This week JJ and Kelly talk sales conference and deliver some publishing real-ness. Also, yet more other podcast recommendations.
Show Notes
In addition to editorial, production, marketing, and publicity, publishing houses also have a sales force.
The sales force comprises of people who have accounts with various bookstores throughout the country, e.g. Barnes & Noble, indie bookstores, mystery bookstores, etc.
The responsibility of the sales force is the sell titles to these various accounts
When people in publishing refer to the "book buyer", they are not talk about the consumer; they are the people at bookstores who choose what books to carry in their inventory
Presentations at sales conference involve someone presenting the list of titles for a given season to the sales team including: title, synopsis, price, cover, blurbs, etc.
Lead Title
As much as we would love to believe this to be true, not all the publisher's resources are distributed equally across their lists
Every season, there are books designated as "lead titles"—the reasoning for the designation can be somewhat arbitrary, but can include books for which the publisher has paid a large advance, books that have inherently very commercial or sexy concepts, a book that is timely in some fashion, and for a myriad of other reasons
Lead titles receive the bulk of the advertising and marketing budgets, and often have their own dedicated teams in-house. Publicity and marketing can also be complemented and outsourced by the publisher to independent third-party companies who act as consultants.
What We're Reading
Red Rising and Golden Son by Pierce Brown
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Night Study and Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder
What We're Working On
Kelly is too busy with life to remember what she's working on
JJ is struggling with what she wants to write next and agonizing over which direction she wants her career to go
Off Menu Recommendations
Descendants of the Sun (K-drama)
That's all for this week! Next week we'll be talking about AUTHOR PLATFORM AND BRAND. As always, let us know if you have any questions!
23. Publishing 201: Sales Conference