Do Authors Really Need to Spend Their Own Money?

Last week The Guardian ran an article about how some authors are seeking help outside of their in-house publishing teams to promote their books. This is nothing new. There are lots of independent publicists who’ve been working with authors to supplement the work of their in-house teams for years. But this piece seemed to strike a particular chord with literary Twitter, probably because of one particular line: “Book tours can cost $15,000, publicity campaigns up to $16,000, and marketing work up to $100 an hour – figures that can be considerable when compared to authors’ advances and distant promises of royalties.”