Take a peek at this article from the Book Promotion for the Independent Author Guide by whitefox publishing.
The best way to understand marketing is as a direct relationship with your audience that you can control to promote your product and messages. Marketing covers activities such as social media and what you share with friends and followers on your accounts, or marketing emails and newsletters that you send out to subscribers. It also includes things such as partnerships, collaborations, and paid media adverts or sponsorships that help you access a wider audience than you did before, with targeted content or a website containing information on your profile, experience and book, including where it can be purchased. Marketing does not have to be expensive, but it is almost always required at some level. You may be well-equipped to manage your own activities, especially if you are already experienced in engaging your audiences, and you will have a significant head start if you have a sizable existing platform made up of engaged individuals who already back you. A successful book marketing campaign will require careful planning, a clear and creative strategy, and an investment of time to action campaigns; therefore you may wish to engage a specialist.
Publicity, on the other hand, is an alternative promotional art form relating to your public relations. This will be a softer approach, built upon earned media, i.e., media that you don’t have to pay for because the content is interesting, valuable or newsworthy. Publicity can be just as impactful as it works to build your author profile and credibility in your subject area, covering activities such as media features, interviews and speaking events. It is a less direct approach than marketing, because, to an audience, being directly sold at isn’t very engaging; however, talking about an interesting topic or personal experience is. Publicity is designed to get the public interested in you as a person, as well as your book and the ideas/events behind it. With regards to the level of investment required, a professional publicist will have the industry contacts and knowledge to secure the right media placements, therefore it simply comes down to whether you are willing to pay for their time or have the contacts, time and pitching savvy to do it yourself. For some books it may not be necessary investment, and the decision on if you should engage a publicist or not should be driven around your goals as an author for your book.
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