Guide to Book Marketing at UNC Press for Authors and Editors
The University of North Carolina Press has a professionally staffed marketing department engaged in the following kinds of activities on behalf of the books published and distributed by the Press.
UNC Press Seasonal Catalog
Catalogs are distributed twice each year announcing new books for each publishing season. The catalog is distributed worldwide to bookstores, libraries, wholesale book dealers, individual scholars, book review media, and others. Our sales representatives also use the catalog when making visits to bookstores.
Direct Marketing
All of our books appear in appropriate subject-area brochures and email blasts that are sent to the appropriate audience. This is an effective way to promote our books and allows for the continued promotion of “backlist” books (those titles still in print and in demand). Books may also be promoted through series flyers and emails when appropriate, and through single-title flyers and emails. Each author will receive a single-title flyer for their book that they can use to mail or hand out at conferences. We ask that authors provide to us lists of contacts (preferably email contacts) that we can approach via an email blast about the book. Similar flyers and emails may be used to promote a book’s potential for course adoption when appropriate.
Electronic Marketing
In addition to our monthly email newsletters, subject-area and single-title email blasts, we also encourage our authors to be active in the many social networking outlets available today. Authors are asked to suggest and provide content for the UNC Press Blog, and to be active on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Our director of electronic marketing will be in touch with our Handbook for Electronic Marketing for Authors, which outlines our e-marketing program and how authors can take full advantage of online promotion opportunities.
Advertising
The Press regularly advertises its new books in The New York Review of Books and other select general interest media (e.g. The Nation, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, The Village Voice Literary Supplement) and in the major scholarly journals of the disciplines in which we publish. We also run seasonal announcement advertisements to the bookstore trade and to college libraries.
Exhibits
New and recent backlist books are displayed at UNC Press exhibits at appropriate academic meetings and at booksellers’ trade shows. New books on display at academic meetings are generally advertised in the program for that meeting. Books may also be sent to exhibit services or sponsoring professional organizations for display at meetings not attended by the Press.
Review Copy Distribution
A complete and extensive list of appropriate media is compiled for each book and review copies are distributed in advance of publication. Major media in New York and Washington, D.C., are personally visited at least twice a year to present new books being published by the Press.
Publicity
As appropriate, efforts at additional publicity through news releases and other means are pursued. This may include arranging broadcast interviews and other forums for discussion of the contents of a new book and the sale of excerpt rights to a magazine or newspaper.
New! Read our Author’s Guide to Author Appearances.
Book Clubs, Translations, and Other Subsidiary Rights
Every effort is made to sell copies of books to specialist book clubs and to special interest mail order companies that may offer books. Foreign translation rights and co-publication arrangements are also pursued by our rights and permissions manager.
Sales Representation
The Press has a worldwide network of sales representatives. New books are presented each season to major bookstore accounts and wholesale book dealers. Special sales efforts are made whenever possible to arrange book signings. Bulk sales to special interest groups and organizations are pursued when appropriate.
Feedback
The Press provides a roundup of all marketing activities to each book’s authors and editors pre-publication, and emails copies of all reviews and listings as they are received.
Electronic Publishing
UNC Press is active in selling its book content in all the available eBook formats. We have partnerships with all the major eBook vendors, including Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s Ereader, Google’s Ebookstore, and have licensed a number of books for inclusion in electronic databases such as those offered by Books@Jstor, Project Muse, NetLibrary, Questia, and eBrary.