PROJECTS
With a book of our choosing, we were tasked with coming up with concepts for a promotional book box mailing to booksellers and influencers, focusing on the core audience, top selected influencers, and why each promotional item was picked. I chose Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter, creating a 2 tier mailing of items ranging from a special edition book, initial letter necklace, baseball jersey, book playlist poster, miniature toy car replicas, and annotation kit (tier 1) to a special edition book, initial letter necklace, headphones decoration kit, book playlist art card, annotation kit, and laptop stickers (tier 2).
As a final project for the course, we were assigned with creating a book tour, author event itinerary, pitch to a bookstore, and a digital event kit of 3-5 materials or reproducible activities for stores. Alongside the final project's materials, we were also assigned with a presentation and final essay explaining why each bookstore was chosen and the expected results of the author tour. I selected For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga and produced discussion questions, a praise sheet, a sell sheet, a marketing letter, an Instagram story graphic, and a Twitter graphic as my materials.
Children's Publishing
Final Project: Author Tour
For the summer 2024 semester, all interns were tasked with learning and understanding the full lifecycle of a book and applying these learnings to pitch and present their project to a panel of judges. My group was tasked with the creation and launch of an imprint under Macmillan by looking at the competitive business cycle, corporate publishing industry, and any potential gaps in the market. Thus, "Mosaic Press" was pitched to company executives as an imprint focused on translations catered to marginalized voices. I was in charge of the entire business plan and shared marketing sections as collaborative efforts.
Within groups, we were tasked with creating a sample marketing plan (title marketing, publicity, school & library marketing), a press release, and pitch to send to key media outlets for Flamboyants: the Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known by George M. Johnson, a nonfiction YA fall 2024 lead title. I was in charge of the entire marketing plan while my groupmates tackled the pitch and press release.
Children's Publishing
Marketing Project
For the duration of the class's entire semester, we chose a specific brand in groups to focus on building a rebrand for. My final result contribution was our entire brand book for our semester's brand, Repetto, a designer French shoe company specializing in ballet shoes. This brand book includes everything from our final recommendations to Repetto's brand appeal and aesthetics, and even their commitment to social responsibility and diversity.
For the duration of the class's entire semester, we were put into groups - romance, children's, short story fiction, LGBTQ+ memoir, travel memoir - and tasked with producing our own fictional publishing houses. Every group was given a previously published manuscript, and charged with republishing and fixing any errors. Within my group (romance,) we created Liaison Press, and completed assignments within acquisitions, editing, design & production, marketing & publicity, distribution & sales, and finance & legal. Examples of this work include a title fact sheet, author contract summary, comparative analysis chart, letter to the author, production schedule, press release, advance book information/BISAC, distribution plan, profit and loss statement, copyright form, and publication plan.
Object of assignment was to profile a book publishing house, learning how to research publishers to get to know more about them and whether we would want to work for them. Mainly broken down into the origins of the company, its present condition, and where it currently stands in the marketplace. I chose Entangled Publishing, LLC, focusing mainly on how its marketing strategy differs from a traditional model, specifically on digital marketing and emerging trends.
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History & Mission: Founding (founder, year, why it came into being), some of its early successes or what made it stand out, major milestones, important books or authors that put the company on the map, and mission statement.
Current Structure & Funding: Present structure of publishing house (as many publishing companies are consolidated and have multiple imprints and divisions), sales analysis, trade versus academic, description of what types of books each imprint publishes, and how they fit into the greater goals of the company alongside their larger parent corporation.
The Lists: Assessment of how publisher is performing in the marketplace, bestseller analysis, self-publishing vs traditional publishing model, niche/genre publishing, formatting (HC, PB, MM), cover style, and how company is performing as a whole and what this might mean for its future.
Book Publishing Essentials
Publisher Profile: Entangled
For the sake of this class, we were assigned the concept of developing a crowdfunding-based publishing project. Divided into the sections of scouting our authors, publication description, packaging & design, marketing & retail, budget, and crowdfunding campaign, my group decided on creating a poetry book for famous TikTok authors Reva, @painonpapier, and M, @s4dg1rlpoetry.