Marketing
Marketing is the tip of the iceberg for most titles, one of the four main ingredients for book success. Generally speaking, publishers market upstream to booksellers and distributors who will be buying their books, and the authors must concentrate on marketing downstream to the readers.
Köehler Books partners with authors to create comprehensive marketing programs that include conventional media, social media, and other ways to build a buzz and raise awareness about your book. We also train and coach authors on the best methods for reaching out to readers, using low-cost guerilla marketing techniques as well as working with publicists and marketing professionals.
The items listed below are from our POCKET GUIDE TO PUBLISHING (a free gift to you at the bottom of this page) and are used with our clients as we develop their book and begin to deal with their marketing program. The first part lists what we (the publisher) do, and the second part lists the things that we coach and train the author to do.
What the Publisher Does
- Book Web Page
Each title gets a stand-alone web page on the Köehler Books website. It includes the cover, description, author bio and photo, an excerpt, as well as buying and other optional information. We will also add you to our author’s page. - Author’s Questionnaire
This is a comprehensive document that solicits the author for information about their title, the cover, marketing plans, description and comparative titles. This information becomes the bedrock for Ingram’s Title Management System (TMS).
Download an Author’s Questionnaire - Title Management System (TMS)
Ingram’s TMS provides title information and graphics to booksellers and distributors. This includes descriptions, endorsement quotes, marketing plans, and other information from the author’s questionnaire. Booksellers can download tip sheets and package the information in a number of ways. - Tip Sheets
Tip sheets are comprehensive single-page sheets that originate from the author’s questionnaire. Tip sheets are invaluable for authors to send along with Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) for endorsement quotes and reviews and also useful when visiting booksellers. They include ALL sales information, ISBN, pub date, etc. about your book and also include Ingram’s logo. Ingram is a known distributor and adds weight to your presentation. Always include a tip sheet! They are priceless and extremely useful.
Download a sample tip sheet - Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs)
Each author receives at least twenty printed ARCs after the book has been approved for distribution. Authors are urged to use them for soliciting endorsement quotes and reviews and for their personal enjoyment. They are finished books in every way. The author will also receive a digital ARC, which is the entire text of the book saved as a .pdf file with the front and back covers added. These are extremely useful for our authors and are accepted by many reviewers and endorsers.
Download a Digital ARC sample - ARC Author Purchases
Köehler Books authors may purchase additional copies of their books at or below the wholesale price. Authors may sell those books for profit and also use them for promotional purposes. Author orders do not count toward royalties. - E-book Campaigns
We work with our authors who have signed on with a legitimate e-book promotion such as BookBub. Typically, we lower the price prior to the event and then bring it back up to an agreed level afterwards. - Ingram Catalog Inclusion
All Köehler Books titles are included in one or more of Ingram’s catalogs, printed and online. The primary online catalog used by booksellers is iPage. - Vote the Cover Campaigns
In most cases during the development of the cover, we will work with the author to narrow down the choices to the top two covers. This is part of our collaborative approach: we treat the author as important part of the team. At that point we will take the top two choices and post a VOTE THE COVER poll on the website to get the pulse on two opposing cover designs for the book. Once we install the campaign on our website, we post it on Facebook and Twitter feeds and give the launch URL to the author to share with his or her entire network. This has become one of the best prelaunch publicity campaigns for our authors. They send the link out and ask their friends, readers, and entire network to go and vote for the two covers the publisher has proposed. It is so easy to do, and readers love to cast their vote. While this is not used as the primary method for deciding a cover, it can show trends and provide valuable insight, as well as stir interest in the book. It yields statistical data, and this data which can sometimes surprise us so much that we go in another direction or pick the cover we thought was the lesser of the two. - Audio and Foreign Rights
Most publishers will acquire rights to the printed and digital (e-book), but many, including Köehler Books, will also acquire rights to an audio version of your book, as well as the right to sell it to another country’s publisher to have it produced in a different language. We tend to be very active with the print and e-book production and publication, and we know that they will happen. Audio and foreign rights deals are more passive: we will only do them if a deal becomes available. In that vein, we use the services of an agent who specializes in finding deals for audio and foreign rights. She brings those deals to us to consider, and we decide based on the offer. Typically, such a deal will include a decent advance and very low royalties. The advance is split with the author after agent fees are paid.
Author website samples:
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