September 17, 2015 
Stacey 
There is so much talk in publishing about promoting your book. I recently had a conversation with a prospective nonfiction author and when I told him about the proposal process and what he’d need to put together in terms of a marketing and publicity plan, he asked me what the publisher does?! It’s a good point that publishers today look to the author for a lot more than producing a quality commercial book. They are expected to also prove that they can sell it. The publisher certainly has certain resources to support those efforts, but the greater the author’s ability to find their own audience the better the publishing process goes for all involved.
So I was tickled and a little appalled to find this hilarious piece in Time about what was expected of female authors promoting their books in the 1960s, or at least Jeanne Rejaunier, author of The Beauty Trap. The photos are so amazing and my personal favorite is the one of her in bed with her cat and her pencil under her chin making her look like a puppet on a stick. And then there’s the horses…
Let’s get real. A lot has changed (thank goodness) but looks still matter. It’s certainly not mandatory to be beautiful, but it helps! More important is the ability to network with other authors, connect and engage with fans, and produce quality work in a timely manner. Thankfully it is no longer required to take sexy photos in bed to promote your book (unless you’re Holly Madison writing about her time at the Playboy mansion, but even she has taken a less sexy approach to her story and the result is a huge bestseller!). So what works now? What gets you out to the bookstore to buy books? Reviews? Publicity? An author’s book on sale at Costco? Let us know how swayed you are by authors promoting their books.
Jeanne Rejaunier – Author – “The Beauty Trap”, with cat
Frankly, my first thought when I learn of an author promoting his own book is, “Oh. He must be self-published. Probably because his work is no good.”
I write because I want to write and because I CAN write. My undergraduate degree was in business with a concentration in marketing. If necessary, I can develop a marketing plan, but that has little to do with selling, which is a skill I do not have.
I’m with the man in your example: I expect the publisher to do the heavy selling, helped, if someone is crazy enough to think I am an asset, by me. But IMHO, an author’s participation in the process should be the icing on the cake, and only after two or three cakes have demonstrated that he’s worth meeting.