Q&A: M.J. Rose

M.J. Rose is the bestselling novelist of the suspense novel The Reincarnationist. And as a former advertising pro, she’s also one of the savviest book marketers you’ll come across. In this interview she shares her hard-won advice about marketing a book and whether writers should consider going it on their own.

Although your novels are traditionally published now, when you started out you self-published. With the publishing landscape changing so dramatically, do you recommend writers consider self-publishing as a viable option?
No. Not for fiction. It was a different time in 1998. There weren’t many self-published books at the time, and now there are more than 100,000 a year. Plus I didn’t do it as a career move. I never intended to self-publish. It was an marketing experiment. I did it because my agent had real interest in the novel but everyone kept telling her there was no way to market my kind of fiction.

Since my background is in advertising, I told her I was going to publish a few copies, and market them online and then she could show the publishers how to market my kind of fiction. I had no doubt I could figure out how to market the book. That’s a very different reason to do what I did than so many people now who do it now. So many self-published authors tell me they’ve self published after being rejected by one or two agents and/or one or two publishers who have criticized the quality of their work—said it wasn’t well written, or original or needed more work. Those are the last writers who should be self publishing. When I ask them how they know their books are ready to be published, they say because their friends and family love their work.

I think no one who can’t get a quality agent should publish on their own. Agents are always looking for new authors and I believe if the book can’t interest an agent, the author would be better served working on his or her craft for a while longer. I’d written three horrible novels before I got an agent with a fourth novel. And Lip Service was my fifth.

My advice hasn’t changed in 10 years. Self-publishing fiction is a last step. It’s only an option when you’ve tried the traditional route and rewritten the book a dozen times. I say this because even wonderful writers published with top houses can’t break out. So much is published now and book marketing is so difficult. How much hope is there really for an average or less than quality book that’s got no support behind it? Stores don’t want to give the self-published books a chance, most reviewers don’t want to to either. It’s not an uphill climb anymore: it’s a Mt. Everest climb times 100,000.

What is the No. 1 mistake writers make when it comes to promoting their book?
Putting all their money or too much money  into a website. Websites are in reach—people have to know about you to go to one. You need to do out reach— go where potential readers are. And No. 2 is confusing PR with marketing. Most PR is a gamble. Marketing is guaranteed exposure.

And how much time should an author spend on promoting his work?
As little time as possible. There are lots of people out there to help an author market. Our jobs is to write the books—not market them. The sad reality is we have to get involved in this and supplement what our publishers do. But we don’t need to do it ourselves.

What is the gist of your Authorbuzz service?
Here’s the problem: With all the cuts in the book biz, publishers have less money than ever for marketing but no one walks into a bookstore and says to a bookseller—I’d like to buy a book that neither you or I have ever heard of. No one orders a book they don’t know about from Amazon.

AuthorBuzz.com helps get out the news about books in affordable ways that fit authors and publishers budgets. We offer exposure to 370,000 plus readers, 12,000 librarians, 3,000 booksellers and readers and leaders of more than 16,750 bookclubs. ($1,550 package via DearReader.com and Shelf-Awareness.com and Bookmovement.com) And we also have Reading Group Guide of the Week banners at Bookmovement.com available for $450. We also do blog ads reaching from 1 million to 15 -20 million people—depending on budgets. Our ads click through in the top 10% in general and we’ve achieved the highest click thru rate at the The Huffington Post.

What’s next on the horizon for you?
I’m finishing up a novel, The Hypnotist, which will be out in Feb 2010. And working on BookTrib.com which is in Beta now, but please take a look.

-Maria Schneider

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