A look at pitch letters and personas.

1. Pub600: The Marketing Playbook
Presented September 17, 2012
Agenda
Review Assignments
Break
Prepare Presentations

2. On the death of book publishers and
other middlemen [Gigaom.com]
The End of an Era inPublishing [New York Times]
Publishing Industry: Dead or Alive?
[Forbes]
Last class we talked
about how publishing isn’t
dead. It’s just that the market
has changed.

3. Who am I?
Successful
marketing is dependent on
digital marketing and the ability
to deliver effective
marketing at scale.

4. The explosion of social media tools
in the last 10 years shifts the power from
companies to consumers.There is an infinite
number of tools and channels.
The key to selling cultural products is to put the
right message in front of the right person at
the right time.

5. 1. Audience
2. Truth
3. Positive Tone
4. Minimalist
5. Promise
5 traits to consider:
Know your audience, craft marketing
messages that ring true, are positive in tone,
get to the point and present the benefits
to the reader, reviewer, etc.

6. What resonated with you
Useful (promised msg is valuable to reader)
Ultra-specific (know what’s being promised)
Urgent (need to take action now)
Last class you looked
for marketing messages that
stood out.They tended to
have these 3 things.

7. What makes a good pitch letter?
• Dear Name (Name is spelled correctly, Name is the name of the blogger or media
person. It’s personalized, never Dear Blogger)
• You’ve checked the About page and search for “Pitch Policy” or “Review Policy,”
PR, publicist--confirmed the person is open to pitches. If not, be prepared to be
embarrassed online with a rant.
• The title is spelled correctly, i.e., Long Gone Man not Lone Gone Man. The author
name is spelled correctly, Shawn Soole and Nate Caudle not Shawn Solle or Nate
Claudle.
• You’ve included a link for more details: publisher detail page, author website, press
release link, etc.
• Call to action: You have included the “ask” or clearly articulated what you are
offering and how you want them to respond.
• You have provided a closing and signature with your contact details.

8. Assignment: 2-4 Pages. Due Sept 22.
Choose 1 of the 2 titles from last class and write a marketing plan for it.
In general: you want to get coverage for the book online and offline; you want sales
Figure out who audience is for the book in order to figure out what sales channels are best.
• Persona worksheet (revise as needed)
Goals: sales and things that lead to sales, be specific in your plan
• Take a guess at how many copies you want to sell.
Bestseller fiction 5K, nonfiction 10K
• 10% of net revenue will be the top-end of your marketing budget
• Provide examples and goals.
• If it’s media outreach, list the publications/URLs, est. # articles.
Random got 15 articles on last year’s Hazlit announcement.

9. Document Structure
• Title and Author
• Publication Date if specified. Retail Price.
• Estimated marketing budget based on 10% of net revenue (estimated sales)
• Summary of description = pitch letter (so what, hook, key details)
• Summary of audience (key bullet points)
• 1 paragraph Overall Strategy (big picture what are you going to do and why
does it make business sense to do that)
• Sketch out the plan in as much detail as possible: Prior to Pub, Launch Date,
Post Pub, provide grid view
• Clearly identify the sales channels or tools you’ll use (online/offline)
• Bookseller / Media / Libraries / Reader
• Estimate cost for each tactic (stay w/in budget)

10. Marketing Plan Examplehttp://bit.ly/marketingplan-example

11. Presentations Next Week Class: Sept 19
In groups: Review the Reverse Engineer Marketing Plan
worksheet and create a 20-min presentation on the company and
tool for Sept 19. Details: http://bit.ly/reverseplan-pub600

12. Questions?
Contact Info
Monique Sherrett
monique@boxcarmarkting.com
778-837-9012