Marketing an Academic Book

Academic General books are considered trade crossover books, and are primarily for sale through bookshops to individual purchasers. The sales of these are often, but not always, driven by review coverage.

Here's an example of what an academic marketing plan might look like:

• Review copy mailing to appropriate mainstream and academic media
   
• Bound proofs (galleys) mailed in advance of publication in US and UK (eproofs in Australia) where needed to potential reviewers
   
• Standalone email and/or feature in relevant subject-specific email campaigns sent to our database of contacts
   
•  Inclusion in catalogues sent to lecturers, libraries, library suppliers, reps/agents and bookshops
   
• Inclusion in subject-specific promotional pieces which are taken to conferences/events or inserted into delegate packs
   
• Books and/or single-title flyers sent to appropriate conferences/events. You can find a current list of conferences that Bloomsbury will be attending here
   
• Advance information sheet sent to sales representatives and agents
   
• We regularly feed out details of our books to all data providers and retail accounts
   
• Full catalogue page on our website, with digital preview
   
• Digital preview facility on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Google Book Search
   
•  Widget* available for distribution by author and to other interested parties (* a widget is a digital preview facility which typically displays a book jacket, prelims, table of contents and 20 to 30 pages of text, along with bibliographic data and purchase options for viewers.)
   
• Events: If there are any local bookstores or other venues interested in hosting an event for your book. Bloomsbury will make sure the bookstore or host organization knows how to order your book or will let you know how you can order your book at a 40% author discount. Bloomsbury will help to promote your event on across social media.
   
• NetGalley is an online community for sharing electronic galleys. Members are bloggers, freelance writers, librarians, and others who are interested in reading and reviewing books in electronic format, and writing reviews across platforms. Bloomsbury share a limited number of titles on NetGalley, depending on whether they believe there is interest amongst that community of readers.