What Publishing Can Learn from the Election

Mainstream media isn’t the best way to reach an audience, and it’s past time for book publishing to adapt.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the past few days thinking about the election results and wondering how to move forward. What has predominantly been on my mind is how mainstream media did not reach voters. Instead, it was targeted “non-traditional” media that drove the boat of Trump’s campaign, and I think that’s a worthy topic to explore. Yes, I know he was interviewed by some considered “fringe” figures, but let’s face it, Joe Rogan and others have enormous audiences, which can’t be ignored. Similarly, Kamala Harris chose less national media and more targeted outlets to reach her audience. Granted, it didn’t yield the results many hoped for, but the strategies of both campaigns reinforced what I have been writing about for some time: You can no longer market to the masses. Instead, you must identify your exact audience and decide the best way to reach them.

The post-mortem of mainstream media’s failings during the election still comes into view. Sharon Waxman of The Wrap wrote about it here. This Washington Post piece describes the Trump campaign’s digital strategy (whether you like it or not, they did it better than the Harris campaign), and Charlie Werzal’s piece in The Atlantic about how legacy media must compete against a “choose-your-own-adventure” reality is well worth your time. The gist of these pieces is that legacy media as we know it is no longer working. It’s not meeting people where they are, and that is something authors and publishers must pay attention to.

I’ve previously discussed how publishers must emulate brands to reach audiences. If you pay attention to the retail world, you know that most brands have forgone traditional marketing and publicity and now favor influencers. The problem (sometimes) with this strategy in book publishing is that you can approach only so many BookTok accounts. The industry must look outside of BookTok and cultivate relationships with other influencers who can help them reach a specific audience for select books. The industry must pay attention when political campaigns lean heavily on influencers rather than legacy media and the strategy works.

Additionally, we must redefine book publicity. Most publicity plans need to be updated. I don’t blame publicists; I blame publishers. The current climate lends itself well to a mindset change for agents, editors, and salespeople. Display ads and print ads don’t work, and reviews don’t sell many books. When will the industry wake up and understand a long list of publicity hits doesn’t necessarily equal meaningful book sales? Do we need to shout that the general public receives information in such fractured ways that legacy media only makes a dent in a book’s life?

A significant issue in the book industry is its need to be more staffed. It is hard to get creative when you are a marketer or publicist with a crushing workload. Further, knowing that sales will give you the side-eye when you mention Substack or specific podcasts is disenchanting. The truth is that independent media is on the rise and reaching more people than legacy media. Further, the masses have had it with what mainstream media is offering. Publishing cannot ignore this problem. Instead, it must face it head-on and honestly assess acquisitions so that the exact audience and how to reach them is evident from the start. Does this mean publishing fewer books? Maybe. It might also mean publishing books more deliberately. The idea of publishing books to see if they’ll stick will not work going forward. Some publishers should pretend that their backlist doesn’t exist—backlist is too much of a safety net, in my opinion—and acquire books accordingly. They’d have to be far more careful in their selection. While that may not sound ideal to authors, it is better than a book being acquired for the sake of the budget and not putting any muscle behind it.

For authors, this means a platform is more important than ever. I’ve read other publishing columns gently approaching the idea for author platforms. This is a disservice to writers. Today, the platform matters when you are pitching podcasts or Substacks. It matters when you are pitching legacy media. It matters when you are cultivating relationships with influencers. All media operate the same way: they want to know they are interviewing someone or promoting something people already know about because of the author’s platform. In other words, you need an audience to grow an audience. This isn’t an opinion—it is a fact.

No author or publisher can examine the fallout of this election cycle without noting the drastic change in each campaign’s communications strategy. They did not wait to get a green light from legacy media before activating their strategy. They knew their respective audiences and visited the platforms that would engage them. I never thought I’d see a presidential candidate on the famous “Call Her Daddy” podcast, but the Harris campaign was 100% correct in booking their candidate on the show. I knew that Trump and Vance, appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, would be game-changers. The clips from each interview were widely circulated on TikTok and Instagram, and the messaging was received. I am not a fan of Logan Paul, but it was wise of the Trump campaign to engage him. The Nelk Boys are chaotic, but they are also extremely popular with Gen Z males. It isn’t rocket science to figure out why Trump hosted them on his plane: CONTENT.

We can splice and dice each campaign until we are breathless. Still, this moment should serve as an impetus for the publishing industry to examine itself critically and change how it approaches marketing and publicity. Providing authors with two pages of marketing plans that will hardly sell books is no longer satisfactory. Authors must also understand that the status quo no longer works. Whatever you thought was your dream PR campaign is based on ideas that haven’t changed in a long time. You can no longer be surprised when your book is reviewed, or you do interviews and sales are tepid. You must define your audience to micro-target them and build a platform; you must know who you’re trying to reach. The reality is that what you think of as validation (say, a review in NYT) isn’t the same thing as selling copies of your book, and your next book is only as good as your sales track record.

Many authors want to write their books without engaging with platforms, which is unrealistic. As someone who is very online, I wish I could throw my phone into the abyss and live free from social media. However, that would leave me unaware of trends or audience development, affecting my work. Authors should view platforms similarly—as part of their work. Defining your audience is also part of your work. You are a creator in a creator economy. You may not think of yourself as such, but it is true. You create content and must consider how it will reach its audience.

Legacy media will be examined in the coming months, and publishers must be prepared for the consequences. No one can afford to be siloed in a conference room talking about the same promotion methods when the world differs from five years ago. Will you harp on publicists about review coverage when we know they don’t sell many books? Will you educate your salespeople and accounts about what works and how things have changed? Or will you keep doing the same thing and rely heavily on backlist sales instead of investing more creativity into your front and mid-list?

Authors who sign with independent and micro publishers that lack enough staff or funds to market their books must understand they will either have to have an existing platform, hire someone with at least six months lead time to help build their audience or allocate funds to marketing. Authors must understand what they sign up for when going with a small press and act accordingly. I am not saying not to sign with small presses; instead, I am imploring authors to ensure they have a plan months before their books are published. Yes, this includes defining your audience.

I know it is a tough time to consider all of this, but the industry has no excuse for not adapting to a time when legacy media is being replaced by more direct ways to reach audiences. I am not implying that I have all the answers (I wish!), but I am aware of the promotional landscape and what’s working within it. Each presidential campaign did, too.

WHAT I’M READING: I’ve been reading a lot lately. I read Margo Has Money Problems, which became a favorite of mine this year. I describe it as delightfully quirky. I also just finished reading All Fours by Miranda July. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t dislike it. I understand what July was trying to do (middle-aged woman feeling trapped and needing freedom to be herself, etc.), but I don’t know if it is National Book Award material. If you’ve read it, I’d love your thoughts. Currently, I’m reading Don’t Be a Stranger by Susan Minot, about a 52-year-old divorced mom who falls into a relationship with a 30-something musician. The writing is spectacular, as it is in all of Minot’s books (Evening is a fave of mine). It’s a book to savor.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: I just finished listening to the audiobook From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and her daughter, Riley Keough. The audiobook was so well done. There are tapes of Lisa Marie speaking, Julia Roberts reading parts she wrote, and Riley Keough interjecting commentary on what occurred in her and her mother’s lives. It is a story about family, grief, and fame. Despite some complicated topics discussed, I enjoyed it.