Whether you’ve just put the finishing touches on your first book or have been down this road before, you’re probably eager to see what you can do to help promote your book to as many people as possible. Here is some information about the kinds of things we will be doing to promote your book and some suggestions about the ways you can help.
Digital Marketing
Social Media
At UTP, we are always closely studying the social media landscape and adjusting our digital strategy in order to ensure that our books end up in front of intellectually curious customers. We are currently active on the following social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. In addition to promoting your book on these platforms, we are happy to work with you to help amplify your own social media posts about your book.
We encourage you to review our Social Media Guidelines for more information on how you can help to promote your own work via social media.
We welcome input from authors about the social media accounts and trends that are most relevant to your book projects and online communities!
Website Book Page
Each book is featured and available for sale on our website: utorontopress.com. We include information such as: book description, author profile, table of contents, reviews, downloads and links, etc. Each month our website gets tens of thousands of views. UTP also invests in search engine marketing and optimization to help reach the widest range of potential readers in the US and Canada. Make sure to include our website URL in everything, including your email signature. If you see an issue on your book’s webpage, please email your marketing manager and your editorial team ASAP. We can work together in our database to correct the metadata.
Email Newsletters
UTP sends out email newsletters to our internal contact database featuring new publications, blog posts, and other content we think is valuable to our audience. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters so you can stay in the know and see when we feature your book. Also encourage other readers to sign up for our newsletters.
Amazon and Goodreads
Amazon is an important platform for your book – not only do more people than ever use the site to make book purchases, but Amazon also serves as a search engine and is often the first place readers learn about new books. That means it’s important to make sure the Amazon page for your book is as clear and informative as possible, which we work hard to accomplish. The same is true of Goodreads – many readers turn to Goodreads first to discover new books to read, so we are careful to maintain curated pages for each of our books.
Amazon and Goodreads both offer author profiles, and filling these out can be helpful in two important ways. These profiles can help readers learn more about you, and they can also help your book gain more visibility. When an author profile is filled out, a book has better chances of appearing in searches across different platforms.
If you are posting information about your book online or sharing a link with friends and family, always share the link to your book’s Amazon page. The more people visit a book’s Amazon page, the more Amazon’s algorithms recognize its popularity – this will help the book have priority placement in searches, and could even prompt Amazon to order more stock to meet demand.
Claiming your profile is easy: both Amazon and Goodreads offer simple instructions. To fill out your author profile, follow the instructions provided by Amazon and the Goodreads Author Program page.
Other Initiatives
Awards
Award submissions can be a great way to promote, receive recognition, and arouse interest in your book, while also helping facilitate the scholarly circulation of your work within academic associations. UTP will submit your book for awards on your behalf. We appreciate hearing about awards for which our authors may be eligible. When you complete you Author Information Sheet, please list any specialty awards that pertain to your area of publication.
If you have won an award, let us know! We want the world to know when your work is being recognized! We’ll post the award to our website and share the news within our networks and on social media.
Academic Journal Reviews
Our publicist announces forthcoming books to our media contacts around the world by sending them our catalogs and inviting them to request copies of the books they are keen to review. We also meet with high-profile media contacts twice a year to talk about our forthcoming books and to personally recommend books for review.
For each book, we compile a list of contacts: an appropriate combination of journals, journalists, and academics that are just right for your book’s target audience. This means that your book will be sent to a well-curated list. For some books we also email press releases and targeted pitches.
You will be asked to complete an Author Information Sheet (AIS). This form gives you the opportunity to share any suggestions for publications, journals, or special contacts that you think should receive a copy of your book.
Interviews
Your publicist can help coordinate interviews with radio programs, podcasts, and print outlets. Keep an eye on the news cycle and be thinking about where your work fits in. Reach out to your publicist to discuss any opportunities that arise.
Listen to public radio programs and podcasts that you would like to be interviewed on to get a feel for their content and style. Share this list with your publicist so they can reach out.
If you have clips of previous media appearances and interviews, share these with your publicist. It’s easier for us to book you for interviews if producers have an opportunity to listen to your previous interviews and determine that you would be a good guest on their show.
Events
A large part of promoting your book is done through author events and speaking engagements. We highly encourage our authors to set up events and speaking engagements well in advance of your publication date as soon as you are aware of that date. Events should be scheduled for after your book’s pub date to ensure you will have copies of the book there. UTP will support your efforts in any and all ways possible.
Try to focus your efforts on scheduling events that have a built-in audience, i.e. college campuses, libraries, historical societies, professional associations, community organizations, government agencies, etc.
When you have an event confirmed, please alert your publicist to your schedule. Include in the email the date, time, address, and event coordinator’s name and email address. We will be in touch with the coordinator about coordinating our marketing and publicity efforts for the event and will try to arrange for a bulk sale.
Book Flyers
UTP will create a custom book flyer for your book which has your book’s cover, description, price, ISBN, your biography, and other data on it. Before your book is published, we can email you a PDF of this flyer. Also note that your book flyer could include a coupon code on it that is specific to your book. Note: You can use this coupon code across all your promotions online, in print, in person, etc., but the coupon code is only valid on purchases made at utorontopress.com. Please contact your marketing manager for further details.
Make Use of Personal Contacts
If you have contacts in the media, or know a colleague who is involved with a relevant journal, please let them know your book is coming out, and ask whether they might be willing to review it. If any requests for review copies come back to you, please pass them on to us.
Publication Dates
An important thing to remember is that the arrival of your advance copy does not mean the book is actually “published” or available for friends and colleagues to buy. We need time to get your book from our warehouse to booksellers around the world. Our promotion team also needs time to get it into the hands of the media. For these reasons, sometimes we set the official publication date a few weeks after the arrival of advance copies.
Conferences and Events
UTP attends a range of major conferences each year, displaying our new and recently published books in relevant disciplines. We appreciate hearing from our authors about academic conferences where it would be appropriate to showcase your book, especially if you are attending and/or speaking. In your Author Information Sheet, please include a list of any appropriate conferences with the relevant contact persons. We ask that you contact us via email at least one month prior to any and all conferences where you would like to see your book on display. For some events, it makes more sense for you to take flyers yourself; we can provide you with those.
Blogs and Op-eds
If your book’s research can be leveraged for a commentary on current events and you’re able to write a short (750-word) piece with a strong argument, you can write an op-ed positioning yourself as an expert and mentioning your book in the byline. Your university communications department may be able to give advice and help you with getting your piece into the hands of the right people.
We encourage all of our authors to write a short blog post to be posted to the UTP Blog. This is a great way to engage with the audience for your book. If you have an idea for a blog post or are not sure what to write about, please contact your marketing manager or our Digital Marketing Coordinator to discuss potential ideas. Take advantage of other writing opportunities too: guest blog if you are asked.
Catalogues and Advertisements
Your book will be announced in our seasonal catalogue, which is distributed to bookstores, wholesalers, libraries, specialist dealers, and media contacts around the world. It will also be included in direct marketing to targeted contacts from relevant subject areas. Your book will also be advertised in relevant print and digital publications, conference programs, and/or on social media. View our catalogues here.
To help us find the right audience for your book, please include in your Author Information Sheet recommendations for smaller targeted publications that directly reach the readers who would take an interest in your book. We would be happy to look into advertising options in these kinds of publications.
Help from Your University
Leverage the power of your university. Be in touch with your communications office to see what resources or plans they may have to promote your book. Some will share special features on social media, put out a press release on your book, post interviews with you on their own website, or even be willing to produce a video interview or book trailer. Make sure to keep your UTP publicist in the loop about any plans; this will avoid duplication of effort and offer both your university and UTP opportunities to cross-post. Be sure to mention your book in any bylined articles or interviews you might give.
Sales Activities
Each season, UTP makes sales presentations to regional sales representatives and chain buyers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. UTP also partners with many ebook vendors around the world, in addition to selling our own ebooks through our website.
Our sales team aggressively pursues bulk sales opportunities with large enterprise, public sector, and other NGO organizations. When you complete your Author Information Sheet, please list any organizations or associations that might be interested in purchasing copies of your book in bulk.
Take flyers to any lectures or events where it would be appropriate to promote and sell the book.
In your Author Information Sheet, please include any details for contact information for bookstores in your area. We are happy to reach out to them to make sure they’re aware a local author has a book coming out. If you have participated in events at a particular store, please include that store’s information as well.
Library/Librarian Outreach
We take special initiatives to reach librarians and have a significant, and growing, in-house list of libraries and librarians across the country. As with independent bookstores, outreach to local libraries is something we aim to encourage from authors. Please include library contacts in your Author Information Sheet.
Social Media
At UTP, we are always closely studying the social media landscape and adjusting our digital strategy in order to ensure that our books end up in front of intellectually curious customers. We are currently active on the following social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. In addition to promoting your book on these platforms, we are happy to work with you to help amplify your own social media posts about your book.
Please visit our Author Guide to Social Media for more information on how you can help to promote your own work via social media.
We welcome input from authors about the social media accounts and trends that are most relevant to your book projects and online communities!
Sales and Marketing Who’s Who
Click here for information on our Sales and Marketing team.