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.

GET YOUR FREE MARKETING BOOK
Pocket Guide to Book Marketing: A Road Map to Marketing Your Book
“This guide will help save your life as an author.”Ooh, I need this!
“Marketing and promoting a book is a marathon, not a sprint.” “The MOST important thing to do in regards to book marketing is to write a great book.”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. - Social Media
Our social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, supports our authors and titles by featuring monthly new releases, vote the cover campaigns, pre-sale book information, book covers and descriptions, author headshots and bios, best sellers, and more. - Pocket Guides
Our two pocket guides have been downloaded and read over 120,000 times by writers and authors. The POCKET GUIDE TO PUBLISHING was written by Executive Editor Joe Coccaro and Publisher John Koehler to give an overview of the publishing industry and to detail how Koehler Books works. The POCKET GUIDE TO BOOK MARKETING provides a concise overview of book marketing relative to things a publisher must do and things for an author to consider for their part. - 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. We may also recommend an Ebook sale on the pub date, or 4-6 months after the pub date. - Marketing Coaching and Training
Authors will be coached on guerrilla marketing techniques for promoting their title. Starting with their website and social media and progressing through book events and publicity, Köehler Books coaches you on building a good brand for your book and for you as an author. - Ingram iPage 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. - Edelweiss
Edelweiss is the book industry’s premier platform to sell, discover, and order new titles. Booksellers, librarians, and reviewers can:
• Search the industry’s frontlist and backlist catalogs
• Leverage the most complete title and sales data
• Market titles and manage the sales process
• Share and download Digital Review Copies
• Network and share reviews with other book professionals
Edelweiss is used by over 100,000 book professionals. Edelweiss is used by a select group of publishers including dozens of big names, like Amazon Publishing, DC Comics, Disney, Gryphon House, Hachette, Harlequin, Harper Collins, Harvard Education Press, Hay House, Kensington, McGraw-Hill, National Geographic, Pearson, Penguin, Prometheus, Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Skyhorse, Time Inc, Tyndale, many university presses, W.W. Norton, Workman, and now Koehler Books. - Awards Assistance
We will send 10 softcovers to the author if they send proof of signing up for a book awards program such as the awards list shown on our website here. Scroll to the bottom of the page. - Overdrive
Overdrive allows libraries to review and purchase Ebooks and Audiobooks directly from the publisher. With over 30,000 libraries enrolled, Overdrive is a strong new way for Koehler Books to reach libraries without going through distributors. - Foreign & Audio Rights
Koehler Books has contracted with the DropCap Rights Agency to sell and market foreign language publication rights as well as audio rights for its titles. Minneapolis-based DropCap has sold book rights in more than 180 languages over the past twenty-five years. It has relationships with more than 2,200 book rights buyers in 120 countries. - Movie and subsidiary rights and advice
While we do not typically acquire movie and subsidiary rights, we may seek them if a title takes off and we get inquiries from production studios. If that is not possible, then we may provide details to the author or provide introductions to the agent. Getting a movie made from a book is a very slow and laborious process, so we advise authors to be patient and have very low expectations.
Here’s our gift to you.

GET YOUR FREE EBOOK
Pocket Guide to Publishing: 100 Things Authors Should Know
“A clever and candid look under the hood of today’s publishing vehicle.” Ooh, I need this!
“I wish Pocket Guide had been available when I started out.” “A real no nonsense guide for authors that cuts to the chase about publishing.”