1. Patience is a publicity virtue. A book promotion campaign is not an overnight process by any means; it is more marathon than sprint. Media response time to pitches can vary from one day to three months. It takes time for an editor or reviewer to read a book, and the field is so crowded with so many books coming out each day that pitching and re-pitching takes more time.

2. Don’t sweat bad interviews or reviews. Put simply, if you’re getting a lot of attention for your book, not every interview or review/article is going to be positive. This is the nature of publicity. When a bad interview happens, shake it off. The same goes for articles or reviews: you love your book, but it is impossible that EVERY one else will.

3. Don’t obsess about Amazon.com. Too many times we’ve seen clients complete an interview, then go to Amazon and refresh the screen 50 times for 5 hours, waiting for their ranking to rise. You will drive yourself crazy doing this. Publicity isn’t based on one interview or print article. You can, and usually will, get a bump on Amazon after an interview or print coverage, but the real increases in book sales happen in a cumulative way, over time.

4. Enjoy the ride. No book campaign maintains momentum forever. Enjoy every interview or article written about you; take it all in and remember the wonderful feelings you get when seeing your “name in lights.” It’s a fact of publicity that it won’t last forever. Enjoy the ride and have fun!

5. Don’t be afraid to be controversial. Controversy in publicity is usually golden. The best radio or TV interviews are the ones that turn into civil, yet heated verbal boxing matches. If someone takes a shot at you, ‘lock and load’ and professionally and calmly fire back!

Sandy Diaz is president of Smith Publicity, a leading book promotion firm with offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles and London. She can be reached at 856-489-8654 x301.