Notes from an Intern

What happens at a Launch Meeting

             Yesterday I went to my first Avon A launch meeting. At a launch, the editors meet with different departments (sales, marketing, publicity etc.) to pitch the books for the upcoming season. This meeting was focused specifically on Avon A Summer 2011 trade paperback originals. After sitting in on this meeting I found four points of interest—pitching, marketing, selling points, and audience—which seemed to highlight the most important parts of discussion at launch.

Pitching:

On the agenda for the meeting there was a list of a dozen or so books. The first course of action was the pitch. When an editor is introducing a book to the sales team, they usually give a brief overview of the plot, characters, and setting of the story.

Marketing:

Focuses on the best way to get this book to sell. Editors were addressing the best ways to position the book and/or author. For example, if an author has been published in the past, but did not have high sales, sometimes the editor, marketing or sales team might suggest marketing the book under a different name, or changing the type of book it’s sold as (trade paperback, hardcover etc).

Selling points:

Selling points focus on why readers would be prompted to buy this book. This can include series history, author’s previous titles, etc. If a book is a part of the series, then it’s a major selling point. If you’ve read the first two books in a series and enjoyed them, then you’re probably going to buy the upcoming book, and it’s important that the sales and marketing departments know that the book being pitched has been a part of a successful series. This will help them estimate or determine how this upcoming book will do.

Audience:

Arguably one of the most important parts of publishing. A lot of thought is put into reaching the reader and targeting an existing audience. If there is one thing that I’ve learned from my work here this summer, it’s that there has to be an audience for a book. The writing could be amazing and the book as a whole very interesting, but if you don’t find a way to reach readers and target an audience, then the book won’t really sell. This can be tackled by exploring themes and trends that will grab the attention of current readers.

After looking at these four areas, I got a quick reminder about publishing as a business. The goal is to satisfy consumers in a way that will increase sales, but in order to do that there has to be a way to market a product to consumers that takes into consideration previous themes, consumer demands, and the overall type of market one is trying to sell a book to.