In this week’s blog post, we will be continuing to look at the role of a traditional publisher. In my last blog post, we looked at how a publisher could help with the stages of book production such as editing. In this week’s blog post, we will be considering the steps after this, such as organising sales, dealing with publicity and press, and planning other marketing strategies. As you can tell, there are lots of ways that a traditional publisher helps the authors they are working with, so it’s definitely worth discussing specifics with your chosen publisher.
Selling
One of the first things to ask a publisher is whether they have a dedicated sales team to pitch books to all the major sellers, such as bookshops and library stockists. This will only be a brief sales pitch, but it will get your book in front of some of the biggest names around, including ones you see on the high street every day. Not all publishers have their own sales teams – smaller publishers may be linked to a bigger publisher or distributor to make sales. A key point to check here is what contact you have with the sales team. Can you speak to them directly? Would you be allowed (or asked to) present at sales pitches? Think about what suits you and what would sell your book.
In addition, the sales team (or similar) will be in charge of choosing the release date, which a publisher will usually have a set strategy for. Typically, the main titles are released in autumn, with some more released in January to tie in with New Year Resolutions. There may also be another wave in spring/summer to be sold as holiday reads. Therefore, the release date will likely depend on what genre your book falls into, but you should be able to discuss this with the publisher.
It will probably also fall to the sales (or marketing) team to write the book’s description to list it on online retailers and sell it to wholesalers. These descriptions should be clear and make the reader want to know more, so they should act as both a sales listing and a blurb for your book.
Marketing
You will also want to consider how a publisher plans to market your book. At the very least you would expect them to advertise it, but how and where? There are several different ways that they can advertise your book, such as in publications that go to booksellers and book clubs. Ask what places they use for advertising and who this reaches, then discuss what their estimated sales are. The publisher will also be in charge of writing the copy for these adverts, so ask if you can see some of their previous adverts. You are then better placed to evaluate how well you think your book will be advertised and if it will sell under this publisher.
A publisher will also deal with gathering reviews prior to publication. They can do this by supplying advance review copies to certain people. For example, they may send copies to book reviewers, book clubs, or online influencers that frequently discuss books. Review copies may be sent as a physical book or as a digital copy. These are normally sent out a few months before the book is actually published, to allow time for the recipients to read them and create a review. Bear in mind that smaller publishers likely won’t have the time or money to spend on review campaigns like this – it is an expensive process for a sometimes limited reward.
In addition, ask your publisher what contacts they have in the industry. Will they be able to connect you with booksellers, libraries, and similar? Alternatively, will they speak on your behalf to these people? While careful, targeted advertising reaching these groups is great and should help to boost sales, it can be even better if your publisher actually has a contact at some of these places. If they connect you, you can then pitch your book to them to make sales. If your publisher speaks directly to their contacts, they should do much the same thing, explaining why your book is a worthwhile investment and persuading them to buy it.
Most publishers will also do some sort of marketing campaign before the actual launch of your book and after. This ensures that there are as many readers as possible waiting to buy it when it first goes on sale and a steady stream of buyers waiting after release so that there isn’t just a launch day rush with very few sales after this. You can ask how your publisher normally runs a campaign and what sort of things this includes. For example, they might send out review copies, as mentioned above, or start a social media campaign.
With this in mind, you should also ask who deals with all the marketing details. Do they have a dedicated team or person for this? If so, how many books can they reasonably deal with and still get good results? Compare this to the number of books the publisher releases at any one time to work out how much attention your book will get.
Wrapping Up
Having a traditional publisher for your book can be a great advantage. You just need to make sure you are clear on the exact benefits you can expect and what would be unrealistic for your publisher. In my next blog post, we will be heading back to the world of self-publishing, focusing on what cover design briefs are and why they’re needed.
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