1. University of Washington Press
MARK ET ING GU ID E
We in the University of Washington Press Marketing Department are very excited to be
working with you!
Alice Herbig, Marketing Manager
aherbig@u.washington.edu
Rachael Levay, Sales and Publicity Manager
remann@u.washington.edu
Phoebe Daniels, Assistant Marketing Manager
phoebea@u.washington.edu
Beth Fuget, Exhibits
bfuget@u.washington.edu
Kathleen Pike Jones, Website
kpike@u.washington.edu
Although every book we publish is unique and presents special opportunities and challenges for us as
we try to define and reach its market, we will use traditional and innovative marketing channels to
successfully launch your book. With your knowledge, reputation, and connections within your
specialized field, you are our greatest marketing asset. By sharing this description of our procedures,
we hope that you will better able to help us identify ways of promoting your book. We work closely
with the editorial and production departments and watch your book’s schedule as we begin our
marketing plan. We hope that you’ll help us to promote and market your book in advance of its
expected arrival date.
The marketing questionnaire that accompanies this letter updates the information you provided in the
acquisitions questionnaire and springboards our marketing effort. Please fill it out as thoroughly as
possible. The questions we ask are intended to get you to begin thinking about ways we can promote
and sell your book, but also to give us a starting place for our plans. We will be glad to discuss with
you any ideas or questions you might have at any time.
What we do
BOOK ANNOUNC EMENT
We announce each book in multiple ways to reach the widest possible audience, including in our
seasonal catalog, on our website, Facebook page, and on Amazon.com and other internet retailers, in
addition to brick-and-mortar bookstores.
SEASONAL CA TALOG
We publish two seasonal catalogs a year in print and digital forms. The Spring/Summer edition is
issued in December and contains all the books we plan to bring out between February and July. The

2. Fall/Winter catalog comes out in May and includes the books we expect to publish from August
through January. The seasonal catalog is sent to libraries, booksellers, book reviewers, book jobbers,
and individuals worldwide. Our domestic and foreign sales representatives also use the catalog to
present your book to booksellers.
W EB S IT E
On our website we display our books with images and promote them with descriptions, digital
materials like videos and podcasts, quotes from specialists in your field, and review excerpts. The site
is linked to other social media sites and announces new titles as well as author events. Our website is
updated regularly to contain current information like new review excerpts and other marketing
materials as we receive them. We also link to other websites when possible, and encourage our
authors to link to our site as well.
R EV IEW S
We take great care to develop the most appropriate list of media to receive a review copy of your book.
We strongly encourage you to give us suggestions of appropriate review media, including electronic
media, on your marketing questionnaire—this information is extremely valuable to us. If you have
friends or colleagues who are in the media, we will be happy to send them a review copy and
encourage them to have the book reviewed in their publication. You will be sent a copy of your book’s
review list before review copies are made mailed. We will coordinate traditional media interviews
with you, as well as less traditional media, such as book blogs. We also supply text and images for
excerpts and/or reviews. When we receive them, we will send you print or electronic tear sheets of
your reviews as soon as possible and recommend you forward reviews to us as you encounter them.
D IR E C T MAR K ET IN G
We find the Internet is the most effective way to reach our targeted audiences and e-mail contacts are
more effective and efficient than mailing addresses. We have a strong e-mail contact program
through which we send colorful, inviting announcements. We also send them to listservs and e-mail
lists (friends, family, colleagues, and other prospective buyers) that you provide and that are created
in our office specifically for your book. When necessary, we are happy to create a paper flyer for your
book. We also print subject catalogs to distribute at scholarly meetings and other events. In addition,
we publish a monthly e-newsletter; we’ll add you to the recipient list.
INTER NET MARK ET IN G
We are constantly exploring new ways to reach and expand our audience via the Internet. Our
Internet marketing efforts include our website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, podcasts, and other
social media pages. We make a huge effort to see that our books are listed accurately with online
booksellers, but please e-mail us if you find any errors. To support the information that we provide to
online vendors, we recommend authors create author pages and add their photo, bio, and any other
possible materials of interest (such as links to trailers, webpages, blogs, etc.). Author pages are not
accessible to your publicist.
EXHIB ITS AND ADV ER T IS IN G
We attend a number of meetings of scholarly associations each year where we exhibit appropriate
titles. We also send books through Scholar’s Choice and other exhibit services to more than 100
additional conferences. We place ads in the programs of all scholarly meetings we attend, and
advertise in appropriate media as our budget allows. In addition to scholarly meetings, we regularly

3. attend and meet with booksellers and other publishers at regional, national, and international trade
shows.
E V ENT S
We are happy to set up events at bookstores and can also help provide book sales and order forms for
events in other settings such as lectures, library talks, community group meetings, and book fairs. We
encourage you to provide us with details on venues that might be appropriate for book events both in
your local communities and in cities you will be visiting.
A WARDS
Please let us know on your marketing questionnaire what awards you feel are appropriate for your
book. Deadlines vary greatly for these and we require significant advance notice to submit your book,
so the earlier we can get that information, the better we’ll be able to handle your award submissions.
TRA D E SELLIN G
We are very proud of our strong sales force that calls on booksellers throughout the world at least
twice a year. All of our books are presented to independent bookstores, chain stores (such as Barnes
& Noble), Internet retailers (like Amazon), and wholesalers. Although we can’t guarantee that every
book we publish will be stocked in every bookstore, we make a great effort to see that booksellers
know about our books, and we try to find and nurture outlets that specialize in the kinds of books we
publish.
What you can do in addition to
filling out the Marketing Questionnaire
Many of these things will greatly improve your book’s chance of reaching interested readers, so please
consider trying some of these ideas:
Join online listservs (e.g., H-Net), newsgroups, or forums in your field to become part of the
discussion/community. When your book is published, post information about your book on the
listservs. A posting should contain a brief description of the book and a link to the book’s page on our
website. It is always best to check the etiquette of such forums to be sure they allow for book
announcements—some do not. For example, authors, but not publishers, can submit notices about
their book publication to H-Net.
Contact your university news bureau and your alumni associations to encourage them to
include information about your new book on their websites and in their publications.
Write op-ed pieces relating to your book’s subject matter for your school paper, local paper, the
Chronicle of Higher Education, online newsletters like Inside Higher Education, and blogs that deal
with your book’s subject matter. Or consider an essay in an appropriate magazine or journal.
Social media is a good way to share your book with your friends, family, and colleagues and
requires little technological know-how or maintenance. The Press uses Facebook, Twitter, and
YouTube and linking to us can increase traffic to your book page on our site. Some other sites include
Shelfari, Goodreads, and Library Thing. Many publications and bookstores have accounts on these

4. sites and you may be able to reach reviewers or store buyers if you join as an author. We can provide
you more information and guidance if you want help joining any of these sites.
We also recommend creating a book trailer or podcast for use online. These needn’t be as complex
as movie trailers, and we can use them in many ways (in our digital catalog, on Amazon.com, our
website, your website or blog, YouTube.com, and other sites). See our YouTube site for examples at:
www.youtube.com/users/UWashingtonPress
Frequently Asked Questions
SHOULD I STAR T A WEBSITE OR B L O G T O P R OM OT E MY B O OK?
Of course a website for your book would be wonderful, but not everyone has the ability to create and
maintain a site, or hire a webmaster to do so. Blogs can be very beneficial to your book’s success, but
this is only true if you are already part of an online community or have access to one. Additionally,
blogs require regular updates. Readers must come to your blog and, while we will gladly add your
blog to your book’s webpage and include it any electronic announcements we make, you would still
need to connect to other online readers (whether academics, general readers, media writers, etc.).
SHOULD I DIR ECT BUY ERS TO THE PR ESS, AMAZON, OR A BOOKSTORE?
You can direct buyers to our website or any retail bookseller, whether online or brick-and-mortar. Not
all local bookstores will carry your book, but customers asking about it can encourage stores to keep
it stocked. If you have a webpage or blog, please be sure to add links to your book’s page on the
Press’s website, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and IndieBound.org, a website for independent
bookstores.
CAN THE PRESS MAK E USE OF PODCASTS?
Absolutely! If you already have podcasts concerning your work or related to the book, or have the
ability to create one, we can use it in many places throughout our website and in our promotions.
W HA T ELS E C A N I D O TO H EL P MY B O OK?
Any attention to your book will help, so please alert the listservs of which you’re a member, tell
colleagues, consider it for your own course use, and keep us informed about the academic meetings
you’ll be attending so we can do our best to get your book there.
There are hundreds of thousands of books published every year and university press titles sometimes
have particular niches. We hope this basic description of marketing activities gives you an idea of
what we do to reach the audiences for the books we publish. By no means do we limit ourselves to the
areas discussed, and we welcome your suggestions for promoting your book because we believe that
the publishing process is not complete until the book is in the hands of the interested reader.