Is the PESO system good for self-publishing?
Today, a few thoughts on the modern online PESO system of marketing, and how each of the four quadrants might actually be good for the lone self-publisher or small indie press as well
Originally published at the Jason Pettus newsletter on February 2, 2024, and republished here at this website on the same day.
I haven't been shy about sharing in the past that one of the main reasons my own former small press failed was because of poor marketing and promotion, and especially understanding how much money I would need to spend in order to make the kind of money I wanted each book to generate. So it's in this spirit that I make the subject such a focus here at my newsletter, since I'm in this rare position to be privy to various different successful promotional plans by self-publishing authors around the world, and thus get to see exactly what's working for a lot of people and what isn't. If a self-publisher has their stuff together enough to be able to bring me on for the sometimes several thousand dollars it costs for me to do both a full developmental edit and a full copy edit of a rather hefty novel, then they typically have their stuff together enough to make a serious go at breaking even or ideally turning a profit, and I love that my newsletter can be partly devoted each issue to how various authors both near and far are making a successful go of it themselves.
In this spirit of continual research, I recently came across something called the PESO system of marketing, and have been thinking more and more about how this recent new model that's especially caught on online might be applied to the subject of self-publishing. Originally taking hold in large corporations, it's a way of combining PR and marketing with the creatives within a company to promote the brand in a way that none of them could on their own; it turns out to also be good for small startups and online-only organizations as well. It consists of four distinct types of marketing efforts, making up the acronym of its name:
Paid: When you exchange money for distribution, such as an advertisement.
Earned: When you create content for someone or a place with a bigger audience than you.
Shared: When you amplify your content through your existing audience.
Owned: When you make content that gets your audience to seek you out, like a blog.
Of course, there are both free ways and paid ways to do all four of these; and as I've talked about in a previous issue, I do now believe (based on witnessing a lot of case studies) that you simply must combine a certain amount of spending with any free labor you do to promote and market a book, if you expect that book to be able to sell at least a couple thousand copies and generate a small profit. So I've gotten to thinking lately about how you might do both a free and a paid version of each of these PESO elements when it comes specifically to being a self-publisher? Specifically, what if we think about it in terms of spending $2,000 and 100 man-hours of volunteer labor per each quadrant? The collective $8,000 and 400 hours of labor for the entire book is a bit above what I suggested the last time we were discussing this subject at the newsletter (at which point I advocated $6,000 and 300 hours of labor), so perhaps we can expect a bit more sales as well than the 1,000 copies of last time, so that we're not just breaking even anymore but generating a pretty decent little profit.
To start with, it'd be easy to spend $2,000 on paid media; it's right in its name, after all. That'd get you a bit of advertising at Amazon, pay for a book giveaway at Goodreads, or fund a lot of keyword advertisements at Google. And as far as a hundred hours of labor, you could keep very busy with those keyword advertisements, constantly trying out new phrases and combinations to see what works best for you under what circumstances; or with hand-addressing and mailing several hundred copies of your book.
Earned media, on the other hand, is almost the opposite, when you work for your benefit instead of spending money. This might consist of you writing guest articles for other blogs or in magazines on self-publishing topics, or participating in interviews and podcasts; or it might consist of convincing your readers to write good reviews online of your book, or convincing a book club to take on your book one month. But of course, you need to spend the money to have the opportunities for the earned media in the first place; you'll want a website, multiple social-media presences, a professional newsletter-delivery service, and perhaps a college student being paid minimum wage and class credit to manage it all.
This leads naturally into shared media, because much of that takes place through the various online social webs we maintain—Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Discord, Reddit, Goodreads, TikTok, the list just goes on and on and on and on these days. But of course, this can also consist of a webinar you host on self-publishing, or even an entire online convention for the subject, easier and easier to do online these days. The possibilities for spending money and time within shared media these days are endless.
And then finally there's owned media, where a writer truly shines. Owned media includes this very newsletter where you're seeing this exclusive article; or if later in time, the blog maintained online of this newsletter's archives, done deliberately that way so that the material will get indexed better at Google. It's any YouTube channel you might maintain, or short videos you make for TikTok and Instagram. It's any podcast you might produce on self-publishing or the subject of your book. And best of all, the material just keeps building up and up, becoming more and more valuable as a collection the longer it's online. But again, you'll need a website for people to find this stuff, all the way up to maybe an entire team to produce professional-quality videos on a weekly basis, if you want to start talking about ways of spiking up to $2,000 as quickly as possible.
So, some food for thought. Can you organize a united yet complex plan for marketing and promoting a book this way over the course of a year or so, putting in 400 hours of labor and about $8,000? What things am I missing or not thinking about? As always, this newsletter is a community where we're all learning together, so I look forward to your insights at ilikejason@gmail.com if you ever feel like sharing them.
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