Author Marketing Toolkit

Once your book has been published, the marketing department will work with you to make your book discoverable. Whilst we're here to offer a helping hand and advise you every step of the way, there are many things that you (and your book's contributors) can do to help to ensure that your book fulfils its full potential.

The list below isn't exhaustive, but contains suggestions for things that are proven to have an impact on your book's visibility.

To find out more about how your work is distributed and marketed (both in open access formats and print)  with UCL Press, download our guide about how we distribute and market our books.

 

Before Publication

Make sure you complete and return your marketing questionnaire

• This gives us essential information about who the target readership is and how to reach them from the expert- you! If you haven't received a marketing questionnaire, or would like to discuss it further, please contact Alison Fox.

Gather endorsements

• An endorsement (or two!) from an important figure in your field can be useful for scholars trying to look for new and interesting works. 

Go social?

• Some authors and editors find it helps to tweet or post about their book throughout the process. We don't ask our authors to do this, but some authors find that it does help to establish a social media presence before your book is published. 
• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

After Publication

Have a launch party/event

• Launch events are a good way to publicise a new book with those who will find it most interesting. A launch can include presentations by the author and their co-authors or simply be a celebration. Contact us to discuss how we can support a launch event.

Talk to your department/faculty/university's communications team

• The communications team at your university take great pride in showcasing the interesting work that's taking place- make sure they know about yours! If you're a UCL researcher whose work has the potential to reach wider audiences, you can let UCL Communications and Marketing know by filling in this form.
• Even if your department does not have a communications team, there's still much you can do. Find out more about opportunities to post on your department's website or blog, and ask your colleagues to post information about the book on social media.
• If you're a UCL author and your work is relevant to UCL's Grand Challenges, let the team know.

Check that your institution's library is aware of the book

• Send our library recommendation form to alert your librarian/information specialist.
• This is especially important if you've written a book that will be core reading for any courses you teach.

Use your contacts!

• Email colleagues and collaborators- both in your department, and outside- who are likely to be interested in your book.
• If you're an active member of any listservs or email groups, make sure that you post an announcement about your book (make sure you mention that it's open access, and include a link!)

Conferences

• Make the most of any conferences that you attend by mentioning your book to colleagues. If you're presenting, make sure you include information about the book in your slides
• If there is the potential for further marketing activity at a conference you're speaking at (e.g. inserts into delegate bags, advertisements etc), please let us know

Online promotion

• Join Kudos. A recent study has shown that explaining and sharing via Kudos takes on average 10 minutes and leads to 23% higher growth in full-text downloads.
• Update your online profiles. Add your book to the publications listed on your institutional research profile, in addition to updating your publications list on  ResearchGate or Academia.edu. If you're a UCL researcher, please update your IRIS profile.
• Sites such as The Conversation and Hipporeads actively work with researchers to highlight interesting and engaging stories about their work. Find out more about writing for The Conversation here, and about working with Hipporeads here
• If you have a personal website or blog, post about your book. Blog posts can also be posted to sites such as Medium.com and added to our blog for maximum exposure!
• If you have an active social media profile, use it to share your work. Make sure to amplify your efforts by using appropriate hashtags (e.g. #twitterstorians is a well known hashtag for history-related information on Twitter, and #openaccess helps to indicate that your book is free to download).