The Marketing Survey: How It Helps the Publisher Sell Your Book

Last year, I worked with several colleagues on an edited collection to be published by the University of South Carolina Press in November 2022. We recently received a request from our contact at the Press to complete a marketing survey. I thought it might be helpful to share the items included on the questionnaire with some insights on how a publisher might use your responses.

Author Information

The first section of the marketing questionnaire we received collected information about the folks whose names would be on the book jacket. In this case, we provided information for the three content editors who oversaw the book’s development.

• Brief author bio for the book jacket/cover and online catalog. The biography should highlight aspects of your experience that speak to your expertise in the book’s subject matter. There may only be room for 2 to 3 lines on the back cover, so brevity is key. I submitted a 73-word bio; the Press cut that to 11 words of the 50-word bio blurb for all three editors. But if you are a solo author, those 50 words are all yours.

• Headshot. If you’ve got a new book coming out, now is a great time to think about getting (or updating) a professional headshot. Your institution may provide this service. If not, reach out to the folks in public relations at your college or university to see if they can recommend professional photographers. Last year, I hired a photographer to take multiple images for my website, including a headshot. I paid about $125 an image, which included retouching.

• Contact information. The publisher will want to know your address, phone, and email information. A physical address may be needed for shipping comp copies to you when the book is published. If you receive royalty payments, you will need to provide a home address.

Book Information

You might be surprised that your publisher will ask you to create summaries of your book—isn't that the marketing department's job? But you are more familiar with the text than anyone else. Your summary will become the backbone of marketing copy for the book. In The Book Proposal Book (Princeton University Press, 2021), Laura Portwood-Stacer suggests that publishers may use your marketing language exactly as sent, so take care to provide clean, well-written copy. The marketing contact from our publisher used our text to create the catalog copy and sent it to us for review. All publishers may not do this.

• Brief summary (50 words). It’s painful to boil a 300-page book down to 50 words, but you should begin to think about how you can describe the essence of your work in a way that is likely to engage potential readers. These short summaries might appear in a print catalog or be used as part of the book’s metadata in an online catalog.

• Detailed summary (300 words). As noted above, we were asked to provide a three-paragraph synopsis of the book that the Press will use to draft the catalog and jacket copy. Rather than writing a summary that might appeal to specialists, we were advised to “use simple and straightforward language [and] avoid academic language.” First, this more natural approach will make it easier for the marketing folks, who don’t have your subject-matter expertise, to do their jobs. Second, a less formal approach to describing your work will make it appeal to a broader audience.

• Features and benefits. When you drafted your book proposal, you probably spent some time thinking and writing about what set your book apart from others addressing the same or similar topics. Responding to the marketing questionnaire may prompt you to revisit that thinking. In crafting our response to this question, I considered who I thought some of the primary audiences for the book would be and the specific value the book would offer to each one. For example, if you have included a case study or a series of reflection questions at the end of each chapter, your book might make a good text for a graduate seminar. Describe how those features would support student learning and highlight the type of course(s) where this text might be relevant.

• Keywords. We provided 7 to 10 keywords (words or short phrases someone might type into a search field to find a book like ours). Again, keywords might be used as part of the book’s metadata for the online catalog. Using some of the keywords in your summary might also increase the chances of the online catalog entry appearing during an internet search.

• Endorsements. The people you identify for endorsements should be recognized scholars and experts in your book’s subject area. Their name and positive appraisal of your work function as a seal of approval for potential buyers. The endorsements are brief (2 to 3 sentences) statements included on the book jacket/back cover and sometimes in marketing copy. While our publisher plans to contact possible endorsers on our behalf, I always asked authors to seek their own endorsements. My rationale for this was that it was much easier for these very busy individuals to say no to me as the publisher than it would be for them to say no to an author potentially working in their field.

Promotion

The final section of the questionnaire focused on avenues for disseminating the marketing message.

• Review copies. We were asked to provide the names of 5 – 12 professional journals that published book reviews and whose readers might have an interest in our book. Because sending out copies to book review editors can be expensive, your publisher will likely send out only a limited number. Consider which journals in your field are most likely to be read by potential audience members for your book. Put those journals at the top of your list.

• Mailing lists/discussion lists. Laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) make obtaining mailing lists, especially email lists, from third parties more challenging. Still, if you belong to associations whose members are potential book buyers, your publisher may want to pursue distributing information about the book via these channels. In some cases, it will be easier for you as the author to share information about your forthcoming book via listservs than it is for a publisher. As a publisher, I routinely provided authors a marketing email they could customize for distribution to their networks or on closed discussion lists. If they don’t offer it automatically, ask your publisher to provide you with preferred marketing copy, a jpeg of the book cover, and the direct link for the online catalog page. Using the publisher's marketing components will ensure that your self-promotion activities complement their efforts.

• Professional meetings/exhibits. Publishers have limited budgets for exhibiting at professional meetings. Still, it is worth letting them know of any meetings you plan to attend or where you will present in the months immediately before or after your book’s release. If it’s a meeting they plan to attend, the publisher may schedule a book signing at their booth or provide a discount code for attendees. If they aren’t physically present at a meeting, they may promote your presentation (especially if connected to the book) on their social media channels and provide book flyers for you to distribute to attendees.

• Current interest/events. Some books are especially timely because they speak to current events or address emerging topics of interest. Communicate any significant connections between your book and recent news and events on the marketing questionnaire to offer the publisher new or different angles for promoting your work.

• Social media. If you are active on social media, have a blog, a podcast, or a website, communicate your handles or usernames and relevant URLs to the publisher’s marketing staff. They can tag you in posts about your work, thus broadening their reach to members of your network. At my former shop, we created artwork sized for various social media platforms and provided it to authors, allowing them to engage in self-promotion. Don’t limit yourself to your own channels. If you are aware of bloggers, podcasters, or other content curators who might have an interest in promoting your book, pass their contact information along via the marketing questionnaire.

• Awards. Many associations recognize books that make a significant contribution to the field. If you are aware of book award programs in organizations aligned with your field, pass this information along to your publisher so they can consider putting together a nomination package.

The marketing questionnaire can feel like a lot, especially after all the effort you have expended writing and revising a book manuscript. Laura Packwood-Stacer recommends that you begin thinking about promoting your book while writing it—well before the marketing questionnaire arrives. You could start by creating a Google doc or spreadsheet and using some of the categories I’ve described here as placeholders. Then, record promotional angles in the appropriate spot as you think of them. When the questionnaire arrives, you will likely need to tweak your notes and will certainly need to transfer them to whatever form your publisher uses, but you will have a good bit of the work already done.