There is No Such Thing as Bad Feedback

POSTED BY babs ON February 23, 2011

Every bit of information that touches our lives, we can use as feedback. As publicists, we handle many kinds of feedback regarding your book every day, and we would be lost without that feedback. Promoting a book does not happen in a vacuum. A good campaign involves continual interaction. As publicists, we are inveterate information gatherers from the media, book buyers, and event hosts. We are constantly given feedback, whether it’s positive and verbal as in “your author did a great interview,” or not what we wanted as in no response from our best contacts to a current query.

How do we know what portion of the feedback to recycle in a press release?

How do we take what we have learned and change course?

How do we pass along the feedback we have received to the publisher?

Because of our experience, we are able to sort through and use the feedback in appropriate and timely ways.

Recently, several radio hosts approached me–independent of each other–to mention that one of our clients seemed to be struggling on their radio show. Our client seemed to have done well on other shows. However, we used this feedback to hire a coach to help her improve her radio presence. She was a hit on the next radio show.
In another instance, several magazine reviewers mentioned that though they had reviewed other books by our client, they could not review this one. Each individually did not like the title. Fortunately, this feedback came with the pre-publication review copies and the publisher could change the title.
After a speaking event we had set up for a client, we heard from the event organizer that the author was abusive to staffers and icy with his audience. We learned that some authors have great media presence; however, they may not be appropriate for live audiences.
As a publicist, I use every bit of feedback I receive about a client’s book as a way to gauge whether our current campaign is reaching our goals. If their social networking numbers are down from previous weeks, we examine what we are doing and work to repeat what worked before. If their Amazon ranking is up, we look to see what radio show or print review brought the numbers up. Then we publicize the review or interview again.
Willingness to listen is the key to working with all forms of feedback. Are you willing to learn from others’ experiences? Are you willing to change your course? Are you willing to grow a thicker skin and focus on what’s best for the book and material? When you are willing to work with every bit of feedback that touches you and your book, you will be more successful.

Sorting through all the feedback can be exhausting and overwhelming. One remedy we suggest is to find a buddy. Reach out to an author, speaker or entrepreneur who has material similar to yours. And if they have a book or new product coming out at the same time as yours, that will be even better. Suggest a weekly or biweekly phone call, Skype session or lunch meeting in which you can share experiences, discuss feedback you have received. Together, you can research appropriate action to take in response to the feedback you receive.

A favorite piece of feedback we received in a Publisher’s Weekly review began with “A fantastic book” and went on to comment about the author’s “purple prose.” Guess which part of the feedback went on the cover of the author’s book?

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Contributed by Mari Selby founder of  Selby ink in 1998, www.selbyink.com

Tags: authors, book publicity, books

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