Marketing & Publicity: How You Can Help

Congratulations on becoming an I.B.Tauris author. Our Marketing and Publicity departments are looking forward to the publication of your new book. Here are a few ways in which you can help with the promotion.

The Marketing Questionnaire

A marketing questionnaire will be emailed to you prior to publication. This will ask you for details about you, your forthcoming book, and any ideas or contacts that you may have, which will help us market the book effectively.

The marketing questionnaire is extremely important and will affect that success of your book. Please fill it in promptly, providing as much information as you can. This will help us shape the marketing and publicity campaign for your book, and ensure that we do not overlook any opportunities.

If you haven’t received your questionnaire or you have mislaid it, please contact Dawn Rey or Katherine Tulloch to request another one.

Reviews

We will draw up a review list for your book based on the information you give us in your marketing questionnaire, and existing contacts in our publicity database. If you have contacts or colleagues who work in the media, make sure you provide their contact details in your marketing questionnaire so that we can get in touch.

Please bear in mind that scholarly journals may take between 6 months and 2 years to review books.

For questions about reviews, please contact our publicist Antonia Leslie.

Book launches

If you are planning to host your own book launch, please let us know in plenty of time so that we can provide you with marketing materials and copies of your books for sale at a discounted event price.

Marketing Materials

Just before publication, you will be asked by our marketing team whether you’d like to receive flyers to hand out to friends and colleagues. The flyer shows the cover image along with information about the book and details of a 30% special discount. If your book is due to be published soon and you haven’t been contacted by the marketing team, you can request marketing materials by contacting Dawn Rey or Katheine Tulloch.

Conferences

If you're planning to attend or speak at a conference, please let us know. We can help you promote your book by providing flyers and leaflets, and by offering conference delegates discounts on your book. Contact Dawn Rey or Katherine Tulloch to let us know about upcoming conferences and to request marketing materials.

Please note: to ensure that we have sufficient time to organise marketing materials, we require at least two weeks’ notice.

Online Marketing

Website

Your book will be added to the I.B.Tauris website automatically, and we will try to promote your book on the website homepage and subject homepages. You can become involved in this by taking part in an interview, writing a short article on your subject, or by helping us to devise an interesting feature based around your book.

New Book Alerts

Every new book that we publish is included in our New Book Alerts. These are monthly, subject-specific emails with details of new and forthcoming books. If you’re not already signed up to these, you can do so quickly and easily from our New Book Alerts page.

Social Networks

I.B.Tauris has a presence on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Scribd, and we will use these to promote your book. If you also have an account on any of these, or other, social networks, do get in touch to let us know. If you have contacts with a large social media presence, you could suggest that they mention your book, or provide us with their details for us to contact them.

If you don’t have an account on a social network, you may like to consider setting one up. These are very popular sites, with large, receptive audiences, and they offer enormous opportunities for promoting your book. This form of marketing does need to be approached carefully though, so consider contacting Thomas Abbs, for help and advice with this.

Blogs

Blogs can be one of the most effective ways of promoting your book to potential readers and book buyers. If you already have an established blog, then this is an excellent place to promote your book. Similarly if any of your contacts are well-respected or prolific bloggers, it would be worth asking them to review your book.

Author/Book Websites

As a general rule, we do not suggest creating a stand-alone website for your book, since these often lack sufficient content to make them attractive or useful to readers. We prefer to create promotional pages and micro-sites for books on the I.B.Tauris website. If you already have a website however, or an institutional webpage, make sure you add a link to your book.

However, a website may be worth considering if you have written several books, wish to keep a regular blog, or have lots of extra content that would help promote your book(s). Please contact Thomas Abbs to discuss whether a website would be worthwhile for your book, and for help and advice with setting up and building a website.

For questions about online marketing, or for advice on your own website, blog or social network presence, please contact Thomas Abbs.

Marketing & Publicity outside the UK

We send review copies and promotional material to publications around the world, and often use our distributors in various countries to cover relevant regions. If you live or have a substantial number of contacts outside the UK, please make this clear straight away to the marketing and publicity departments. I.B.Tauris titles are normally distributed and marketed in North America by Palgrave Macmillan. If you are a North American author, or have a substantial number of contacts in North America, we can put you in touch with Palgrave Macmillan to arrange North American marketing and publicity.

Keep your details up to date

It is important that we have up to date contact details for all our authors. If any of your contact details change, please contact marketing@ibtauris.com to let us know.

Author Discount

Shortly before your book is published, you will receive your Author Discount Card. This will allow you to claim your author discount when ordering online or by telephone. If you haven't received your discount card yet, or you have lost your card, please contact marketing@ibtauris.com to request a new card.

Promotional checklist

Fill in your marketing questionnaire: Make sure you do this in good time, providing as much detailed information as you can.
Stay in touch with I.B.Tauris: Let us know about any events you’re attending so we can help you publicise these on- and offline, provide you with marketing materials, and arrange for copies of your book to be on sale.
Keep your audience in mind: Promotion of your book will be most successful if it is targeted at an audience with a strong interest in its subject matter, and with a good reason to buy it. Make sure you make the most of any promotional opportunities by thinking carefully about who you want to approach, and the best way of approaching them.
Set up an Amazon Author Page: You can set up a personal profile of yourself on Amazon for free, which will be visible to anyone browsing the Amazon site. This is an excellent way to gain extra exposure on one of the world’s biggest websites. More details.
Blog about your book: If you’re a blogger, don’t forget to mention your book. If you read other relevant blogs, if may be possible to initiate conversations about your book, or ask other bloggers to review the book.
Discuss your book online: If you’re a member of any online forums or email lists, or you know of any that may be interested in your book, you may be able to raise your book in the discussion. Contact the moderator to check that they’re happy for you to do this.
Set up links to your book: Set up a link to your book’s page on the I.B.Tauris website in your email signature. If you already have a website, make sure that you mention the book on your site, and provide a link to the I.B.Tauris website. We can provide you with cover graphics, a 3D image of your book, and a PDF extract to help bring your book to life.
Ask your library or university bookshop about ordering your book.

Who to Contact in Marketing & Publicity

Dawn Rey | Senior Marketing Executive

Flyers, marketing materials and catalogue enquiries in the following subjects:

Middle East
Politics
Visual Culture
Tauris Parke Paperbacks

Katherine Tulloch | Marketing Executive