Recently there was a promotion of my book, but without me. Everything is okay, nothing happened, and everything is in agreement with the publisher. I didn't come because I felt I shouldn't.
Did I endanger anyone?
I am not a publisher. The promotion was held, which means that he fulfilled his obligation from the contract. And not even my book. I will explain why.
Promotions were invented in order for the book to gain visibility, for the public, primarily the media, to find out about it. However, if you are not Dragan Velikić, Jasminka Petrović, Ante Tomić, Marcelo, Miodrag Majić, Mirjana Bobić, and not to mention the writers whose every new book is a cultural and social event, so that people rush to get a copy signed by the author and journalists note the crowd, then promotion will not help your new book reach readers.
Because, if you are an ordinary writer like me, maybe two or three journalists from the portal who are not among the most read will come to your promotion. The others will eventually, especially if you know them or if they have nothing else more attractive and urgent to write, copy the circular information about your book sent to them by the publisher announcing the promotion.
Apart from them, maybe a few of your loved ones will come to the promotion because they are embarrassed to reject you. However, despite their best intentions, they cannot influence the visibility of the book.
And who can?
Publishers claim that authors can. They say that if authors want their book to live, they should promote it on their social networks. Otherwise, the book will disappear, as if it never happened.
Of course, publishers also have a website and social networks. They use them to brag to their followers about the new book and the prize if they eventually win it and - that would be all. The big ones don't have time for more than that, because they have to devote themselves to the next book, and the medium and small publishers could do more and more often, but they don't have the capacity.
And the authors have the opportunity to deal with their books on the networks as much as they want - the publishers told me in an article I wrote for "Vreme". After all, the book is a joint product, plus, these are no longer the times when the writer was just a writer, they emphasized. He is now her promoter.
What did I do for my book?
Almost nothing. And not only for this one, but for all ten books, one of which received four prestigious awards, even "Zabavnikova".
Of course I have social networks and I'm okay with them, but I post news about my books only when they are published, win an award, or appear in some newspaper. I don't advertise them to followers.
I don't think it's wrong and I'm fine with it when others do it, but I don't practice it. I'm not comfortable. Do I feel guilty that the well-being of the book is not more important to me than the comfort? Yes, a little, but let's not psychologize on that topic.
How much have publishers done?
Only the obligatory: they sent an email to the media that the book was published and informed them about the promotion.
The publisher who published the one with four awards announced it on the networks, but he did not use the award to highlight my subsequent books, for example, he did not put that ribbon around the book that says: from the winner of the "Zabavnik" award. Because there is no surer advertisement than an award, I guess we all know that.
This latest book was published in August last year. We agreed, the publisher and I, that the promotion would be at the end of September, but somehow that time slipped away. Until now. In the meantime, some other little things happened that alienate the book from readers, for example, it was published on the publisher's website just before the promotion, as if it had just been published, and there would also be some large print, but I wouldn't talk about it because I interpret it as sloppiness.
Only readers of a weekly newspaper know about that book because a colleague who knows me saw it in a shop window. Nowhere else is it even recorded to exist. And if it is not visible, it is not only the book that suffers damage, but also the publisher. Is it not in his interest to sell it?
What to do?
The story of what and how hinders the book on its way to the reader is meaningless. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been encouraged by a personal example. Did I learn something from my own experience? No, I just confirmed what I knew. Will I do anything to make my books better? It should.
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