Publisher Strikes a Chord With Holiday Book Marketing Efforts

GW: The response was fantastic! We were a little unsure of how such a niche non-fiction reference book would do on Goodreads—the site is much more well known for the strongholds of fiction and popular non-fiction, so it was a little bit of an experiment. But we're thrilled with the response: we had several hundred people enter the contest, and more importantly, we had about 100 people add it to their "to-read" list. For such a specific, reference type book, we're extremely pleased with that outcome.

PBT: What other promotions are you doing around the book?

GW: With such a niche book, we really try to "go to where the fans are," so to speak. We've done targeted online advertising and blogger outreach on music blogs, done a Facebook giveaway along with some targeted Facebook advertising, and of course all of the publicity outreach to music publications.

We're also trying to coordinate some local events for the author as a way to help drive awareness. We consider a book like this to be an evergreen title, so we will also continue our promotions throughout the year as opportunities arise.

PBT: How does targeting an enthusiast market influence the type of book marketing you do?

GW: Well, as I said before, we really have to try and find the enthusiasts. It requires detective work because often these markets aren't going to just browse through their local bookstore for a book like this without knowing about it, so we have to really try and find ways to get the word out in those communities.

We rely on the author a lot—as the expert, the author will be able to give us a really good starting point for where to go to find the readers. From there, it's just a matter of figuring out how to raise awareness of the book in those markets: Is this a community that is online? Do they respond better to direct mail? Are there conventions they attend? Etc.