A Publisher's Bookshelf: John Kremer

John Kremer is the leading expert on book marketing
by David A. Rozansky, Publisher, Flying Pen Press
Readers, Writers & Royalties columnist
November 16, 2007
Copyright 2007 David A. Rozansky

Marketing books is a strange, dark, magical art.

The process of marketing and distributing a book is a complex process, one that often overwhelms authors and new publishers. Book editors can easily point out what makes a book weak or strong, but they find it much more difficult to grasp what makes a book salable, and what will propel it through the book trade and into the hands of the readers. Booksellers are often just as much in the dark, not knowing how a publisher selects a book or exerts marketing pressure to promote it. Finally, the reader, who has no idea what books are out there or how they come into being, is often struggling to find just the right book.

There is one book out there that explains it all, to the point that I call it the “bible of publishing.” I came across it in an obscure section of a bookstore many years ago, and inside, I found everything any publisher or author needs to know about promoting, publicizing, marketing, distributing and selling books.

That book has been such a part of my career that since I bought it, I have been publishing magazines and books, and writing professionally full-time ever since.

That book, which is never more than arm’s length away on my desk, is 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer

The book is in its sixth edition. The original edition came out in 1986. I first found the book in its fourth edition, written back before the Internet was a reality. Needless to say, this latest edition, incorporating everything about internet marketing, has more information than ever.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books is a tome that is more than 700 pages long, packed on every page with specific information about how to market, promote, distribute and sell a book. It includes companies, addresses, emails, phone numbers, websites and contact names of just about everyone a publisher or author needs to know. It gives details instructions on how to approach distributors, talk-show producers, newspaper editors, independent booksellers, publishers associations, even government buyers.

The best word I can give to describe this collection of information is “voluminous.” While there are plenty of great books on book marketing, this is the one that is complete and total in scope.

John Kremer, however, is not just an author. He not only wrote the book on book marketing, he practices what he preaches, and goes all out to market this book-marketing book. He has one of the best websites on book marketing. He travels constantly and speaks on the subject all the time. He constantly updates all the information from his book and posts it for his readers to find. He highlights blogs and websites and associations that are great resources, and although he is busy and popular and prolifically writing, I have fond that he has always had time to answer my questions personally in email with specific, technical responses.

And that kind of attitude is exactly what he writes and talks about. He knows that every time he makes a positive connection within the book trade, someone like me is going to say great things about him. After all, this is an unpaid, unsolicited raving review of his book.

Contents

Here are the kinds of topics from the book:

• Chapter 1: Basic Fundamentals of Marketing. This chapter has 11 sections. His primary point is that the responsibility of marketing a book cannot be delegated; it must be your own responsibility. He also notes that while marketing is important, it is a means to an end. Marketing is about making friends.
• Chapter 2 is all about planning the market strategies. There are 23 sections in this chapter and everyone of them is important. This is perhaps the most important chapter in Kremer’s book. Market planning begins before the book is written, and those who plan their marketing campaign have a great advantage over those who wait until after publication date.
• Chapter 3 is focused on how to market a publishing company and establish a brand. Twelve sections.
• Chapter 4 is about customer service in 16 sections. The basics are covered here, lke accepting credit cards and saying please and thank you, but Kremer goes one step further and gives phone numbers for setting up merchant accounts and little ways to help satisfied customers get the word out.
• Chapter 5 blows the doors off even the most established book publishers, in that it shows how to find new markets outside the book trade. Sixteen different sections show publishers how to increase sales in new places.
• Chapter 6 focuses on how the Editorial Department affects the marketing plans. Oddly enough, Kremer had to cut the chapter because the book was so full of great information that is something had to be cut out, and Kremer recognized this chapter and the next chapter as covering information generally found elsewhere. It’s a good thing I still have my 4th Edition copy.
• Chapter 7 is on book design and has also been cut to a few words.
• Chapter 8 is the chapter I wish all authors would read, as it is about how authors can promote their own books. There are 14 sections, from how to go on book tours and how to give seminars, to how publishers should give authors the tools they need for publicity and self-promotion.
• Chapter 9 includes tips on publicity and public relations. Here is all the information on talk shows, book reviews, author tours. Kremer echoes my Rule of 5x5 by suggesting publishers and authors each practice five promotions a day. This chapter is packed with great ideas, so many that it covers 25 sections.
• Chapter 10 is all about advertising, a subject that is always in contention when it comes to selling books. Not all books do well with advertising, while other books can even be sold through direct mail offers. There are 17 sections.
• Chapter 11 is one of my favorite chapters. It is about offbeat promotions and advertisements. From business cards to billboards, from book clubs to book fairs, Kremer covers every offbeat idea that he has ever seen or read about. With 35 sections, there are so many lists of ideas that it would take a lifetime to exhaust them.
• Chapter 12 is the Internet chapter, and Kremer goes into long detail about how to use a website to increase book sales. From virtual book tours to book trailers to podcasting, the new information for the information age is covered. There are 18 sections, plus a last minute section for information that came in at press time.
• Chapter 13 discusses the voodoo of distribution. Unfortunately, the state of book distributing has changed drastically in the last six months, so some of this information is dated. However, for the uninitiated facing the dire prospect of distribution for their books, and for those in the trade who want to know what goes on between the printing press and the bookseller’s back room, this is the standard textbook on the subject. Twenty sections.
• Chapter 14 is the chapter on working with bookstores. It covers a wide variety of topics important to working with retailers, from sales to catalogs to author events to co-operative advertising. Each of the 18 sections covers a different topic about bookstores.
• Chapter 15 has seven more sections about retailers, but focuses on stores in trades other than books. For those who want to sell their books in the big box stores and on military bases, this is a key chapter.
• Chapter 16 covers the oft overlooked markets of schools and libraries. Eleven sections.
• Chapter 17 goes beyond the book and explains how to sell subsidiary rights, such as translation rights, movie rights, audio rights, e-book rights, even ballet rights! Not only does Kremer cover how to sell these rights, he gives such great definitions of what these rights are that we have included his descriptions in the Flying Pen Press author contracts.
• Chapter 18 covers selling books overseas, from selling foreign rights to exporting. The 12 sections end with a section on the topic so many publishers are than king about, selling to mainland China.
• Chpater 19 picks up a lot of the miscellaneous topics titled special sales. Whether it is a corporate sael, selling in-book ad space, this chapter covers it in 17 sections. The mysterious endgame, remainder sales, is covered as well.
• Chapter 20 is targeted at authors. It shows authors how to capitalize on their books and extend their writing career into profitable areas. This includes publishing newsletters, speaking, consulting, becoming a one-person industry, even self-publishing for those who dare.
• Chapter 21 is a fine example of how to make a book work to sell more books, in that it is the chapter about Kremer’s consulting and his other available products. You would think that this would be an easily overlooked chapter, being that it is so commercial, but thos other products have been helpful, especially Kremer’s database of independent bookstores that he keeps up to date: 800 bookstore buyers listed in a database for only $40! Not a mailing list, but a database that I have been able to use over and over again.

And there is so much in this book, that the full index could not be included. Instead, Kremer has had to publish the book’s index on his website.

How I Use It

To make the best use of John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market your Books, I have placed sticky-tabs on pages that I use the most. My copy has 65 little page tabs. Ihave color coded them. Most have yellow tabs for general bookmarking, but I also have 10 red tabs for instant recognition for topics I need access to right away.

Here is the  list of what I have bookmarked with tabs:

• Bestseller lists
• Associations
• Trade magazines (suggested reading)
• Interview promotion
• Author questionnaire
• Book fairs
• Book awards
• Book reviewers
• Review copies
• Wire services
• Radio talk shows
• TV talk shows
• Author tours
• Tie-ins
• Top media
• Time line (bookmarked in red)
• News wires
• Free-offer sites
• Email lists
• Amazon.com (bookmarked in red)
• Online bookstores
• Amazon campaign (bookmarked in red)
• Google
• Yahoo
• Podcasts
• Book trailers
• Social networks (bookmarked in red)
• Pressroom site
• BookWire
• Review sites
• Ingram
• Baker & Taylor
• Miscellaneous wholesalers
• Jobbers
• Chain stores (bookmarked in red)
• Sales reps
• Trade shows
• Trade directories
• Company catalog
• Trade magazines (bookmarked in red, a list of contacts)
• Co-op ad programs
• POP displays
• Author signings
• Alternative retail
• Alternative trade shows
• Alternative retail contacts
• Discount stores
• Military exchanges
• Colleges
• Libraries
• Subsidiary-rights agents
• Subsidiary rights (bookmarked in red)
• Book clubs (bookmarked in red)
• Movie & TV rights
• Audio rights
• Subsidiary rights parameters
• Foreign rights
• Exports
• China
• Premiums
• Association sales
• Government sales
• Mail order catalogs
• Remainders (bookmarked in red)
• Speakers bureaus (bookmarked in red)

I ask all Flying Pen Press staff and authors to have a copy of the book and to use it often. This one book provides a complete understanding of what a publisher does and how they do it. Because I believe that marketing is everyone’s job, but I recognize that few people are skilled or educated in this field, I often refer people to Kremer’s book and website.

Bookmarket.com

Kremer is never resting when it comes to keeping the industry informed about the latest advances in book marketing. He collects this information voraciously, and puts it all on his website. Much of it he provides for free, other information he sells in reports or databases, at fairly inexpensive prices. I highly recommend the site (www.bookmarket.com) to anyone in the book trade.

How the website has helped Flying Pen Press

Here a three examples of how Kremer’s book and website have helped me personally in promoting Flying Pen Press and its new catalog of books:

When our first two titles came out, Looking Glass by James R. Strickland, and Migration of the Kamishi by Gaddy Bergmann, I knew it would be important to have a launch party to remember. After all, it was not just the launch of these two titles, it was the launch of Flying Pen Press itself. The idea of a simple party was of course obvious, but Kremer’s book made it clear that we needed to do everything we could to make this party shine, although we didn’t have much of a budget for a party. So, I contacted the Tattered Cover Bookstore, a local independent bookstore of great renown, set up their author-signing space as a party room, brought in my webmaster’s band (The Steel River Three), and bought some cakes decorated to look like the books. Nothing special, But we worked the mailing lists as Kremer’s book suggested, and we packed the room so that the owner of the store, Joyce Meskis, was busy setting up more chairs for a large and very visible crowd. As a result, Flying Pen Press’s name and the two titles were highly publicized and are often talked about by the influential members of that store.

Another title we publish, The Game Day Poker Almanac Official Rules of Poker by Kelli Mix is a rule book with all the official rules of poker, from the basics of hand ranks to the detailed, often confusing rules of large tournaments. It also includes rules for poker variations. Inspired by the instructions in Kremer’s book, we have contacted certain poker associations and talking about offering the book as a premium for membership drives.

My final example is that of the author questionnaire. We now ask all authors to complete a questionnaire that asks detailed questions about their life, their career and their book. We use much of this information in promoting the author’s works: we develop mailing lists of the author’s close friends, we work closely with the publicists of the companies they may work for, we find readers of books that are similar to that author’s works, etc.

A word about overdoing it

There is so much in Kremer’s book that one has to be careful. Kremer even admits that there is too much information. In the beginning and at the end of 1001 Ways to Market your Books, Kremer advises the reader to select only a few marketing tools from this tremendous grab bag. It is far better to become good at a few methods than to do everything in the book badly. The biggest danger of Kremer’s book and website is that it is so easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of information available. However, as a source of ideas that can be easily implemented and a directory of valuable contacts, there is no better book.

One thing is certain. Kremer is a walking book-marketing college. Between his book, his website and his newsletters, it is possible to be as educated as any MBA in the book trade, for only a few dollars. Of all the books I have ever bought in my life (and of the many that I have borrowed or received as gifts), this is the most valuable book I own.

Bibliographic information
1001 Ways to Market Your Books for Authors and Publishers
By John Kremer
Published by Open Horizons, 2006
ISBN 978-0-912411-49-1
706 pp, trade paperback, $27.95
Website: www.bookmarket.com
Newsletter: Book Marketing Tip of the Week

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Recommended Reading:

1001 Ways to Market your Books by John Kremer

Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber

The Complete Guide to Successful Publishing by Avery Cardoza

The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen

Guerilla Marketing series by Jay Conrad Levinson, et al.

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“Get the Word Out! Turn Off the TV and Read a Book!”

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This is just one article in David A. Rozansky’s column, Readers, Writers & Royalties, a blog column about the book trade, from writing and publishing, to selling and reading. His next article will have tips for writing a novel.

Readers may find archived articles or subscribe to Readers, Writers & Royalties at www.ReadWriteRoyalty.Gather.com. Subscribe to all of Mr. Rozansky’s articles at www.FlyingPenPress.Gather.com.

David A. Rozansky is the publisher of Flying Pen Press. He has been in publishing since 1987, and has more than one million published words under his byline. Flying Pen Press is at http://www.FlyingPenPress.com. He is available for speaking on the subject of marketing and promoting books.

Three of the books mentioned in this article are published by Flying Pen Press. It is available from the publisher or wherever great books are sold.

Migration of the Kamishi by Gaddy Bergmann (ISN 978-0-9795889-1-4, trade, $14.95). Migration of the Kamishi is a story of life three thousand years after an asteroid has hit the Earth and wiped out all civilization, and how the Earth is healing from all the things done to it by mankind. Readers can connect with Gaddy Bergmann at Gaddy.Gather.com.

The Game Day Poker Almanac Official Rules of Poker (ISBN 978-0-9795889-2-1, trade, $19.95). The Official Rules of Poker is the authoritative rule book for poker. It includes basic rules of poker, rules for tournaments and poker rooms, poker-game variations, and a thorough poker glossary. Visit www.KelliMix.com to buy a personally inscribed copy of her book.

Looking Glass by James R. Strickland (ISBN 978-0-9795889-0-7, trade, $14.95). Looking Glass is cyberpunk murder mystery where a serial killer is stalking cyberspace and using the Internet itself as a weapon. The author’s website is www.JamesRStrickland.com.