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| Murder Must Advertise |
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Promoting a Reissue According to Princeton University’s wordnet website, a reissue is “a publication (such as a book) that is reprinted without changes or editing and offered again for sale.” We’re all familiar with such reissues—many of the classics you read in high school or college were reprints of much older works, often in modern editions with jazzy covers. But today, it’s not just John Steinbeck or Pearl S. Buck who are coming out in new editions. According to Jeffrey Marks, MMA moderator and author of Intent to Sell and Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography, reissues are “becoming a more common occurrence, as some micro-presses don't last and books are later reprinted by another press.” In my case, my first publisher, Haworth Press, focused on academic books, with a small fiction imprint. When the press was sold, the new owners discontinued the fiction line, leaving Mahu homeless. I was fortunate that Alyson Books decided to continue my series—and even luckier that they offered to bring the first book back into print. If you’re on the required reading list of a high school or college, you won’t have to do a thing to promote that reissue. But if you’re a contemporary mystery novelist, and one or more of your books are returning to print after a hiatus, what can you do to celebrate that event—and more important, to sell books? Many of the typical promotional activities for a new book aren’t going to work. Your friends and devoted fans have the book and have seen you give a reading at your local bookstore. You won’t be able to get reviews for a reissue, and you probably will get little or no press coverage. But there are things you can do. One of the first steps is a press release or informational letter announcing the re-release. Jeff Marks says, “It's important for [bookstores] to know that this is a re-issue so they can order copies, and not think that it's the old out-of-print edition which they could not order.” Make sure to highlight the new publisher and ISBN. If a whole series is coming back into print, let these potential buyers and sellers know the timetable. Libby Fisher Hellmann, author of Easy Innocence, agrees that it’s important to communicate new information to bookstores. Poisoned Pen Press is bringing back her Ellie Foreman titles, out of print in their original mass market format, in trade paperback. They’re publishing them one at a time, to coordinate with Hellman’s new releases. “I try to make sure the booksellers have the reprint on hand as well as the new one,” she says. Carola Dunn, author of the Daisy Dalrymple series, adds another step to her communication about re-releases. “I make sure bookstores where I'm signing know that the backlist is available again, and when I send out an email to my fanlist about a new book, I mention it.” You can use an email blast to announce a re-release even if you don’t have a new book out at the time. I’ve heard from many fans who have bought my later books but were unable to get reasonably priced copies of Mahu once it went out of print. This is a built-in market—they’re waiting for the book, but you’ve got to tell them that it’s available. Join email-based lists and groups that might have an interest in your books. The best mystery list is the DorothyL list; there are Yahoo and Google groups on mysteries, too, as well as many others for fans of hobbies, activities and places. I belong to a group of gay surfers in Hawaii; not only have I gotten fans from this list, I’ve been able to get advice from people who know what I’m writing about. Be careful to avoid too much BSP (blatant self-promotion). My strategy is to post regularly about books I’ve read and mystery-related news I find online, often with a brief note about upcoming appearances or new book releases. I make sure that my website address and re-release information are in my signature line. Giveaways and contests can be good ideas, too. In my case, I’m hoping to use DorothyL to promote a contest for free copies of the reissue—and hope to get new fans for the whole series that way. You can also run a contest on your website, or give away books at fan sites like Author Island. Jinx Schwartz, author of the award-winning Hetta Coffey series, says, “I give away a lot of review copies, which has garnered me a following.” Another cost-effective strategy is the blog book tour. Set up a series of guest appearances on mystery blogs around the time of your re-release. This gives you the opportunity to reach the fans of other mystery writers—and frees them up from the obligations of daily blogging, while giving them fresh content. Look for group blogs, because they’re often most open to guest blogs, and consider the tone of the blog and the kinds of books written by the bloggers. You want to find the best match for your voice and your books. You can also look for other ways to use what you write to promote your work. For example, I have been writing author interviews for a succession of websites, following my editor as he moves from site to site. He’s now at Advocate.com, so my interviews will be published there. I hope to draw some of those readers to my books. I also have stories coming out in three anthologies this year, and in my bio for each book I’m listing all my titles. Take advantage of new technology, too. Are you on Twitter, for example? According to their home page, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” Of course, what you’re going to be doing most of the time is writing, right? But when you’ve got that reissue to promote, these ideas can help you get the word out.
Neil Plakcy is the Lambda-finalist author of Mahu (returning to print in March 2009), Mahu Surfer, and Mahu Fire. His fourth book, Mahu Vice, will be out in August 2009. Find him at http://www.mahubooks.com.
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| Site sponsored by
Jeffrey Marks. |
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