Ellen Williams – Breadsong
- Huge internal ambitions and an incredible amount of passion for this debut
- Ellen wanted to create a pre-publication event in order to reach new and already established supporters
- As well as a food audience, Ellen wanted to reach a more general non-fiction audience
- Ellen set out clear campaign aims
- Give yourself a long lead time, treated the book like a fiction novel
- Unusually had proofs created for this non fiction book and sent them out really widely, to both food and general books press
- Secured reviews which is also not standard for cookery books
- Biggest asset was Kitty and Al
- Put a lot of effort into a pre pub media and retailer event, but it was at the time when events were only just starting back up
- Worked with Honey & Co who were early champions
- Wanted people to taste their bakes and also hear their stories
- This event paved the way for interviews across print and broadcast media
- Emphasis on the long tail of the campaign – story continued to touch people
- They saw a sales spike with every interview
- Used media to secure more media to lengthen the life of the campaign as they identified that story was connecting with people
- Challenges
- Two relatively unknown authors, one vulnerable young adult
- Communication – working around authors day job, work around what works for them
- Preparation is key – worked to eliminate potentially triggering subjects and made plans where necessary
- Key learning
- Working with a vulnerable author – utilised long lead time to build relationship, media training etc
Maria Garbutt-Lucero – East Side Voices
- First of its kind collection, drawing together East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) voices and identities in Britain
- Publicist worked tirelessly to convince the media that they should be taking notice of this title
- Passion project
- Usually not many PR opportunities or reviews available for anthologies
- Maria relied on the handy hook that ‘the media love a first’
- Wanted the book to be included at every major literary festival in the UK and major cultural institutions like Southbank
- Aiming for community specific PR – partnerships, getting the books to influencers, reaching ESEA community online etc
- Campaign aims
- Establishment
- Community specific
- Lasting impact
- Secured major national media (e.g. Guardian serial, reviews and roundups in Observer, TLS, New Statesmen, fashion page in Grazia)
- Biggest sales spike came off the back of BBC RADIO 4 Open Book
- Events throughout the year (pub was in Jan 2022) at Edinburgh, Hay, Cheltenham etc
- Maria was persistent with Southbank Centre and eventually secured an event around the paperback for ESEA Heritage Month in September
- Reached target demographics through podcasts
- One challenge Maria faced was that the proof jacket and hardback jacket ended up being quite different, so they missed out on brand continuity here. The proof and hardback was everywhere on socials, so they were tasked with marrying them up
- Became one of the best-selling anthologies of recent years
- Encountered resistance and apathy from some parts of the media
- Events were hard to come by for the HB thanks to pandemic hesitancy, so pivoted to bespoke events for paperback tour eg Toppings Bath hosted an event with wontons and yuzu cocktails as part of book&ticket offer
- Key learning – be ambitious about diverse authors, ignore traditional limitations
- ESEA Publishing Network – @eseapn on Insta & Twitter
- ESEA Lit Fest at Foyles (September 2024), submissions open in the new year – sign up to newsletter at esealitfest.com
Emily Marples – As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
- Campaign Aims
- Wanted a strong pre pub campaign – utilising industry press
- Cultivated a group of champions which resulted in social coverage
- Extensive press coverage
- Strategic events schedule
- Reaching a cross over audience
- Building a trusting relationship with debut author
- Achieve top 5 chart success for HB YA debut
- Submission form tips
- Kept it succinct
- Used testimonials
- Paragraph headers (e.g. Testimonials, Campaign with Visibility, Pre Publication, Media, Events, Conclusion / Looking Ahead)
- Use emotion in campaign statement, as well as sales graphs and stats, include new information
- Challenges
- Struggled to get interview coverage, but review coverage was strong. Felt it was important to get authors voice at the fore of the campaign so rallied for those first person / interview pieces
Alison Barrow – Lessons in Chemistry
- Acquired the book in October 2020 @ Frankfurt, many other publishers interested (16 other publishers)
- Had monthly meetings in house (sales, marketing, publicity, editorial and art) to ensure they were all aligned
- All teams have been consistent with their messaging and were able to do some via the iconic jacket
- Carried out a teaser campaign, had an early limited proofs run which was a year out from publication in 2021
- Didn’t have any book comps so focused on the strong character of Elizabeth
- They don’t turn down anyone for a reading copy when they requested, even to this day. If someone shows interest in reading they will receive, and it hasn’t impacted book sales
- In October 2021, Alison had a meeting with The Bookseller. This resulted in Alice wanting to interview the author
- They were publishing 8 debuts around the same time as Lessons in Chemistry, so faced internal challenges too, but made sure they flagged with the press and media this was the one to watch
- Waterstones immediately showed interest in championing
- Between the Covers, BBC Radio 2 book club, Guardian etc all secured
- Had a meeting with Amanda Ross
- Sent You Magazine a box of 10 copies, chose Bonnie as first ever debut novelist to be on the cover of the magazine
- Hay 3 weeks after YOU mag and Cheltenham followed
- Author has been key – American but lives in London
- The team really tapped into elements beyond the book – appealed to rowing, science and cooking audiences.
- Author is doing a talk to society of Chemistry. Really made the most of every single angle
- Key to campaigns success:
- Communication
- Confidence
- Consistency
- Build
- Reward (signed HB copies for bloggers, packs for booksellers etc)
- Biggest takeaway for Alison was leaning in to it being a word of mouth success
- Big interview with Bonnie for Guardian in a couple of weeks’ time