As a querying debut memoir author, this post is PURE GOLD. I had a real moment as I was completing my book proposal this morning and doing some market research on the side, where I realized that unless a debut author has a well-built platform it is *extremely difficult* to break through the market. And to be real, I already knew this, but when I started looking at the number of reviews some of my favorite authors had as an indicator of sales, it really hit me just how hard it is to sell books. So I am REALLY thinking about what this means as I continue to build my own platform and how to shift gears into a publicity mindset now that my manuscript is query ready. This post came at just the right moment and I have to thank you for writing it because it's given me some good direction as I continue to consider the approach I want to take. Thank you!
Mirella, hi! Oh you’re in the fun part! I like to think that while you do have to layout marketing and publicity and audience in a proposal, you can also make space to layout dreams (places you could speak for large groups interested in your memoir, people you might ask to blurb the book, spaces that would potentially welcome the book. A little bit of what your platform is AND what your platform COULD be with some hard work.
And while of course I’m pro-reviews and publicity hits, sales are so much more than that and there are so many ways in! You’ll find your people! 💌
What a lovely encouragement, Cassie! I will definitely keep that in mind as I hone my marketing and publicity plan! I have very much been keeping speaking opportunities in mind as that is one of the skillsets I bring to authorship. Thanks so much for your response.
aw, Aly! I look forward to spreading the amazing news of your future books! It’s mutual—and excited about your new writing group endeavor. I saw it on Margo’s instagram I think, when I turn back to actually writing I hope to join in at some point.
This piece is such a gift! Wow! The ideas you've given for brainstorming (and tying it all to MadLibs) is just absolutely brilliant. And I am so, so honored to have been included in this piece too. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement!
I read that piece in TODAY and was like ANNA GETS IT becuase I’m already overwhelmed with options and I have a baby and a toddler. How do they already have so many things and why are they all Saturday mornings, haha. We’re also having that third kid conversations and this one of the factors!
Honestly (and this is another piece) but third kid + extracurriculars = me stepping back from full time work. It wasn’t a surprise — I knew I would probably need to make adjustments to work if I added a third baby, but I’m *so curious* about how many moms scale back on job stuff because of extracurricular pressure.
Your piece on the publicity-first strategy resonates deeply with me, particularly as someone who transitioned from government PR to authorship. The practical, actionable advice here is invaluable—I especially appreciate your emphasis on understanding reader reactions over critical acclaim.
Your point about comps is particularly astute. The industry’s current obsession with “proven market performance” through comparative titles has become almost pathological. When I queried with Beijing Bound, agents wanted comps from the last three years with proven sales records. But what about originality? What about stories that don’t fit neatly into existing categories? Publishing once took chances on unique voices and unconventional narratives. Now we seem to be chasing TikTok metrics instead of compelling storytelling.
Given that film and streaming increasingly draw from published works, this risk-averse approach to acquisition affects our entire cultural landscape. We’re creating a closed loop of increasingly derivative content, all because traditional publishing has become terrified of anything without a ready-made audience or perfect comp titles.
Your suggestion to focus on publicity strategy before querying is spot-on. But I’d argue we also need to revive the industry’s appetite for risk-taking. After all, every breakout hit was once a book that “didn’t comp well.”
Lovely to hear from you here. We’re in agreement about industry risk-taking, but I think you’ll find that that’s not really the work of big four publishing anymore. The risk taking is happening at independent publishers and then when it pays off—those authors are moving to big four imprints. So, I would argue it’s on industry BUT it’s also on readers to be looking for that riskier novel AND reading and reviewing those riskier novels. If we want more of something, we have to buy it and celebrate it when it appears.
I don’t see a lot of that happening—of course how readers come to books is a whole other issue we could talk about at length, and how each player in book publishing (sales teams, independent bookstores, distributors, publicists) is involved in all of that, but I hope in the next few years (at least on the publicity side of things), we try to find new avenues to readers that aren’t the same ol’ ads and the same ol’ media placements.
I will say that risk-taking also depends on genre right now. I see more risks being taken in terms of readership and audience (buy-in dependent books) than I do with plot or voice. And when those risks do pay off, I think it’s fun to see the lineage of books that come after—Yellowface, for example, has so many books coming up behind it that are doing a similar thing with voice. I’m not against that sort of family tree.
I am also not someone who believes that a book exists that doesn’t have some sort of comp if we’re breaking things down like voice, character, setting, how setting plays a role in the book, tension, pacing, etc. I think every book relies on the conversation it has with books (or other forms of media—let’s not forget we can comp movies, music, etc) that came before it. So, no one is out here writing into their cave in today’s world (though wouldn’t that hermiting be lovely!).
And lastly, what an exciting move from goverment PR to authorship—you need to have a newsletter just about that!
I really appreciated these mad lib style prompts. I'm querying my first novel (book club fiction) and finishing my second (contemporary with romance elements), and using the mad libs as prompts helped me work through the synopsis for my second book.
The focus on platform building is one that has me torn, because I've written in the patient narrative space for twenty years (personal stories/blogs about living with type 1 diabetes), so my platform and reach in that community is one I'm proud to have, but I'm not sure my work as a patient storyteller translates as "big enough" for potential agents, especially since the fictional work is not related to diabetes. I am hopeful that an agent will see my previous work as foundational to my new writing. So far, it's been a tough nut to crack.
Hey Kerri—good news is a platform for fiction doesn’t really matter. It’s more a nonfiction thing. It’s helpful, obviously, if you DO have a platform, but it’s far less relevant to fiction!
I love the Mad Libs exercise so much. I'm going to recommend this to my editing clients, so they can ponder their fiction and readers deeply but in a fun way. Thank you!
Thank you - what a master class post! This is platinum rule marketing for the publishing world at its best and its absolutely the kind of session at AWP that would be in the largest salon room and standing room only with folx turned away at the door. So much to unpack here - my biggest takeaway was to shift the gaze from old news macro to the contemporary micro in order to craft and enliven a compelling query - as in, which headlines are in the news now that are creating a stir?
Oh, Danna—this is so kind, thank you! I thought about writing a piece about headlines next since they’re most often not chosen by writers, but written for SEO and clicks and what does that say about how we angle things!
As someone who spent 40 years in marketing, PR, communications, and journalism before retiring recently to chase more creative pursuits, I'm happy to see this, and also saddened to hear that few MFA programs spend any time discussing the importance of marketing and public relations. Marketing and PR skills are essential for writers to succeed these days, whether they're shooting for a big publishing deal or going the indie/self-publishing route. The Mad Libs approach is fantastic, too.
Hi Cassie!
As a querying debut memoir author, this post is PURE GOLD. I had a real moment as I was completing my book proposal this morning and doing some market research on the side, where I realized that unless a debut author has a well-built platform it is *extremely difficult* to break through the market. And to be real, I already knew this, but when I started looking at the number of reviews some of my favorite authors had as an indicator of sales, it really hit me just how hard it is to sell books. So I am REALLY thinking about what this means as I continue to build my own platform and how to shift gears into a publicity mindset now that my manuscript is query ready. This post came at just the right moment and I have to thank you for writing it because it's given me some good direction as I continue to consider the approach I want to take. Thank you!
Mirella, hi! Oh you’re in the fun part! I like to think that while you do have to layout marketing and publicity and audience in a proposal, you can also make space to layout dreams (places you could speak for large groups interested in your memoir, people you might ask to blurb the book, spaces that would potentially welcome the book. A little bit of what your platform is AND what your platform COULD be with some hard work.
And while of course I’m pro-reviews and publicity hits, sales are so much more than that and there are so many ways in! You’ll find your people! 💌
What a lovely encouragement, Cassie! I will definitely keep that in mind as I hone my marketing and publicity plan! I have very much been keeping speaking opportunities in mind as that is one of the skillsets I bring to authorship. Thanks so much for your response.
Cassie I didn’t know it was possible to have a PR crush, but you are my PR crush. This post is gold, and deeply appreciated.
aw, Aly! I look forward to spreading the amazing news of your future books! It’s mutual—and excited about your new writing group endeavor. I saw it on Margo’s instagram I think, when I turn back to actually writing I hope to join in at some point.
It's really a catch-22, isn't it. You need a book to get publicity and you need publicity to get a book deal.
This piece is such a gift! Wow! The ideas you've given for brainstorming (and tying it all to MadLibs) is just absolutely brilliant. And I am so, so honored to have been included in this piece too. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement!
I read that piece in TODAY and was like ANNA GETS IT becuase I’m already overwhelmed with options and I have a baby and a toddler. How do they already have so many things and why are they all Saturday mornings, haha. We’re also having that third kid conversations and this one of the factors!
Honestly (and this is another piece) but third kid + extracurriculars = me stepping back from full time work. It wasn’t a surprise — I knew I would probably need to make adjustments to work if I added a third baby, but I’m *so curious* about how many moms scale back on job stuff because of extracurricular pressure.
Cassie,
Your piece on the publicity-first strategy resonates deeply with me, particularly as someone who transitioned from government PR to authorship. The practical, actionable advice here is invaluable—I especially appreciate your emphasis on understanding reader reactions over critical acclaim.
Your point about comps is particularly astute. The industry’s current obsession with “proven market performance” through comparative titles has become almost pathological. When I queried with Beijing Bound, agents wanted comps from the last three years with proven sales records. But what about originality? What about stories that don’t fit neatly into existing categories? Publishing once took chances on unique voices and unconventional narratives. Now we seem to be chasing TikTok metrics instead of compelling storytelling.
Given that film and streaming increasingly draw from published works, this risk-averse approach to acquisition affects our entire cultural landscape. We’re creating a closed loop of increasingly derivative content, all because traditional publishing has become terrified of anything without a ready-made audience or perfect comp titles.
Your suggestion to focus on publicity strategy before querying is spot-on. But I’d argue we also need to revive the industry’s appetite for risk-taking. After all, every breakout hit was once a book that “didn’t comp well.”
Hey Glen!
Lovely to hear from you here. We’re in agreement about industry risk-taking, but I think you’ll find that that’s not really the work of big four publishing anymore. The risk taking is happening at independent publishers and then when it pays off—those authors are moving to big four imprints. So, I would argue it’s on industry BUT it’s also on readers to be looking for that riskier novel AND reading and reviewing those riskier novels. If we want more of something, we have to buy it and celebrate it when it appears.
I don’t see a lot of that happening—of course how readers come to books is a whole other issue we could talk about at length, and how each player in book publishing (sales teams, independent bookstores, distributors, publicists) is involved in all of that, but I hope in the next few years (at least on the publicity side of things), we try to find new avenues to readers that aren’t the same ol’ ads and the same ol’ media placements.
I will say that risk-taking also depends on genre right now. I see more risks being taken in terms of readership and audience (buy-in dependent books) than I do with plot or voice. And when those risks do pay off, I think it’s fun to see the lineage of books that come after—Yellowface, for example, has so many books coming up behind it that are doing a similar thing with voice. I’m not against that sort of family tree.
I am also not someone who believes that a book exists that doesn’t have some sort of comp if we’re breaking things down like voice, character, setting, how setting plays a role in the book, tension, pacing, etc. I think every book relies on the conversation it has with books (or other forms of media—let’s not forget we can comp movies, music, etc) that came before it. So, no one is out here writing into their cave in today’s world (though wouldn’t that hermiting be lovely!).
And lastly, what an exciting move from goverment PR to authorship—you need to have a newsletter just about that!
I really appreciated these mad lib style prompts. I'm querying my first novel (book club fiction) and finishing my second (contemporary with romance elements), and using the mad libs as prompts helped me work through the synopsis for my second book.
The focus on platform building is one that has me torn, because I've written in the patient narrative space for twenty years (personal stories/blogs about living with type 1 diabetes), so my platform and reach in that community is one I'm proud to have, but I'm not sure my work as a patient storyteller translates as "big enough" for potential agents, especially since the fictional work is not related to diabetes. I am hopeful that an agent will see my previous work as foundational to my new writing. So far, it's been a tough nut to crack.
Thanks for your advice in this post!
Hey Kerri—good news is a platform for fiction doesn’t really matter. It’s more a nonfiction thing. It’s helpful, obviously, if you DO have a platform, but it’s far less relevant to fiction!
This is so brilliant I might print it out. Thank you <3
Good insight 😌 Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Sure! That would be great!
Thank you very much, Cassie.
This is the article:
https://humanidades.substack.com/p/publicidad-es-lo-primero-en-el-mundo
I love the Mad Libs exercise so much. I'm going to recommend this to my editing clients, so they can ponder their fiction and readers deeply but in a fun way. Thank you!
Wow! This is super helpful. I love Mad Libs and seeing them in this way is amazing and actionable. Thank you for this post!
Thank you for these! I like how the madlib approach makes publicity feel a bit more playful.
Also commenting to say how strange it was to see a photo of Omie’s coffee pop up! I lived two blocks from there until fairly recently.
ah fun! Our kids’ grandparents live over that way so we’re there a lot (plus museum of life and science and all that!).
Such a great museum. My kids miss it!
Wait, Tiff you moved to ENGLAND! From Durham?? I feel like this comment section is not big enough for me to ask the questions I want to ask, haha!
It was a big move 😅
lol yeeesss to the Publishers Marketplace screenshot
Thank you - what a master class post! This is platinum rule marketing for the publishing world at its best and its absolutely the kind of session at AWP that would be in the largest salon room and standing room only with folx turned away at the door. So much to unpack here - my biggest takeaway was to shift the gaze from old news macro to the contemporary micro in order to craft and enliven a compelling query - as in, which headlines are in the news now that are creating a stir?
Oh, Danna—this is so kind, thank you! I thought about writing a piece about headlines next since they’re most often not chosen by writers, but written for SEO and clicks and what does that say about how we angle things!
Whoa. This is BEYOND brilliant.
I appreciate you!
I also just saw in your welcome email that you're connected to the wonderful Chrissy Hennessey!! I should have known!
Ahhh she was a very good mentor to me when I got to the Mfa program at UNCW & a sounding board while I was there—she’s the best!
How lovely!! And this is completely unsurprising to hear. She's so wise.
This is one of the most practical author publicity things I've ever read. Thank you!
ah, I appreciate you saying so, Sarah!
As someone who spent 40 years in marketing, PR, communications, and journalism before retiring recently to chase more creative pursuits, I'm happy to see this, and also saddened to hear that few MFA programs spend any time discussing the importance of marketing and public relations. Marketing and PR skills are essential for writers to succeed these days, whether they're shooting for a big publishing deal or going the indie/self-publishing route. The Mad Libs approach is fantastic, too.