Publicize yourself vs hiring a publicist

This is a hard question many authors struggle with because they do not have the resources to pay thousands of dollars to publicize their book. Some people wrote their book just so they could MAKE money.

Unfortunately, paying a publicist will not guarantee sales no matter what a publicist says. The sales are based upon the market for your work as well as the merits of the content. Hmmm . . . maybe I should write a book on this . . .

Anyways, here is what you can do:

You can tell everyone you know about your book coming out.
You can contact your local media through general viewing routes.
You can pass out fliers to organizations you think might be interested.
You can contact online resources to get reviews and posts about your book.
You can approach local bookstores about hosting book events.

Here is what a publicist can do:

A publicist can contact your local media through specialized routes focused on the right media contact for your book.
A publicist can contact organizations that are interested in the information listed in your book.
A publicist can contact online resources to get reviews and posts about your book. Honestly, publicists aren't going to do much better than you can on this one.
A publicist can approach local bookstores about hosting book events. The ammunition a publicist has is knowledge about the book industry and the ability to give bookstores options you may not be aware of.
A publicist can use the contacts he or she already has to get you interviews and articles from a media outlet that may say no otherwise.

If you are traditionally published by a large publishing house, you don't have to worry about these differences. If you have a small publishing house, the better ones do all of the above steps for you.

If you have a subsidy publisher, POD publisher or a vanity press, you aren't going to make millions. Period. You typically aren't going to even make thousands. Most authors are in the minority when they make hundreds even after hiring a publicist.

I have represented an author who was an exception selling thousands of books and picked up by a major publishing house. This would not have happened had he not hired a publicist for one very simple reason:

His self-publishing publisher did NOTHING to promote his book and he was too busy to do it himself.

If you follow the suggestions I posted before about where to start and editing, there is a better chance you can be successful. However, you're not going to get the amount of exposure a publicist can get you when you do it on your own.

You have to decide how good you think your book is and how many copies you want to sell.

The unfortunate side to publicity is no matter how good your publicist is, if your book isn't top notch, you are not going to have good results from your campaign. The hardest thing you can do is step back from your emotional attachment to your book and say, "this thing needs more work." Get lots of outside, agenda-free opinions before ever publishing your manuscript.