the group that advertising on buses isn’t as expensive as you think. I thought that was such a cool idea. Makes me want to advertise something on a bus.

Leslie Pietrzyk, the well-reviewed author of two works of literary fiction and a teacher of creative writing, discussed how much of the publicity for a book is left to the author. Pietrzyk has become at pro at promoting her work in a variety of creative ways including a blog, printed cards, readings, panels, and handouts.

Editor Lauren Mosko addressed legal and practical issues and cautioned against posting unpublished manuscripts on blogs and websites.

I talked about the importance of blogging and what I’ve learned about the publishing business in my role as  curator of Brooklyn Reading Works.

We all agreed that there is great ambivalence among writers, and artists in general, about self-promotion. There’s the feeling that generating publicity is crass, shameless and just plain yucky.

I’d rather be writing is the way a lot of writers feel.

But it is essential that writers get out there and grab their audience. If they want their books to sell and to build an audience of devoted readers.