You Should Know: I.S. Berry

Spy novelist par excellence shares her thoughts on book promotion

It is a truth universally known to authors that making people aware of your book is hard; when you’re a debut author, it’s exponentially harder. I.S. Berry’s debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow, had one of the biggest turnarounds for a debut novel that I’ve ever seen. You’ll read for yourself in a minute, but her book went from very little media notice to winning every major award for mystery/thriller novels and getting a profile in the Washington Post—something most authors decidedly do not experience.

Here, Ilana generously shares how she did it. Every author should take note. First, a little background on Ilana: I.S. Berry spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She has lived and worked throughout Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Haverford College. Raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC, she lives in Virginia with her husband and son.

Q: Your first book, The Peacock and the Sparrow, has been a runaway success by anyone's standards. First, it's an exceptionally well-written debut. It's won many of the mystery/thriller community's top awards (winner of the Edgar, the Barry, the Macavity and International Thriller Writers awards for Best First Novel; thriller of the year at The Times and The Telegraph; a best book of the year at NPR, Financial Times, New Yorker, and The Guardian). It's the stuff aspiring novelists' dreams are made of--and yet this success didn't always feel inevitable to you. Want to talk us through the first year after publication?

A: Thank you! When my book was first published in May 2023, the reaction was jarringly anticlimactic. Crickets. I got zero major media reviews and only one trade review (Publishers Weekly), which is almost unprecedented for a “big five”-published book. I quickly realized I’d need to hustle if I wanted to get any traction. I had no idea what I was doing, but I’d spent five years writing The Peacock and the Sparrow, and I wasn’t going to let my book die quietly. I fundamentally believed in my story—and that readers would want to learn about the dark underbelly, the murk, of espionage, not just its glamor. I made a conscious decision to invest in myself (my strategies are detailed in question #2).

My first big break came when The New Yorker stumbled across and reviewed my book some three months after publication (just happenstance—not through me or my publisher). This small but weighty piece of publicity caught the attention of other media, and paved the way for events, connections, etc. My book was included in The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year. I also made NPR’s best-of list. A principle learned: a little publicity leads to more. Exposure adds up, and you never know when the crucial break will come.

In 2024, I was incredibly lucky to be nominated for and/or receive all the major thriller awards, which attracted the attention of the thriller community as well as my publisher. (My publisher also noticed The New Yorker and how hard I was hustling.) One thing you learn is that publishers tend to bet on winning horses. It’s hard to get support and resources until you’ve proven yourself (a bit paradoxical, as it’s hard to prove yourself without resources!).

My watershed moment came when The Washington Post profiled me in May 2024—based on my career as a spy and the accolades I’d received (again, not my publisher). [Read that profile here in this gift link.] I did encourage my publisher to submit my novel for every eligible award. Another principle I learned: no one will believe in your book like you do. The Post piece put my novel on the map: in the month following, I sold as many copies as I’d sold the entire previous year.

The only advertising I paid for was posters on the DC metro for one month (much cheaper than a publicist). My calculus was that direct marketing was more bang for the buck than hiring a middleman. Was it worth it? Hard to tell. I know I got sales from the campaign—probably not enough to justify the cost, but marketing rarely pays off in terms of direct sales. Rather, the benefit comes from a multiplier effect—cumulative publicity you get over time.

By the time my book was published in the UK in October 2024, my book had gotten substantial traction, and my British publisher made a concerted and successful effort to promote it, including hiring a top publicist. Since then, my book has been picked up in four additional foreign markets.

Q: Of course it takes an extremely good book, a worthy book, to win these kinds of accolades, but would you share the ways in which you pitched in to help your book find its audience? How did you decide to utilize social media? Did you hire an outside publicist?

A: I did not hire an outside publicist—mostly because I didn’t understand the industry or how necessary and hard publicity is. Next time around, I’d consider it; publicists at publishers are overworked and can rarely devote the attention you need to your book. However, the effectiveness of publicists varies, and I’ve built enough infrastructure with my first book that I’m not sure how much an outside publicist would add next time around. Also, another principle I’ve learned: no one really understands what makes a book sell. Even the best publicists and publicity can’t make a book a bestseller.

That said, here are a few principles that worked:

I used social media consistently and engagingly. As a former spy, I had no social media presence, but I quickly established one and kept it up regularly and substantively. Social media connected me to both readers and other writers, and gave me a pulse on the literary community. A few big authors found me and helped spread the word. I responded to every reader outreach. I got a Canva account so I could create my own graphics.

I was aggressive. Just like I cold-pitched sources in my spy days, I cold-pitched media, other authors for blurbs, bookstores, libraries, etc. (I got all but one of my blurbs on my own.) I couldn’t pitch national media like The Washington Post and The New York Times, but I could pitch local outlets like regional magazines, local public radio, and alumni magazines. Smallish outlets like alumni magazines were surprisingly fruitful: captive, targeted audiences are the ones who will actually buy your book—a fellow graduate who actually reads the magazine in her mailbox is more likely to purchase than a stranger who glances at a short review online in a major paper. Nine times out of ten, my pitches were unsuccessful, but out of 100 pitches, I’d get ten wins (ten more bookstores, blurbs, libraries, etc.).

I was also aggressive when it came to my own publisher. Frequently I asked my publisher to retweet my content, include me in posts, reach out to media or bookstores, etc.

I said yes to everything. I leapt at every invitation: podcasts, blogs, interviews, book clubs, presentations, my local Rotary Cub (the breakfast and the dinner crowd), you name it. This all contributed to the amorphous “word of mouth,” which is the only really proven way for books to succeed (more on this later).

I had a "story"—how I wanted to present myself and my book to the world. Not for sales per se, but to find my readers. I’m a former CIA spy who served in a warzone and other tough environments, and I pride myself on having written a realistic and gritty, not glamorous or sensationalist, spy novel. I insisted on having input into my publisher’s press releases and Amazon feed; I wanted to ensure my book was portrayed faithfully—as an atypical, realistic, and more literary thriller. Otherwise, I felt, we’d be setting ourselves up for failure by appealing to the wrong audience.

I looked for opportunities. I hustled. I bought books wholesale from my publisher and sold them at festivals, literally toting them around in my trunk; I didn’t get credit for the sales, but I got my book out in the world, met readers and other authors, and made some money in the process (more than I’d make in royalties). I pitched and penned essays in support of my book—for literary journals, trade outlets, crime sites, blogs. I strove to be humble, adopting the attitude that no venue, outlet, event, or reader was too small or unimportant. I strove to be kind and grateful and supportive—to other writers, readers, everyone. I didn’t take anyone or anything for granted.

I found my readers. It’s easy fall into the trap (as I did and most new authors do) of trying to get as many people as possible to read your book. I found that it's more beneficial in the long run to get your book into the hands of people who will love it and spread the word, write good reviews, and read your next book, than to cast a wide, torn net that's going to end in people tossing your book aside and trashing it with bad reviews. Along the same lines, publishing is a long-term game. New authors tend to measure success by whether their book sells well in the first few weeks. This, I learned, is the wrong calculus. Unless you're an instant NYT bestseller (which is crazy rare), you're not going to blow anyone's socks off right off the bat. I learned to aim for a steady, cumulative readership over months and years. This is essentially the “word of mouth” that makes authors successful.

Probably my most important takeaway: I connected to the writer community—on social media, at conventions, local events, book talks, informally. I became friends with and reached out to fellow writers. They're incredibly supportive, are a reader base, championed my book informally and formally, wrote blurbs, spread the word, got events, navigated the publishing industry, acted as friends and advisors and confidants, and nominated/voted for my book for awards. It’s also the most personally rewarding thing I did.

Q: How have you been able to balance writing your second book (always the hardest!) while still promoting The Peacock and the Sparrow?

A: It’s been hard, and maybe I’ll answer more comfortably once I’ve finished my second! For the first year, I spent most of my time promoting my book. You only have one debut, after all. Once it picked up traction and I signed a second book deal, I stepped back and focused on #2. I still do both, and haven’t quite found the perfect balance.

Q: How has the reception been as a woman writing spy fiction? Have readers been surprised to learn that I.S. Berry is a woman?

A: The reception to a woman writing spy fiction has been mixed. Spy fiction is one of the most heavily male genres, both among writers and readers. Plenty of predominantly male communities and male readers have embraced me and my novel (and some of my biggest champions have been men). But I get a fair number of misogynistic reviews (like “this is why women shouldn’t write spy novels”). At a women’s book talk I gave, one (very supportive) woman said she’d recommended my book to her husband, but that he only read books by men (studies show this is widespread, sadly). I got a fan letter from a man who loved my book, but noted that he categorically didn’t buy books by women; he’d gotten mine as a gift. More subtly, I—and other women—are often overlooked in arenas and media that recognize plenty of male writers.

To be fair, I also get occasional negative feedback from women who don’t like that I wrote a male protagonist, who believe it’s my duty as a woman to write a female protagonist. Sometimes you can’t win!

And yes, people are surprised to learn I’m a woman! In its review of my book, Apple Books repeatedly referred to me as “he,” and, separately, a bookstore owner contacted my publisher asking if “he” (I) were available for an event. But in many ways, this is a compliment; plenty of men tell me my protagonist’s voice is absolutely convincing.

Q: Anything you want to tell us about the second book?

A: I’m loathe to say too much, because I’ve changed my story 11 times! (Literally 11.) I’ll just say that it’s another spy novel, this time with a female protagonist. It’s set in Europe—including Belgium, Luxembourg, and Malta, which I researched this summer—and is partially inspired by a real-life penetration of Al Qaeda.

Thanks, Ilana! Okay folks, if you like spy thrillers, you really need to read her book.

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