The Importance of
Book Sales
WordTech Communications
is a bit different from most poetry publishers; we are a for-profit company
that earns revenue only from book sales. We do not have contest reading
fees, grants from government agencies or private foundations, or contributions
from private individuals to underwrite the publication of our books. As
such, we place a particular emphasis on selling a certain number of copies
of each of our titles within the first year of their publication, and
on small, recurring sales in subsequent years.
What We Do to Market
Your Poetry Book
We have a marketing
process that we apply to all of our books:
- Development
of promotional copy. While we ask our authors to secure blurbs from
teachers or colleagues who are familiar with their work, we also develop
copy describing the unique qualities of each book. It is no small challenge
to capture each book's distinctiveness in a paragraph or two, but we
invest considerable time in doing just that.
- Featuring of
the book in a professionally-designed website. We maintain a large
number of websites in support of our books--a site for each imprint,
as well as our main "gateway" site--and we have spent many, many hours
developing a professional, attractive look for each site. We also regularly
update our sites with author news, links to reviews and features on
our authors, and similar items. (These news items are also distributed
to our authors via our monthly author newsletter.) Furthermore, we manage
our webhosting in-house, which reduces costs and gives more control
over how our sites are handled. We want to provide your books with the
best possible online stage for readers to find out about them, and based
on what we see at a number of other poetry publishers, we feel we succeed
in this area.
- Development
of promotional flyers for each book, to be sent to author mailing lists
at our expense. This is probably our single largest marketing effort
in terms of both time and cost, but it yields a measurable impact on
sales. We have created an attractive, professional-looking flyer to
help sell your books, and they seem to be effective in helping to drive
sales. We also will gladly provide you with copies of these flyers on
request.
- Submission
of every book we publish to online poetry sites. We send every book
we publish to Poetry Daily and Verse
Daily, and we have had a number of our authors featured at each
site. This exposure is beneficial for the authors, their books, and
for the press.
- Advertising.
We invest in advertising carefully, as there needs to be a return on
that investment, but we do strive to keep an advertising presence both
in print journals (we have advertised in Poets and Writers, and
currently advertise in Poetry) and online (we have been weekly
advertisers at Verse Daily for some time now).
As we hope this list
makes clear, we strive to have a broad program of marketing support for
the titles we publish. Still, we regard the marketing of our poetry titles
as a joint effort between the publisher and the author. It is the publisher's
job to oversee the marketing efforts, complete a number of marketing-related
tasks, and provide resources for the author to help market the book as well.
It is the author's job to undertake a number of marketing-related tasks,
especially arranging readings and similar events, to help promote the book.
How to Market Your Poetry Book
The purpose of this web page is to provide some tips to authors about
marketing strategies and tactics that they can undertake to help promote
their book. It is drawn from discussions with a number of our authors,
who have been kind enough to share what works for them. The main part
of selling a book is persistence and commitment; these suggestions can
be adopted by anyone.
Tips for Marketing Your Book
We have spoken with a number of our authors whose books have been particularly
successful--selling upwards of 500 copies--to share what has worked for
them in helping to sell book copies, arrange events, and similar items.
We have also looked at what works for us in helping to sell your books on
our end. We hope that this list of ideas will prove useful.
- Prepare a mailing
list with names and addresses of possible buyers of your book, and send
it to us to mail out with your flyer as soon as your book is out.
This has proven to be a very successful method of selling a lot of books
right out of the gate. We send out the flyers as soon as your book is
listed on Amazon, so we can link it to our website. It is important
to do this mailing list right after your book is published so we can
"strike while the iron is hot." The mailing list should be prepared
electronically, in a word processor, and saved in Avery 5160 format.
It should also be kept up-to-date; we send returned letters on to you
so you can prune old addresses from your list.
- Always have
copies of your books with you. This is surprisingly simple, but
you never know when you might be speaking with someone, the subject
of your book comes up, and they express interest in seeing it. A few
of our authors sell indidivudal books, clusters of books to people who
want to use them as gifts, and sometimes to people who prefer not to
purchase books over the Internet.
- Find any opportunity
you can to do readings. There are many venues outside of bookstores,
universities, and coffeehouses to do readings. Some of our authors are
invited as guests to private poetry groups, which provides them an opportunity
to discuss their work and sell some books. Others have developed regional
reputations and attend conferences or writers' workshops in their part
of the country on a regular basis. Other authors have done readings
at art galleries, have performed their work in conjunction with musicians,
and similar unusual venues. Still other authors do readings at libraries.
The point is to be creative in looking for places where poetry would
be a welcome feature or subject for discussion.
- Write
an op-ed piece, essay or article somehow related the topic
of your book. Make sure "author of ____" is in your bio.
- If you have
friends or colleagues who teach, ask them to consider adopting your
book for a course. Course adoptions are an excellent source of bulk
sales. Some of our authors are periodic guest speakers at universities
in their geographical area, where a professor has chosen their book
to be discussed in a course on poetry or American literature.
- Develop a PR
kit tailored for your local media. The media kit should include
the flyer/news release that we create for your book. You may want to
include an author photograph and copies of earlier reviews of your work,
if available. We suggest sending these to particular editors at local
newspapers, NPR stations, and other appropriate outlets, accompanied
by a nice cover letter that mentions your book is availble for review
on request to us. We do not suggest sending review copies in these types
of cases; let the editor request one if he or she is interested. Local
exposure is very helpful as you try to arrange readings and venues in
your geographic area. If you prefer, you can also provide us with the
names and addresses of local media outlets in your mailing list and
have us send the flyers to them.
- Create a website
that features your work. We put up a nicely-designed page on your
book at our website, but a number of our authors have created personal
websites that feature the the totality of their work beyond their book
with us. It is not necessary to hire a professional designer to do your
site. Creating a website, complete with your own domain name, is no
more difficult than laying out the text in a word processor and saving
it as HTML; many hosting services and ISPs, such as AOL or Yahoo, also
provide site-building tools. Dedicated hosting is very inexpensive,
running as low as $5.00 per month for basic websites. A site, with links
that allow people to purchase your book over the Internet, is very useful
because it may give potential readers more information about you and
your work than can be gleaned from our website. Blog your book on your
website (this draws in other writers and readers who are interested
in what goes on behind the scenes).
- Make a
list of people who are influential in your community who would
love your book and would influence others to buy your book.
- Ask your local
library to order a copy, as well as the library of the college you attended,
and, if applicable, the college where you teach. Many libraries
make a policy of supporting local and alumni authors. This is a simple
way to generate a few sales.
- If you decide
to invest some of your own resources in marketing materials, look for
good, cost-effective solutions. For instance, if you prefer to have
postcards printed rather than use our flyers--postcards can be handy
for thank-you notes--then a service recommended by some of our authors
is Vistaprint. You can have
500 color postcards printed for a reasonable cost.
- Most importantly:
Keep at it. Our most successful authors are those who understand
that promoting their book is not something to do for a few months after
the book is published. They are still actively doing readings and other
promotions even two years later, and their sales profits (if they purchase
copies from us with their author discount and sell the books at full
price) or royalties (if all ordering comes directly to us) will reflect
this effort.
The common thread
of these suggestions is networking. If you are active in your local
community, and active in the poetry world, then you are already active
in cultivating your audience. The largest market for your book is your
audience; your audience wants to read your book. It is very difficult
to grow an audience overnight, and if this is a problem you face, then
it will take additional persistence to sell copies of your book.
Strategies You Should
Avoid
- Don't send
out tons of review copies. There is not much correlation between
book reviews and book sales, unless your book happens to be reviewed
in a high-profile outlet right after its release. A few of our titles
have been reviewed in such large newspapers as The Seattle Times
and The Philadelphia Inquirer (chiefly because the editors or
reviewers were already familiar with the author's work), and these reviews
had a measurable impact on sales. However, reviews in quarterly literary
journals, while beneficial for the author's reputation, do not influence
sales much, if at all; literary journals appear too infrequently, and
have too small an audience, to spur much in the way of sales. This is
why we provide you with 10 free copies to send to these types of outlets;
we don't encourage you do purchase additional copies for this purpose.
- Don't enter
every book award contest under the sun. The major awards, such as
the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle,
are heavily biased towards authors published by the major commercial
houses such as Knopf. Small presses typically do not stand a chance
in seeking these awards. These awards may prove a waste of both money
and time to pursue. Also, we will not support a few of these awards,
as the cost burdens they place on a publisher (for travel, additional
printing, and marketing expenses) are prohibitive. Awards that make
more sense, and which our authors have in fact had success, are regional
and state-level awards. (Two of our titles have won poetry book awards
in Washington State and Connecticut, for instance.)
- Don't give
away too many copies. This seems obvious, but many people to whom
you give copies may be perfectly willing to buy them. It's perfectly
fine to give away a few copies as gifts to loved ones or friends, and
it also makes sense to provide free copies--to an events coordinator,
for instance--if it has a reasonable chance in spurring additional sales
opportunities. But provide free copies sparingly. Ask your library to
order a copy instead of donating a copy. Tell your colleagues that copies
can be purchased from us. And (see above) don't provide unsolicited
review copies unless you feel strongly that you will gain a review in
the process; we will provide a review copy to any editor who requests
one in writing.
If the suggestions
of what to do revolve around networking, then the suggestions of what
not to do revolve around the smart use of your time and energy.
Don't focus on tasks that present little opportunity to repay your investment
of time or money. We certainly can't afford to do that, and we don't think
you can, either.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, we have
the same goals as you: to bring your books to the widest possible audience.
If that happens, then everyone wins. Your books enjoy a good readership,
and you earn royalties or profits from directly selling your book. And
we earn enough revenue to pay our bills, and continue doing the work we
love: publishing great poetry.
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