Marketing Your Book: An Author's Guide

Alison Baverstock

• Publisher: A&C Black Academic and Professional
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780713659658
• eBook ISBN: 9781408109212
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Publishing

Authors will benefit hugely from this practical book by seeing how
effective they can be at helping to promote their own books. Alison
Baverstock encourages authors to work with publishers but also explains
how to 'go it alone' for authors who plan to self publish. The book
covers: how marketing works; what opportunities there are; how authors
can help; how to get noticed; how to get local publicity, organise a
launch event and keep the momentum going after publication. The book
also provides authors with a real insight into the publishing process
and contains illuminating interviews with everyone concerned: editors,
marketing people and, most importantly, authors.

1
The background information that all potential published authors must understand

Two of the words in the title of this book are not natural bed-fellows. I refer to marketing and author.

Marketing as a term is becoming more acceptable all the time. New generations of students happily enrol on university courses that bear its name, convinced that an understanding of the subject is key to their future employability, and the wholehearted embracing of marketing by political parties has convinced many otherwise sceptical individuals that attempting to communicate with your market, and persuade them to your point of view, can be highly effective. But whilst the onward march of marketing’s impact is beyond doubt, there is still at least an association in the public mind between ‘marketing’ and the foisting of goods and services that are not really required onto the gullible and unsuspecting; a lingering perception that if things were any good, they would sell on their own.

This is partly culturally specific. British society is notoriously conservative about selling things – hence the attempts to disguise the ‘s’ word in job titles, such as ‘information manager/executive/customer-facing staff’, rather than saying that they work in sales; certainly this is the case in comparison with North America. But how much marketing is desirable, is also an issue that applies with particular force in the selling of cultural commodities. Should individual voices and viewpoints need to be marketed, rather than simply be noticed for their own intrinsic merit? Don’t most of us harbour a nostalgia for the writer or musician whose work we enjoyed in isolation, or the companionship of a few other insightful cognoscenti, before they became ‘popular’?

The term author is similarly loaded; it’s seen as a calling rather than a job, and a term that many writers are reluctant to apply to themselves too soon, for fear of risking bad luck or ridicule. Many writers keep their calling to themselves until they have reached a certain point of success. Scribes producing words for advertising campaigns tend to call themselves ‘writers’, or ‘copywriters’, and journalists refer to themselves as such, or as ‘hacks’. Somehow being an author is perceived as (or is, given that the author is usually required to produce more words for each selling unit) a slightly higher calling, requiring more devotion to the writing art, and certainly years of rejection, low income, commiseration and patronage (whether in resources or in attitude) from friends and colleagues.

Hence the awkward collision of these two words in the area of author marketing, the subject of this book. A large number of authors find it distasteful. They want to write – not to have to talk up their book or do book tours or signing sessions, at which they feel uncomfortable and risk humiliation. Why, after all, should those who communicate through words on a page necessarily be articulate when placed in front of a microphone or large crowds? This is a completely different skill. Many writers feel awkward with the very concept of marketing, and believe that attempts to sell (or popularise) their ideas compromise their artistic integrity. Their work should be appreciated on its merits rather than be tweaked to suit the needs of commercial marketing plans that feel artificially imposed, or of an increasingly fickle market. Few writers find that they can support themselves by their writing straight away, and so must juggle jobs. This is easier in some fields than others. Within academia, for example, whilst a determination to share learning can be seen as an ethical responsibility of the teacher, based on Christian ethics (‘To whom much has been given, much will be expected’ [Luke 12; 48]), ironically the desire to communicate can be seen as a vulgar seeking of popularity that is incompatible with academic status. Alain de Botton has written that ‘…hostility to anyone attempting to communicate ideas to a broader public is a staple of academic life. You can either fight for academic status or you can address the world at large. But in the current British climate it’s very difficult to succeed in both fields.’¹

Whilst I understand the reluctance on the part of authors to get involved in the marketing of what they write, increasingly those who distance themselves from the selling process place themselves and their work at a disadvantage. Publishing decisions about whether or not to take on specific new authors are made at regular meetings, and the most commonly used word when discussing them is ‘promoteable’; an author’s willingness and enthusiasm for getting involved in the process does make a difference. It does not replace the need for a good manuscript or writing idea, but it does help – whatever is being written about. In some areas, the author’s saleability matters more than their ability to write; when commissioning a celebrity biography, for example, the skill is in selecting a ghost-writer who can create the voice of someone the public genuinely wants to hear from. In defence of publishers, whilst some writers may react negatively to this information, it is true that the market place is very crowded today. Potential customers have a much wider range of choice of entertainment than was available to their parents’ generation, and the contribution made by the author is often crucial in getting books noticed:

‘I think there is a real tendency to think, “Once I get published, I’ve done it,” and then you watch your book go nowhere. You can’t just be a writer – you’ve got to be your own cheerleader.’

Jodi Picoult, interviewed in The Telegraph Magazine,
2nd September 2006

Significantly, this is nothing new:

‘Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.’

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

What this book is for

This book explains what marketing is – how it works in general, and its particular application within publishing – and provides guidelines on how to market your own work, whether to an agent or publisher before publication, or to the wider reading public afterwards. It’s important to understand that purchase (or reading) of this book does not replace the need to produce a well-crafted and readable book, of whatever sort you are planning. It simply helps you to present your writing with the best chance of positive attention from those who are making key decisions about whether or not they should publish or read you.

Why I am writing this book

This is a second edition of a title that did well when first published five years ago. Since first publication, however, a number of important things have changed, and new opportunities arisen. For example, it now costs vastly less for authors to create and maintain their own websites, and there has been a huge rise in the number of reading and writing festivals. Both of these increase the market for books, and create more competition to get published. A new edition was called for.

In the meantime, I had published this book’s prequel – a serious look at the resources you need if you are going to get a book published. Called Is there a book in you?, it came out in July 2006 (also from A&C Black). The book you are holding now follows on from where that title left off. It makes an assumption that if you are reading this, you are serious about trying to get your work published; that you have something ready (even if unfinished) to show publishers and agents; and that you feel compelled to continue with your work. In other words, it assumes that you really do want to get published. It will give advice on how to format, whom to approach and what to send. The guidelines included here will also be of great assistance if you have already published a book or books, and want to help your work get wider attention – whether from your agent, publisher, bookseller or the reading public.

I feel qualified to write this book because, as an author and publisher, I have been on both sides of the fence. I left university for the publishing industry, and worked in marketing on all kinds of published products, from high-level journals to educational books, from novels to children’s titles. And whilst I now mostly write, I still work freelance within the industry, offering training and consultancy. I have seen how particular authors help or hinder their chances of getting published because of their attitude and/or the way they behave. I have seen how authors’ careers as promoted writers are affected by their own pro-activity and ideas, both positively and negatively.

I have been the publisher who wishes that authors would consolidate their requests into a single communication, rather than interrupt my working day with sequential phone calls: most authors have little understanding that there are books other than their own which need attention. But I have also been the author, feeling isolated at home and wondering if anyone really cares about my book apart from me. I have asked myself if publishers really appreciate just how hard it is to keep going as a writer, and how deflating their lack of apparent interest can be.

The approach I offer in this book is pragmatic and informed. I don’t expect you to turn overnight into a 24/7 savvy provider of media-friendly sound-bites; rather, I aim to help you understand how books get noticed, and to equip you to use the media that offer the most positive opportunities for the wider promotion of your particular talents. My hope is that once provided with the information in this book, you will be better able to present your writing idea, in its most attractive form, to those with a serious interest in representing, publishing or reading it.

How trying to get a book published feels

Trying to get a book published is like:

• Attempting to get your child into an over-subscribed school. You worry and find yourself wondering what are the odds on success; how can you best improve their chances; what are other people up to? And the answer for some is pretty desperate, like moving house (and ‘downsizing’ to get into the right postcode); signing up for coaching at a very early age; providing a false address that does fall within the magic postcode area; dreaming up the ‘special circumstances’ that provide a shortcut to the top of the list. Anything to achieve that desired goal.

• Trying to get pregnant when it does not happen as quickly as you would like. Similarly, being approved as adoptive parents and then each month scanning the relevant publications to find a likely youngster, and then starting the process of asking for your papers to be forwarded to the relevant social worker. You spend the month in a state of anxiety and then it starts all over again.

• Applying for a new job. Presenting yourself as positively as possible; trying to make the right impression at the interview and then waiting for the outcome.

• Wanting to move house, and finding that new properties are in short supply, and so having to continually chase estate agents to send you information on properties that are interesting to you, before they inform your friends and neighbours, who are also planning to move. And then the angst that follows as you have your offer accepted but fear that the other party may pull out (unless you are reading this in Scotland).

• Standing on the starting line for a race – perhaps even that most competitive event, the fathers’ race at school sports day.

• Going into an open competition exam with your examination number ready to write down, with perhaps an associated fear that you might have left an incriminating piece of paper in your pocket (which would bring an accusation of ‘academic misconduct’).

If the thought of any of these situations gets the adrenaline pumping inside you, then you begin to understand how trying to get published will feel. But there is a crucial difference. In all the situations mentioned, you are aware of your rights as a consumer, patient or citizen. There are clear positions in law that entitle you to be heard/seen/have your views considered, even if you are ultimately deemed time-wasting, wrong, or fraudulent; you may not care what those you are dealing with think of you. When you are trying to get a book published you have all of the same longings, but none of the same rights. You must remain pleasant, and not give them a clue that you might turn difficult after a decision to commission you. And of course the ultimate difference is that you are doing this to yourself; you don’t have to take part – and a large proportion of your acquaintance and family will conclude that you are foolish even to try.

Grasping the essentials: the two opposing camps, who must work together if you are to publish a book

The subheading uses adversarial language – surely publishers and authors should be united in their desire to produce a good and widely read book? Why the reference to ‘sides’ and ‘opposition’?

Anyone who tries to get published will quickly understand that there are two main groups of people involved in the process: publishers (and I would include agents here, as they are part of the same system), and authors – and that frequently, it feels like a situation of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Gather any group of authors together and they will moan about their publishers – most usually about the lack of marketing for their books. Attend the London (or indeed any) book fair, and the authors, whose works form the main body of what is being bartered and sold on such occasions, are present only in picture form, like the sanitised mantlepiece of an elderly aunt who finds the images of her unruly relatives easier to deal with than their boisterous presence.

The views of publishers and authors about each other are often polarised. They need each other and cannot survive effectively without each other, but the problem for writers (potential and actual) is that it’s a buyers’ market; there are vastly more people wanting to get published than have the talent to make it, than there are production resources within the industry to put into print, or shelf space in shops to stock.

Authors often complain that publishers lack an appreciation of how what they provide is the basis of the industry they feed. They feel marginalised by publishers who have no real understanding of how much effort it takes to write a book, all the while conscious that their ability to do so again is not automatic – whereas publishers blithely assume that it is infinitely sustainable.

Without authors there can be no publishing industry, and yet still one gets the impression, whenever publishers are gathered together, that this is a party to which authors are not really invited; they would get on faster without them – and write the wretched books themselves if only they had the time.

For the first edition of this book I collected a series of authors’ gripes about the industry, each one a tale of mean spirit, grudge or just lack of awareness of the potential of their major suppliers. The chapter was printed as an extract in The Bookseller magazine and caused a great cheer amongst authors, and a bit of a stir within the publishing industry. But even in discussing the reaction, the publishers somehow missed the point. The Bookseller editorial, which discussed the issue I had raised in the same edition, commented that it should be of concern to the industry that many authors ‘whose work is central to the publishing process, feel alienated from it’.

Frankly this reaction annoyed authors even more. Most feel they are not ‘central to a process’, but rather that the ‘process’ would not exist without them. We do not have a ‘process of publishing’ as an independent good, like a constitutional monarchy or democratically elected government. You do not search for authors as a commodity in the same way that you indent for chairs or paperclips; rather the role of the writer, the person who comes up with the ideas, is crucial. In any case, most authors would feel that the publishers seldom have to go searching, in the way that a production director would seek out new materials. What they have to do is recognise the merit of what has already been offered to them, sent to their doors, with return postage supplied.

‘I don’t believe that it’s the writer’s job to respond to some vague idea about what readers want. Readers don’t know what they want until they see what you can offer. Nowadays, we’re told, they’re all asking for the next Harry Potter, but no-one ever asked for the first Harry Potter. It took JK Rowling to think of him before people realised that this was something they might like to read. The writer and the idea always come first, and are always the most important thing.’

Philip Pullman

It’s true today that many ‘published’ authors have not actually written the books (celebrity biographies are a notable example), but it is still the ‘author’ – or name on the cover – that draws the interest. Interestingly this often catches publishers by surprise, when figures such as Sharon Osborne and Katie Price (aka Jordan) go on to be huge bestsellers, simply because people are fascinated by their lives.

The things authors dislike about publishers

Publishers do not understand how hard writing is

Authors often complain that publishers have no idea how difficult it is to write a book. They don’t know how long it takes, how lonely is the process, how much – once it is over – you worry about ever being able to do it again. Authors can’t tell publishers just how much they want to be published; the extent to which rushed decisions made in meetings affect their aspirations and lives; how spur-of-the-moment phone calls, when they sound keen one minute and full of doubt the next, can play with authors’ hopes and desires. Contact with publishers is exhausting: you...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 The background information that all potential published authors must understand
• 2 What (and why) authors need to know about marketing
• 3 How marketing works in publishing
• 4 Preparing your manuscript for submission
• 5 What to send with your manuscript
• 6 How to find an agent
• 7 Approaching a publisher directly
• 8 Managing without a publisher: when to go it alone
• 9 Working with your publisher
• 10 How to get publicity
• 11 Setting up a website
• 12 Working with booksellers, Amazon and other book retailers
• 13 Literary festivals, working with libraries, reading and writing circles, and other chances to talk about your book
• 14 How to be the perfect speaker
• 15 How to organise a launch event
• 16 Keeping up momentum and morale: before and after publication
• Footnotes
• Imprint