Discover what publicity is, how it differs from marketing, and the difference between paid, earned and owned media.

What is Publicity?

Publicity is one component of a marketing plan. Its purpose is to create visibility, raise awareness, and build credibility. Publicity is also a means of connecting a book or an author to their ideal reader. 

There are several practices within publicity, but book publicists mainly focus on media relations—the act of pursuing a diverse array of strategic media coverage that will introduce a book and author to a relevant audience, or establish you as a go-to expert on a topic. This is done by developing trusting and mutually beneficial relationships with media contacts, writing compelling pitches and informative press materials, and building carefully curated lists of potential media outlets that reach your target readers. 

This type of coverage is called earned media, as you are not paying money for outlets to feature you. Instead, you’ve earned the honor of having media outlets share your message, expertise, and information by fulfilling their need for content that serves their specific audience. A core tenet of seeking publicity is understanding that you are there to fulfill the media’s inherent needs for guests or stories. The media’s agenda in the publicity relationship is not to promote you or your product, even though that happens as a consequence, but to provide their audience with good and relevant content. Provide that for them and they’ll be happy to work with you.

What is Marketing?

Publicity is part of the marketing mix. Marketing is a broad umbrella category that includes multiple tactics, including paid advertising and sponsorships, building and optimizing websites and online presence, event marketing, such as trade show displays, co-op programs with retailers and distributors, sales promotions, such as special displays or discounted price promotions, and maximizing potential sales channels. 

Most marketing endeavors have a cost attached. You are paying a channel that’s not your own to spread your message or promote your product or service. When the platform you are paying to market your book is a media outlet, that result is known as paid media. You didn’t earn that media coverage through a relationship that evaluated the strength of your message, you purchased it. 

Digital marketing tactics can require a dollar spend, such as with Facebook ads or paid influencer marketing, or they can crossover with publicity when engaging nonpaid influencers like many BookTok or Bookstagram accounts. Social media campaigns often straddle the line between marketing and publicity. 

Paid vs Earned vs Owned Media 

Paid media includes tactics like advertising and sponsorships. Any time you spend money for an external platform to share your message, whether placing advertisements in print or online, sponsoring a local TV segment, or buying a billboard on the freeway, that’s paid media.

Earned media is the stereotypical “free publicity” when a media outlet shares your message with no cost attached. Your expertise adds value for their audience so media gladly utilizes your content or appearance.

Owned media is when you use your own platforms—your blog, a website, a newsletter, your social media accounts—to disseminate your message. Here you are both the content and the outlet. 

A gray area of publicity that veers toward marketing is pay-to-play opportunities, which have grown in the digital age as online magazines replace print, newspapers shrink in pages and subscribers, advertisers spend less, and podcasts seek to monetize their often lean operations. With pay-to-play, a podcast may sell guest slots or a web magazine may sell author profiles or book reviews. Such opportunities may result from traditional publicity outreach even though they are not truly “earned” media. While you are not an advertiser in these platforms, per se, there is a cost attached to sharing your message this way.

For more guidance on how to strategically include publicity and digital marketing strategies within your comprehensive marketing plan, contact PR by the Book. 

Looking to learn more about book publicity and marketing? Check out:

How to Build a Strong Author Brand

How to Build a Loyal Audience that Buys Your Book

Why a Holistic Marketing Strategy Is Needed to Drive Books Sales