Rene Tambeau

1
Renée Tambeau

• Director of Sales and Marketing
• Wayne State University Press

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The Basics of Wayne State University Press

• 35-40 books published annually (of which 3-10 are
  distributed titles)
• Annual Revenue of 1,000,0001,400,000 (books)
• Journal revenue adds an additional
  350,000360,000

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WSU Press Staff
Staff of 16 full-time employees, 3 part-time
employees, 12 interns
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Marketing Staff

• Marketing Staff consists of
• 1 Marketing Sales Manager
• 1 Promotions Direct Mail Manager
• 1 Exhibits Advertising Manager

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Marketing Budget

• Marketing Budget (without salaries)
  approximately 100,000
• Advertising
• Awards (nomination fees and marketing is charged
  unit cost for books)
• Catalogs and Direct Mail
• Co-op
• Exhibits
• E-marketing
• Publicity
• Review Copies (marketing is charged unit cost for
  books/hard budget to forecast)
• Sales (sales reps commissions)

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Marketing Budget approximately 100,000
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• Random thoughts on various components of
  marketing plan

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Advertising

• Negatives include
• Hard to track ROI
• Expensive (usually need to place ads multiple
  times to have impact on buyers)
• Done primarily to please/pacify authors
• Hard to build and distinguish brand to an
  overwhelmed/oversaturated market
• Viewed with skepticism (versus the perceived
  objectivity of a review)

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• A book that may be of interest The Fall of
  Advertising The Rise of PR by Al Ries and Laura
  Ries

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Advertising

• Positives include
• Ads increase visibility for books and Press as a
  whole
• Ads work when selling to sellers
• Ads work when you have a specific journal in a
  very specific subject area
• Ads are good tools for acquisitions
• Happy authors

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Direct Mail vs. E-marketing

• Technology is changing how people look for
  information
• Cost savings of e-marketing (no printing costs,
  no postage) is clear advantage
• When appropriate, e-marketing pieces can be
  reusedplaced on Web site, given to author to
  forward
• E-marketing is quicker and easier to tailor for
  various groups if needed

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Direct Mail vs. E-marketing

• Constant Contact (or other programs) can be used
  to cheaply and effectively remind people you
  exist and showcase your most recent products
• Constant Contact allow you to track what the most
  popular links are so you can see area of interest

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Direct Mail vs. E-marketing

• Direct mail is still viable and useful. We take
  catalogs and direct mail pieces to author events,
  exhibits, conferences, ect. Because of a limited
  budget, we typically promote several books in the
  same subject area on one piece.

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Examples
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Direct Mail vs. E-marketing

• We print large amounts of our Web site postcard,
  which promotes the Press as a whole, but can be
  tailored to a special sale offer, a special
  event, etc.

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Mailing Lists

• In-house lists from previous buyers (no rental
  fee, building off a base that already is
  interested in/familiar with WSUP titles)
• In-house lists that weve cobbled together from
  various sources (often times interns keying in
  from membership directories)
• Rent lists from list brokers, subject area
  societies/organizations
• Author-provided lists

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Seasonal Catalogs

• Decreased seasonal catalog quantity considerably
  when subsidy was cut and became more conservative
  with uses used primarily as a sales tool
  currently print approximately 5000-7500 to cover
  accounts, select media, authors included in
  catalog, acquisitions use for potential authors.
• Mail out approximately 5000-6000

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Subject Catalogs

• Subject area catalogs allow us to highlight
  several titles in a series/subject area
  currently print approximately 3000-5000
  (depending on the subject area) and send to
  logical lists (Jewish Studies catalog gets sent
  to Association for Jewish Studies and Association
  for Jewish Libraries, etc. Film Studies catalog
  gets sent to Society for Cinema and Media
  Studies). Also used by acquisitions as a selling
  feature for the Press to potential authors.
• Mail out approximately 80 - the other 20 taken
  to conferences, sent to authors, used for other
  promotional opportunities

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Developing a Marketing Plan

• look at fiscal year budget books
• varies depending on academic or general interest
  title
• varies if we get additional funding for promotion
• authors valuable resource

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Get authors to

• In part, do your research for you
• Visit bookstores to encourage them to stock the
  book or set up author events
• Contact friends, families, professional
  organizations, colleagues, etc. when book is
  published
• Demand that their universitys library order the
  book
• Encourage colleagues and others to write reviews
  of their books on Amazon and other sites
• Contact producers of local shows to pitch book
• Encourage colleagues to use book as course
  adoption (if appropriate)

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Typical Marketing Plan for Academic Book

• Advertisements (appropriate subject area
  journalsusually one or two ads, often times
  placed with other similar subject titles)
• Award nominations (costs are usually nominal,
  make authors happy, and can be utilized for
  additional promotion opportunities if books win)
• Catalogs and direct mail and/or course adoption
  mailers (always included in the seasonal catalog,
  placed in appropriate subject area catalogs and
  direct mail pieces)

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Typical Marketing Plan for Academic Book

• Conferences and exhibits (depending on the book,
  can be sent to 5-20 conferences, focus more on
  scholarly meetings)
• Publicity efforts if appropriate (typically not
  appropriate for academic books unless
  timely/interesting subject or important author)
• Review copies sent (approximately 3 of print
  run)

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Typical Plan for a General Interest Book

• Same as academic book, but more review copies
  sent out, more promotion, more advance marketing
  efforts prior to publication to build a buzz
  (galleys, press kits, etc.)

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Typical Plan for a General Interest Book

• Author events (schedule book signings/readings,
  interviews, etc.). The Press does not pay for
  author tours unless we have money come in
  specifically for marketing efforts
• Advertisements (appropriate subject area
  journalsusually two or three ads)
• Award nominations (costs are usually nominal,
  make authors happy, and can be utilized for
  additional promotion opportunities if books win)
• Catalogs and direct mail and/or course adoption
  mailers (always included in the seasonal catalog,
  placed in appropriate subject area catalogs.
  Direct mail pieces such as postcards typically
  done)
• Conferences and exhibits (depending on the book,
  can be sent to 10-25 conferences, sent more often
  to trade shows)
• Publicity efforts (typically advance galleys,
  press kits, etc.)
• Review copies sent (approximately 5 of print run)

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Period for questions at the end of the
presentations.
Thank you!