As an author, the most frequent complaint I hear
from fellow authors about a publishing house is ‘nobody tells me anything’ so
my first suggestion to any publisher is to send authors a list of where their
book has been sent for review and what promotion has been planned for it.
The best, most proactive and communicative publisher
I have ever worked with is Paul Collins (Ford Street) for my most recent YA
novel, Crossing the Line (*see
note at foot of this article). We worked hard and productively as a team.
First, Paul asked me to send my contracted but unpublished manuscript to two
people who we hoped would give us quotes to help promote the book. I chose two
high-profile authors whose work I admire – Margaret Clark, whose books are for
the same demographic as mine, and Elizabeth Fensham because her Helicopter
Man deals with mental illness, as does Crossing the Line. In the
first few weeks that the book came out, thanks to publisher and author working
as a pro-active team, I had at least 17 book reviews and 12 interviews/articles
(radio and newspapers).
SUPPORT YOUR AUTHOR
Basically all PR comes from the author and so he/she
must be motivated. Quite often an author, especially a new one, has no idea of
how they can promote their latest title, so it behoves the marketing and
publicity department to provide authors with a promotion pack. This could
include the press release that is sent out to the media and a high resolution
copy of the book cover. I use the press release Paul Collins prepared for my book again and again
Publishers, ask your author to contact all of their
local media with the press release and their contact details. Recently I
contacted a number of other proactive children’s authors for their take on
promotion in the educational market. Here is what they said:
Jan Latta (a highly successful self-published
author) Today, for 5 hours, I have been emailing every principal, or
librarian, about my books for my next visit to Hong Kong. If the timing
is too tight for the school to book me for a presentation, I send a set
of books for their approval. I've only had one book returned! In HK I
never charge a speaker's fee as I have great success with book sales. Usually
over 1,000 books sold a week.
Hazel Edwards: Offering discussion notes is a way
of value adding to your book and publicising it long term by word of
mouth.
Edel Wignell: One of her strategies is to write
articles for a whole range of magazines in Australia and overseas that
in some way link with her current publication.
Susanne Gervay, Tristan Bancks, Paul Collins (and
numerous others): They make themselves available and actively promote
themselves as being available for writers’ conferences and festivals all
over Australia.
Sandy Fussell: For her Samurai series (Walker
Books) she has created an interactive website. She offers competitions
and continually updates the site. Her launch party, which she organised,
was the best I’ve ever been to. She sold over 80 books on the night.
Patricia Bernard and DC Green: Both of them
travel extensively around Australia offering author talks and writing workshops,
and both sell many thousands of dollars worth of their self-published books
during their travels. Patricia once paid to have an advertisement
placed on Sydney buses!
PUBLISHERS’ WEBSITES
On looking at some publishers’ websites nowhere did
I see links to their authors’ and illustrators’ websites. Nor did I find any
indication whether or not their book creators are available for school visits, festivals,
etc. However, one publishing house which does this very well is Allen &
Unwin: their website is very easy to navigate.
I would advise publishers’ marketing departments to
make a clear distinction between their adult and the children’s authors.
Teachers and teacher librarians don’t have the time to work their way through
publishers’ websites: they want the information at their fingertips.
BOOK AS MARKETING TOOL
One way in which any book itself can be a marketing
tool is for the publisher to print on the back inside pages website details
where teachers can find teacher notes, or print the teacher notes in the book
itself as well as printing the author’s website address and the publisher’s
website address. DC Green of Barrel Books makes full use of his books to show
the above details.
If the book’s content is linked in any way to the
school curriculum, it is a good idea for publishers to provide teaching
resources that are appropriate for immediate classroom use (e.g. web quest,
worksheets, word searches). This can even go on the blank pages at the end of
the book!
WHAT TEACHER-LIBRARIANS WANT
When I asked a group of primary teacher-librarians
about how to make children’s books school-friendly, they said:
1. Publish portrait books, not landscape. (The
latter stick out from the library shelf and are difficult to shelve)
2. Publish books that link with the HSIE
3. Offer free author talks to schools
4. Arrange pre-publication talks
One teacher-librarian wrote to me: “The thing
that stands out for me above all others is someone who knows their books and
knows (enough) about education to make connections and answer intelligent
questions. If I get an email or flier that just has the publishers’ blurb about
the product and the price, then the consultant rings and says “Hi did you
receive….do you want to buy…” I always say NO. It’s been filed in the recycling
long ago. I need to be able to TALK and LOOK and TOUCH (failing this, to return
if unsuitable). There is a limited library budget and we need to take care that
what we get is great not just OK or even good, for our educational purposes.”
LINKING WITH THE AUTHOR
What publishers can do to promote their authors is
to first establish a relationship: find out what the author wants or is willing
to do, for example:
- school/ teacher talks
- author tours
- book fairs
- promotional tour
- sending press releases to local media
- presenting at festivals and/or conferences
- presenting at Staff development days, at Regional
librarian meetings
- talking to local organisations, for example VIEW
clubs
The publicist can ask the author to write articles
for industry magazines e.g. Scan, Magpies, The Literature Base, Practically
Primary, and Buzz Words about
aspects of their new book. The author can also write articles that
link with special days, (for example, I wrote a number of articles for Mental
Health Week, which linked with my book Crossing the Line). Arrange
a 'connection' with an excursion destination (once again curriculum link is great).
The best example I can think of here is a big one (but it doesn't need to be
this scale): to promote her book, author
Felicity Pulman organised a tour of the Sydney Quarantine Station, the
setting of her children’s book Ghost Boy. Make sure books are available for
sale where the author is presenting. Link up with another of your
publishing house’s authors in the same education area/topic: this way you can
provide a 'dual package' to schools, i.e. two authors on one school
visit.
Target special interest groups e.g. English as a
Second Language or Gifted and Talented Children. Be aware of any special focus
or special projects the Department of Education is undertaking – check their
websites all the time and make contact at any opportunity. Be part of
initiatives by education-related groups such as PETA - once again, check their
websites all the time and make contact at any opportunity.
ONLINE NEWSLETTERS
Allen & Unwin send me
great online newsletters every month with details of their new titles, as well
as news such as author tours, author interviews, competitions and giveaways. I
often order books as a result of reading these newsletters. Ford Street also
sends out a very good online newsletter promoting its recent titles.
TEACHER-LIBRARIANS
Teacher-librarians love to be signalled out for the
work they do. Every region has a teacher-librarian network. In the Illawarra
there is the Illawarra School Librarians Association with 120 members. It would
be a worthwhile exercise once a term for a publishing house to offer a night
highlighting: invite an author, illustrator or designer along to talk about
their work. Offer refreshments and discounts. These nights can be held in
bookshops and serve a double function, making the bookshop a profit and
strengthening the bookseller/publisher bond.
Publishers could have a ‘meet the children’s
authors’ event. This is an excellent way for a publishing house to get their
writers to meet the general public (including teacher librarians and book reviewers,
as well as the publishing house’s staff, e.g. marketing and publicity people).
BOOK LAUNCHES
It is a good idea to support book launches in
schools. Richard Harland’s launched the Wolf Kingdom series in a
Wollongong school. Richard organised a bookseller for the day who in turn
contacted the school and sent order forms. On the day of the launch, 350 copies
of the book were sold. At a second launch, at another school, 300 additional copies
were sold.
If they are proactive, authors can sell a lot of books;
therefore it seems sensible to allow them to do so, so make provision for this
in their contracts. Give them the same discount as booksellers. When my author
husband Bill Condon and I worked in schools as performers, Bill would speak in
the morning to infants’ students, I’d speak to primary. At lunch-time we sold
our remainders, usually for $3 or $5 each. It was not unusual to sell over
$1,000 worth of books in the one hour lunch-time period.
FESTIVALS AND CONFERENCES
Publishers, encourage your authors to attend
functions such as literary lunches, festivals and conferences. Publisher Paul
Collins writes to each of his Ford Street authors asking them for a few lines
of biography and then sent them collectively to all writers’ festivals around
Australia saying these authors are willing to appear at your festival. There
are dozens of festivals and conferences and all of them have large audiences.
Publishers, make a list of all of your children’s
authors, along with their Send this list out to CBCA regional branches,
conference & festival organisers, and regional teacher librarian groups
indicating that the authors are available for visits. When authors speak at
conferences, provide bookmarks and promotional material. Give the author a list
of local media (and contact details) when they are to appear at a festival,
conference or literary lunch. The author can organise interviews – or, if you
are accompanying author, you can organise them
AUTHORS’ EMAILS & WEBSITES
When authors send emails, encourage them to have a
signature on each email which includes not only contact information, but the
name of their latest books. A website is an author’s best investment in PR as
it is that author’s shop front. Hazel
Edwards recommends that authors give added value.
‘Have ready on your web site well-labelled activities which relate to that book
title. This can be sent to schools, libraries or bookshops which have
newsletters or events to which the author is invited.’ Publishers, give
teachers' notes or additional resources to the author to put on his website.
Encourage the author to have a generic 'How to'' or “How this book was written”,
a 1,000 word article for easy sending to interested parties. As well, have a
hi-resolution author photo on your publishers’ web site so it can be down-loaded
by festival organisers and save you e-mailing.
WHERE TO PRESENT YOUR AUTHORS:
· School visits or writing camps (talking to
children)
· Staff development days
· Regional librarian meetings
· Conferences and festivals
· Articles in teaching industry magazines
· On your website
Will publishers implement many – or any – of these
suggestions? Hard to tell. However, every author I’ve discussed these ideas
with has been fully supportive, and a happy author ought to be one of the main
aims of every publishing house.
*This article was published elsewhere
some time ago. My most recent publisher is now Elaine Ouston of Morris
Publishing Australia who has been absolutely splendid in marketing my book, The
Girl in the Basement. I have written more about Paul and Elaine in my article,
Working with Small Publishers on this blog (see July 2013).
A NOTE TO PUBLISHERS FROM MARKET SAVVY AUTHORS
An article
2, 140 words
© Dianne Bates
PO Box 2116
Woonona
East NSW 2517
Ph (02)
42716168www.enterprisingwords.com.au
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