How to Market Books: The essential guide to maximizing profit and exploiting all channels to market 4th Edition  (English, Paperback, Alison Baverstock)

How to Market Books has for many years been the place to turn for professionals in an industry charged with maximizing revenues and minimizing costs. In recent years the selling and marketing of books has come under more and more pressure. The industry has become dominated by the larger chains, new channels to market, and new players such as supermarkets. This book provides answers for the publishing professional whose job it is to market and sell books in todays increasingly competitive book selling environment.

Whether you are a marketing or sales director, manager or executive, How to Market Books shows you best-practice ways to maximize marketings return on investment and deliver top-line growth for your publishing company. For all publishing staff, whatever their area of responsibility, for authors, booksellers, librarians and academics teaching publishing and related subjects, it is vital background reading.

About The Author
Alison Baverstock began her career in publishing and now runs a marketing consultancy. She is also a Senior Lecturer within the Business School of Kingston University, where she helped set up the MA in Publishing Studies. The author of 15 books, she regularly gives seminars at universities teaching Publishing Studies and teaches a module on marketing for writers as part of Kingstons MA in Creative Writing. She has given guest lectures on marketing in publishing all over the world.

Table of Contents
Marketing in publishing: what it means and what is involved

• What you are up against
• The meaning of marketing
• What marketing means in publishing
• Checklists for achieving good marketing
• How to draw up a marketing plan
• Final summary for marketing plans: a checklist of what you must cover

The medium is the message: how to reach the market and different types of promotional format

• Marketing information for the commissioning meeting
• First in-house alert to all
• Advance notices or advance information sheets
• Website entry
• Book jacket/cover copy
• Catalogues
• Leaflets and flyers
• Direct mailshots
• Press releases
• Presenters and brochures
• Posters, show cards and point of sale
• Space advertisements
• Information for telesales campaigns
• Radio ads
• Television and cinema ads

Techniques for writing effective copy

• No rules
• Writing about things you dont like or dont understand
• Five basic principles
• How to learn more about writing well
• Acronyms
• Further techniques for effective writing
• Topping and tailing your promotion material
• Writing promotional copy for books you dont understand
• Presenting and defending your copy

The layout and dissemination of marketing materials

• Design
• What is good design?
• How promotional text gets read
• How to find a designer
• How to work effectively with a designer
• How to brief a designer
• How a design job progresses
• Advice on how to proofread text
• Managing without a designer
• Getting materials printed

Direct marketing

• The advantages of direct marketing
• Direct marketing and the publishing industry
• Kinds of published product for which direct marketing works best
• The essentials for a direct marketing campaign
• A plan
• A list
• An offer
• The most appropriate format(s) for your marketing material
• A decision on timing
• A copy platform
• How to make each component part as effective as possible
• Design services
• A system of despatch
• Mailing costs
• A method of monitoring success
• How to work out whether your direct marketing is successful
• Fulfilment services
• Coding your order form
• Postage and packing
• What to do with the returns
• Which direct marketing format to choose
• Telemarketing
• Direct marketing by e-mail
• Direct marketing by fax
• A final checklist for all forms of direct marketing

Using the Internet to sell

• The rise of Internet sales
• How Internet usage by publishers has changed
• How to improve the effectiveness of online marketing
• How to set up a website
• The basics: what to do first
• Planning and designing your website
• The cost to set up a website
• Search engine optimization
• Testing and launching the site
• Marketing your website
• E-mails
• Online advertising
• Blogs
• Legal restrictions

Free advertising

• People who liaise with the media
• What you need to succeed in dealing with the media
• When to start pursuing coverage
• Recording the names of your contacts
• How to write an effective press release
• Top ten tips for getting images into the trade press
• The best time to contact journalists
• Author interviews
• Selling ideas by phone
• Ensuring press coverage for very specialized products
• Book reviews
• Free copies for minimal coverage
• The relationship between editorial and advertising on magazines

Organizing advertising and promotions

• Where to advertise
• Cost
• Study the media
• What to say
• Space advertising for specialist publishers
• Organizing promotions
• Sponsorship
• Offering incentives
• Update your website/produce a news sheet
• Allow the reader to try your publication out
• Stunts

Organizing events

• Sales conferences
• Promotional parties and book launches
• Press conferences
• Author tours and signing sessions
• Exhibitions
• Award ceremonies and literary prizes

The bottom line: how to look after a marketing budget

• Where marketing budgets come from
• Drawing up a budget
• How much is spent
• How the budget is divided up
• When to spend it
• How to monitor your budget
• How to make your budget go further
• Hanging on to a reasonable budget

Approaching specific interest markets

• The general reader
• Finding enthusiasts and recommender's for books and writers
• Selling books to public libraries
• Selling to academic libraries
• Selling to educational markets
• Promoting to university academics
• Marketing childrens books
• Marketing to medics
• Selling information to professional markets