(NEWS)

This article originally appeared on BookBusinessMag.com. IBPA welcomes your feedback in the comments section of this post.

By Fauzia Burke

Mike Shatzkin said in his opening remarks at Digital Book World 2016 that publishers need to help authors with their marketing efforts.

“At the very least, every house should do a ‘digital audit’ for every author they sign that includes concrete suggestions for filling in gaps and improving discoverability and engagement. To my knowledge, not one does.”

He also wrote an important blog on his site titled “When it comes to supporting authors in marketing efforts, no publisher has it right yet.” I hear his point, in fact, it is the reason I wrote Online Marketing for Busy Authors. It is an introductory book for authors who have been dragging their online marketing feet. However, expecting publishers to be able to help every author build their online author platform is unrealistic.

For over twenty years I have been promoting books online, and our web publicity campaigns usually start a couple of months before publication date. More often than not, it is at that time that the authors learn that they should have a website or that their current website does not work. We have a conversation about social media and blogging and mailing lists. I ask them why they have not been thinking about these important online marketing assets and they say no one told them. Or they tell me, “My publisher told me to build an author platform but no one told me what to do.”

Read more at BookBusinessMag.com.