Guest Column: Unite Marketing and Publicity

Of course, none of this works without communication. Because of the speed at which so many of these things occur, I've found that forced communication at regular intervals — a.k.a. meetings or conference calls — isn't as effective as daily email correspondence as things happen. I know, we're in publishing — the last thing we need is more email. But the correspondence I get from our marketing department takes priority, and I like to think the correspondence they get from us takes the same.

Since our marketing department works closely with our sales department to determine initial print runs as well as reprint quantities, we do our best to keep them current on the media commitments we've received for each book — through book-specific email updates that also go to our sales reps, who forward them to the buyers at their accounts in an effort to solicit additional orders. The updates aren't fancy — cover art, a catchy headline, and a list — but they seem to do the trick.

So many departments in a publishing house need to work closely together — editorial and production, production and design, marketing and sales, etc. But I think you'd be hard pressed to find any two that are as interdependent and that, together, can make as much of an impact on a book's success.

Lissa Warren is Vice President, Senior Director of Publicity and Acquiring Editor at Da Capo Press (a member of the Perseus Books Group), an adjunct professor in the publishing master's degree program at Emerson College, and the author of The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity. She's also a poetry editor for Post Road literary magazine, and serves on the advisory board of Southern New Hampshire University's MFA creative writing program.