Marketing & Aftercare Service Details
As you would become one of our published authors, you are entitled to use the free continuous support from our team of Marketing Advisors. We do not believe on leaving authors out in the cold, once the book is published, like many companies do. The service is free of charge to the author as the service is instead funded by book royalties. Some companies will give 100% royalties to authors, which, seems great on the face of it, but this is because there is then zero incentive for the company to actually push the book to sell! This is part of the reason that the royalty share we provide is 65% to authors and 35% to ourselves for print on demand packages and 80% to authors and 20% to ourselves for hybrid packages, so there is a significant reason why it's in our interest to help sell the book. The royalties therefore cover the cost of the labour time of the Marketing Advisors, as well as administrative tasks like processing royalty payments etc.
The idea of the service is that it is designed to help ensure that authors get on track with their marketing and recoup the costs of their initial investment of publication. The team will assist you with your marketing efforts and, as every author and book are different, the marketing strategies for one book may be entirely different to that of another.
For instance, some authors require assistance with social media. Your Marketing Advisor could focus on this aspect and help you set up social media profiles, as well as discussing other forms of social media marketing, such as blogging and sending Mailchimp campaigns.
On the other hand, some authors prefer support in terms of more traditional methods, such as arranging book launches, providing guidance on approaching bookshops, sourcing book reviews, arranging press events etc.
We have specialists in the team focusing on the major social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube etc), those to assist with online marketing (blogging, author websites etc), and those to assist with offline marketing (advice on how to approach physical bookshops, libraries, author events etc).
As a company, we predominantly focus on pushing sales via Amazon and increasing a book up the Amazon rankings. This is because, especially after the pandemic, Amazon is by far the world’s largest bookstore and an author stands a much better chance at their book becoming a success by focusing their attentions first on Amazon and then on other retailers, once their book has a consistent track record of sales. Therefore, the team will often focus a lot of their efforts on helping you sell via this retailer, as this is where you are likely to get the quickest response in terms of recouping the costs of publication.
If you are interested in a hybrid package, including the potential of working with the sales agencies, one important thing to note is what the sales agencies will require from you and your book, how the Marketing & Aftercare team will be able to assist and what they will not be able to do. The sales agencies will require a PR plan and endorsements to help them pitch the book to physical retailers.
Why do the sales agencies require a PR plan and endorsements?
They want to give reasons to the retailer as to why the retailer would choose to order that particular title over another title of the same genre. This is especially important with first time and relatively unknown authors. If you see it from the retailers' perspective, they want to be given reasons why they can be fairly confident that the book is likely to sell. This could be because publicity has been secured with X number of magazines, newspapers, TV/media etc and, therefore, they can be fairly confident that X many people are likely to be aware of the book, which encourages sales.
What are endorsements?
Endorsements works in the same way in the fact that it is showing the retailer why the book is good. Endorsements provide concrete evidence from people who know more about the topic or genre that the retailer won't be wasting their money if they buy the book. Endorsements also work the same way for your target audience (and links to the reason why book reviews are so essential). It is giving credible proof to a reader, deciding between multiple titles of the same genre, why they might like that book.
Endorsements from friends/family are not possible, as they could obviously be incredibly biased! They are looking for endorsements from relatively well-known figures or sources. Endorsements also do not need to be by people necessarily connected to your genre; it is just figures that are seen as credible. It's the same reason why influencers have become so highly paid over the last few years! Influencers (especially on social media) build up a following and, if they endorse a product (or recommend a book, in this case) to their following, then chances are, it's likely to generate some sales.
Endorsements can be added to the book cover, inside pages, retail page (e.g. in the Amazon A+ Content and/or Editorial Reviews section) and/or shared on social media accounts.
What is a PR plan?
A PR plan is a specific list of media/journalist contacts that the PR company (or you with the assistance of the M&A team, explained later on) are looking to contact/have secured that will be assisting with the exposure of the book to generate sales. Often, authors work very hard on social media and in their local area to get readers for their books. That’s just as valuable for authors early in their writing careers as the work of PR professionals.
What can the Marketing & Aftercare Team do and what do they not do?
It is important to note that the Marketing & Aftercare Service is predominantly an advisory and support service, in order to help authors with their marketing efforts. In order to get the most out of the service, it is important to actively engage with the team and aim to carry out their suggestions. A lot of the focus is on assisting the author with building up a brand presence on Amazon, social media and online marketing methods.
Team are also trialling aspects of "hands-off" marketing, whereby they carry out some tasks (including social media/content creation) with minimal author input.
For the best impact, the Marketing & Aftercare Service should be used in conjunction either with a PR company or the author carrying out their own PR activities, but with the assistance of the Marketing Advisors.
For example, the Marketing Advisors can help you with how to go about contacting influencers and trying to obtain endorsements, as well as how you might go about contacting local newspaper/radio stations etc, however we would not contact these media outlets for you, as this is what a PR company does.
If a company tries to do too many things then they are a “jack of all trades, master of none”, which is why we work with other companies that are specialists in what they do, such as specific PR companies.
PR companies already have an existing network of media and journalism contacts that they can use to arrange publicity. They may arrange book tours, interviews, press releases and media attention. Their purpose is to tell the wider world about the publication of a new book and reach as reach as many potential readers as possible. It is more than possible for an author to do their own publicity, especially with the Marketing Advisors’ help however, if you do not want to do this yourself, we recommend you use a PR company. We work closely with a lot of PR companies and, as a Rowanvale published author, you will be entitled to a discount off their services.
If you do wish to obtain PR and endorsements yourself, then the M&A team can assist you in how might be the best way to do this (e.g. how to find people to endorse the book, how to contact local media etc).
Please follow this link for more details: https://www.rowanvalebooks.com/marketing-and-aftercare.html
The idea of the service is that it is designed to help ensure that authors get on track with their marketing and recoup the costs of their initial investment of publication. The team will assist you with your marketing efforts and, as every author and book are different, the marketing strategies for one book may be entirely different to that of another.
For instance, some authors require assistance with social media. Your Marketing Advisor could focus on this aspect and help you set up social media profiles, as well as discussing other forms of social media marketing, such as blogging and sending Mailchimp campaigns.
On the other hand, some authors prefer support in terms of more traditional methods, such as arranging book launches, providing guidance on approaching bookshops, sourcing book reviews, arranging press events etc.
We have specialists in the team focusing on the major social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube etc), those to assist with online marketing (blogging, author websites etc), and those to assist with offline marketing (advice on how to approach physical bookshops, libraries, author events etc).
As a company, we predominantly focus on pushing sales via Amazon and increasing a book up the Amazon rankings. This is because, especially after the pandemic, Amazon is by far the world’s largest bookstore and an author stands a much better chance at their book becoming a success by focusing their attentions first on Amazon and then on other retailers, once their book has a consistent track record of sales. Therefore, the team will often focus a lot of their efforts on helping you sell via this retailer, as this is where you are likely to get the quickest response in terms of recouping the costs of publication.
If you are interested in a hybrid package, including the potential of working with the sales agencies, one important thing to note is what the sales agencies will require from you and your book, how the Marketing & Aftercare team will be able to assist and what they will not be able to do. The sales agencies will require a PR plan and endorsements to help them pitch the book to physical retailers.
Why do the sales agencies require a PR plan and endorsements?
They want to give reasons to the retailer as to why the retailer would choose to order that particular title over another title of the same genre. This is especially important with first time and relatively unknown authors. If you see it from the retailers' perspective, they want to be given reasons why they can be fairly confident that the book is likely to sell. This could be because publicity has been secured with X number of magazines, newspapers, TV/media etc and, therefore, they can be fairly confident that X many people are likely to be aware of the book, which encourages sales.
What are endorsements?
Endorsements works in the same way in the fact that it is showing the retailer why the book is good. Endorsements provide concrete evidence from people who know more about the topic or genre that the retailer won't be wasting their money if they buy the book. Endorsements also work the same way for your target audience (and links to the reason why book reviews are so essential). It is giving credible proof to a reader, deciding between multiple titles of the same genre, why they might like that book.
Endorsements from friends/family are not possible, as they could obviously be incredibly biased! They are looking for endorsements from relatively well-known figures or sources. Endorsements also do not need to be by people necessarily connected to your genre; it is just figures that are seen as credible. It's the same reason why influencers have become so highly paid over the last few years! Influencers (especially on social media) build up a following and, if they endorse a product (or recommend a book, in this case) to their following, then chances are, it's likely to generate some sales.
Endorsements can be added to the book cover, inside pages, retail page (e.g. in the Amazon A+ Content and/or Editorial Reviews section) and/or shared on social media accounts.
What is a PR plan?
A PR plan is a specific list of media/journalist contacts that the PR company (or you with the assistance of the M&A team, explained later on) are looking to contact/have secured that will be assisting with the exposure of the book to generate sales. Often, authors work very hard on social media and in their local area to get readers for their books. That’s just as valuable for authors early in their writing careers as the work of PR professionals.
What can the Marketing & Aftercare Team do and what do they not do?
It is important to note that the Marketing & Aftercare Service is predominantly an advisory and support service, in order to help authors with their marketing efforts. In order to get the most out of the service, it is important to actively engage with the team and aim to carry out their suggestions. A lot of the focus is on assisting the author with building up a brand presence on Amazon, social media and online marketing methods.
Team are also trialling aspects of "hands-off" marketing, whereby they carry out some tasks (including social media/content creation) with minimal author input.
For the best impact, the Marketing & Aftercare Service should be used in conjunction either with a PR company or the author carrying out their own PR activities, but with the assistance of the Marketing Advisors.
For example, the Marketing Advisors can help you with how to go about contacting influencers and trying to obtain endorsements, as well as how you might go about contacting local newspaper/radio stations etc, however we would not contact these media outlets for you, as this is what a PR company does.
If a company tries to do too many things then they are a “jack of all trades, master of none”, which is why we work with other companies that are specialists in what they do, such as specific PR companies.
PR companies already have an existing network of media and journalism contacts that they can use to arrange publicity. They may arrange book tours, interviews, press releases and media attention. Their purpose is to tell the wider world about the publication of a new book and reach as reach as many potential readers as possible. It is more than possible for an author to do their own publicity, especially with the Marketing Advisors’ help however, if you do not want to do this yourself, we recommend you use a PR company. We work closely with a lot of PR companies and, as a Rowanvale published author, you will be entitled to a discount off their services.
If you do wish to obtain PR and endorsements yourself, then the M&A team can assist you in how might be the best way to do this (e.g. how to find people to endorse the book, how to contact local media etc).
Please follow this link for more details: https://www.rowanvalebooks.com/marketing-and-aftercare.html