The Author as Marketer

I've been doing a little research into the book publishing industry lately - an industry which like many content industries has been going through dramatic changes over the last decade or so in response to the advent of digital technologies.

One common theme across genres/markets is that publishers seem to be relying more and more on authors in the promotion and marketing of their work.  In trade, academic, non-fiction, and fiction markets, it appears that authors are routinely asked by publishers when pitching proposals how the author will assist in the marketing endeavors.  Authors may be expected to organize readings/signings at bookstores, blog about their work, distribute flyers at conferences etc.

This is understandable on the basis that the author is expected to identify a target market in order to pitch the book in the first place so the author may be expected to assist in making some inroads into the marketing of the work through contacts etc.  Also, publishers are under increasing financial pressure as the industry is disrupted by digital technology so they understandably want as little risk and as much assistance as possible when selecting authors/topics to work with.

Fiction authors routinely do all sorts of creative things including setting up blogs, Facebook pages in the names of their characters, book events, media appearances etc.  I'm interested in what law professors do.  In my last couple of book proposals, I was asked by my publisher how I would assist in marketing.  Obviously there's blogging and conferences.  And I do have some colleagues who organize readings and signings of books at bookstores.  What do others do?  How much work/time should academic authors be expected to contribute to the marketing side of the equation, particularly when one is doing a lot of writing for very little financial reward, although one would assume that a well marketed book plays into an author's success in other ways - recognition within their own field etc.

 

Comments

[sugar huddle]

Are the publishers also asking what the law school will do to help market the book, or is the publisher of the law prof's book typically the university press? (As a Yale alum I get a lot of emails and flyers about events put on by YLS in various cities that market a current professor's newest work, which is good publicity for the school, takes some burden off the author's shoulders, and has the added bonuses of making the author look less desperate and self-congratulatory AND lending some air of authority to the book by giving it the endorsement of the school.)

[Jacqui Lipton]

In my limited experience, most law prof books are not published by the university press of which the prof is a faculty member. I'm not aware of publishers asking SPECIFICALLY what a law school will do to help market the book, although the law professor may volunteer that information and may ask the school to help in marketing the book eg on its website, in press releases etc. That said, I doubt many law schools are experts at marketing this kind of thing and to the extent that marketing takes $$$ (eg for flyers, mailouts etc), there will always be a scramble for precious resources on that score. But I'd be interested in knowing what other schools do on this front. At my school we routinely do send out marketing materials to emphasize the scholarly achievements of our faculty but I don't know how effective they are in convincing anyone to buy books, and they are usually 'composite' mailouts relating to the achievements of a number of faculty members (or the entire faculty) rather than individual mailouts to assist one particular publisher.

[Mary Dudziak]

Barbara Babcock just posted an essay on her journey in creating her own book tour for her biography of Clara Foltz, the first woman admitted to the bar in California. http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/barbara-babcock-on-her-clara-foltz-book.html. She gave 50 book talks in a year.

If you believe in your work, you have to look after it. With cutbacks at presses, authors are most often disappointed by their press's efforts. We write books so that people will read them, and academic authors often find out the hard way that if you don't promote your book, the book may simply never finds its readers.