The only constant in the book publishing industry is perpetual change, according to The Book Publisher’s Toolkit: 10 Practical Pointers for Independent and Self Publishers, Vol 1, published by the Independent Book Publishers’ Association (IBPA). This short book, which is a collection of ten articles first published in the IBPA’s monthly member magazine, aims to give readers insights into a range of techniques for marketing books.
The ten articles are:
- Kate Bandos: Getting and Using Awards. How finding and applying for an award can help with marketing a book.
- Kimberley Edwards: Tapping Into Twitter Expertise. How to get authors started using Twitter, and how to avoid wasting time while using it.
- Joel Friedlander: Let’s Hear It for the Long Tail. How books written for a particular niche can achieve success.
- Steve Gillen: Acquiring the Right Rights. Advice from a lawyer on suitable terms for book publishing contracts.
- Abigail Goben: A Librarian Talks About Choosing Books to Buy. How to maximise the chances of a book being purchased by libraries.
- Tanya Hall: Build a Powerful Platform with a Simple Brand Audit. How authors can use positioning statements, taglines, logos and other elements of branding strategies.
- Brian Jud: Marketing Plans for First Books. How to use discovery-driven planning and planning by narrative when you have no previous marketing experience.
- Stacey Miller: Why Authors Hate Social Networking. Ideas for using social networking without letting it become a burden.
- Kathleen Welton: Growing Connections that Count. Ideas for authors to increase in-person connections with colleagues, the local community, and customers.
- David Wogahn: E-book Conversions. A checklist for ensuring that your e-books end up with a high quality format.
This book is not a comprehensive guide to self-publication like APE: Author Publisher Entrepreneur, but it does contain a number of ideas and tips that small publishers will find very useful.