Platform, Publicity, and Marketing: What Authors Need to Know
An interview with book publicist Ashley Steinberg
Here’s something a lot of authors don’t realize: Marketing your book is your job.
It doesn’t matter whether your publishing journey is traditional, indie, or hybrid; the success of your book largely depends on your ability to build an author brand and platform, and to market the heck out of your book before and after it’s published.
At Invisible Ink Editing, we can help you get your manuscript ready to be published, printed, and sold in stores. But we don’t help you with the promotion or marketing of your book. Instead, we’ll introduce you to people who are experts in that arena—people like Ashley Steinberg, of Pulse 10 Consulting.
I met Ashley at a writing conference earlier this year, and we immediately clicked, because we share the same passion: helping authors get their books out to the right audience. Ashley’s services as a book publicist and strategist are ideal for authors who have already been through the editing process and are gearing up to release their books.
Ashley has been in this industry a long time, and agreed to sit down with me and share some of her expertise in an interview. You can watch the full interview right here, or read on for highlights from our conversation.
About Ashley Steinberg
Ashley Steinberg is the founder of Pulse 10 Consulting, a brand strategy and marketing firm specializing in author publicity and brand management. With 25+ years of experience across publishing and corporate brand consulting, Ashley helps authors at every stage build their platform, reach the right audience, and get their books the attention they deserve. You can reach her directly at ashley@pulse10consulting.com.
What does it mean to have an author brand?
An author brand refers to having a vision and a message for your author profile, and a community where you share it. That’s Ashley’s quick definition, but she goes into much more detail in this clip from our conversation:
In the clip, Ashley makes an important point about timing. Building a platform isn’t something you do after the manuscript is finished; it’s something that has to happen alongside the writing itself.
"One of the mistakes I see a lot of people making is waiting until the manuscript is complete before they go, okay, what do I need to do now?"
The reality is that even authors published by major houses are rarely full-time writers. Most have jobs, families, and full lives running parallel to their writing, which makes audience-building easy to deprioritize, but no less necessary. Ashley’s advice is to be asking the right questions early and consistently:
"While you are writing your book and you're doing all these other things—having a life, having a family, having friends, having a job—the fact is that you also have to be out there understanding who your audience is. Where are you meeting them? How are you getting to know them? How are they getting to know you? Do you have a particular voice in the conversation?"
What's the difference between book marketing and book publicity?
Book publicity is earned media — reviews, interviews, and features where someone else is writing or talking about you and your book. Book marketing is content you create and push out yourself. They work together, but they are not the same thing, and Ashley says authors need both.
Here’s how she breaks it down:
The distinction matters because each serves a different purpose. Publicity builds credibility. Marketing amplifies it. As Ashley puts it:
"You posting this interview on your blog is publicity for me and marketing for you."
It’s a simple example, but it illustrates how the two can happen simultaneously and serve different people at the same time. The goal is to use them in tandem — let earned media establish your authority, then use your own content to push that further.
How much of the marketing work falls on the author?
The short answer is: most of it, regardless of how you publish. But the specifics vary depending on your publishing path, and it’s worth understanding the differences.
If you’re picked up by a traditional publisher, you’ll have access to both a publicity team and a marketing team… in theory.
In practice, you’re one of roughly 20 to 30 titles per line being released that month, and the support you receive will reflect that. Your editor will advocate for you, but they’re also managing 15 other authors. You’ll get some marketing materials if you ask for them, and your book will likely be sent to trade publications for review. But you’ll have a strict timeline—approximately six to eight weeks after launch to make your sales push count—and a lot of the legwork will still fall on you.
Here’s Ashley on what that actually looks like in practice:
For indie and self-published authors, the calculus is different. You don’t have a publishing house’s infrastructure behind you, but you do have something traditional authors don’t: control over your own timeline.
You can build your platform methodically, test your messaging, release excerpts, and develop your audience before the book ever drops. The tradeoff is that you’re doing all of this without any institutional support, which makes having a clear strategy—and ideally someone who has been through the process before by your side—that much more valuable.
Do all authors need a book marketer or publicist?
Truthfully, no—many authors don’t hire professional book marketers or publicists, and some are still successful when it comes to selling copies. But there are some compelling reasons to consider getting a professional in your corner.
Some authors can manage the marketing side themselves. Maybe they have a background in marketing, or enough time to invest consistently in social media and brand building. Most authors, however, will end up putting the marketing working on the backburner, because it’s so intimidating and time-consuming.
When it comes to book publicity, it’s much harder to do it yourself. So much of the publicity side comes down to the connections you have in the industry—most authors don’t come into the scene having these relationships, whereas book publicists like Ashley have spent years building them.
Here’s Ashley on how that network develops:
Why should your editor and your publicist know each other?
One of the more unexpected takeaways from our conversation was how much overlap there is between what a book editor does and what a book publicist does. Both are asking the same core questions: Who is this book for, and what is it trying to say?
Here’s my favorite clip from our conversation, where Ashley and I dive into the connection point between editor and publicist:
When Ashley or other publicists and I work with a shared client, we meet separately to talk through the book and the author—what the manuscript is doing well, who the audience is, what the core message is.
That context makes Ashley’s job easier from the start. On the flip side, Ashley will often send clients back to the Invisible Ink team for additional editing before a launch, because getting the book into its best possible shape before it hits the market matters as much as the publicity strategy around it.
If you’re ready to get started with editing, you can learn more about our book editing services, or submit your project below.
Practical tips for building your author platform
Ashley left us with some very practical starting points for authors who are ready to start building their platform and getting their book in front of readers.
Join a genre-specific author organization. There are established organizations for almost every genre that can help you start making the right connections. A few worth looking into:
- The Authors Guild
- Alliance of Independent Authors
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
- Romance Writers of America
- Mystery Writers of America
Get on NetGalley. NetGalley is a platform with around 400,000 readers, reviewers, librarians, and booksellers. Authors and publishers can post their books there to generate reviews and buzz ahead of launch, within specific genres.
Try Book Sirens. Book Sirens is specifically designed for independent authors. Reviews are filtered through Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindle, so you’re building your public profile at minimal cost.
And of course, if you want help building an author brand and book launch strategy, you should get in touch with Ashley specifically at ashley@pulse10consulting.com.
Ready to get your book out into the world?
Whether you’re still in the drafting stage or gearing up for launch, the earlier you start thinking about your author platform, the better.
If you need help getting your manuscript ready, we’re here to help. Our manuscript consulting service can help you start thinking about audience and messaging, even if you only have a partial draft.
And if you’re ready to start thinking seriously about publicity and marketing, the Pulse 10 Consulting website is a great place to start.
For more advice on book marketing, editing, and the writing life, sign up for the Invisible Ink Editing newsletter below. We send practical, no-fluff advice to your inbox every week.
