Book Marketing 101: Group Ads

We want to thank Brenna Lyons for offering This series in support of Small Press Month. Her experience as a senior editor, President of EPICauthors, and a 20 book (in print) published author is invaluable for our authors.

Book Marketing 101

By Brenna Lyons

http://www.brennalyons.com/ http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons

Group ads-

As I said, print ads need repeated, not necessarily in the same venue though that helps, but repeated often to show a good return...or so the marketing surveys attest.

So, You're Planning a Group Ad
By Brenna Lyons

The authors are picked. The money is pooled. It's time to plan the ad. That's when the problems start. Here is what you need to know.

If everyone has an equal share of the money going in, it only makes sense that they each get an equal share of the space. Simple? Not so simple.

If the ad is a group of authors from the same publisher, you have to agree on the publisher information. The point of such an ad, of course, is to get people to your publisher and looking for your particular books. What information will be included? Just the name and URL of the publisher, or will the pub have the logo or banner on the ad? How much space will the publisher get? You have to split the rest equally, you know. Will the publisher information go top, centered, or bottom? Will the publisher be paying a portion and using a full section for information about the company? Many publishers don't have the money to do this, so don't plan on it happening when you plan your ad, though you can ask. These are all important things to consider, and they make a difference in how your ad is ultimately set up.

If the ad was arranged via a group you all belong to, are you going to mention the group? That isn't as easily answered as the publisher question. You might want to, if it's a private group. You might want to as a service to a public group, though any ads for such a group should be run past the group officers first to make sure they have no objections to content. Keep in mind that they have legal grounds to pursue reparations if your ad puts them in a bad light, no matter how well-intentioned your ad is.

A balanced ad is pleasing to the eye, though a skewed ad of some sort is an eye-catcher. Wherever the information about the publisher or group goes, it should keep the ad balanced, if that is at all possible. Top, bottom or PRECISELY centered is always best. If a logo or banner is used, either putting a tag line on one side and URL on the other of a banner or putting that information centered between two small logos typically works best.

Before an ad gets rolling, the authors need to agree on what information will be going in the ad. An ad should always be balanced. It doesn't read well if one author's ad is nothing but a book cover and URL, another is all verbiage with no photo at all, and still another is a thumbnail picture with wording around it.

The ad spaces should be complimentary. If eye-catching covers are going to be used, they should all be the same size, and they should be arranged so as not to have clashing covers next to one another. The font size and style used should be the same for each section, and the information similar. By that, I mean that if sections 1-5 have book name and author, blurb and author URL; then sections 6-8 might have book name and author, review quotes and author URL. Similar but not necessarily carbon copies of each other.
Graphics should be of high quality! Never start making an ad with a low res thumbnail from the sales page at the publisher. I made that mistake with my first ad, and it's a lesson you NEVER forget. Always take the time to get a high res copy of your cover art for ads. Yes, storing a 300 dpi 2400x1580 (or thereabouts) cover on your computer – or getting it sent to you, may seem ridiculous, but it makes all the difference in the clarity of your ad.

Always choose a font that is crisp and clear. Italics and fancy fonts may look great on your screen, but print them out and see how good it looks at full size. There is always a bit of loss in translation. Remember that. If it's in the least fuzzy, it won't look good in the ad.

Unless you want to pay 15-25% more for your ad for a full bleed effect and leave yourself a large border of a background color, you might want to stick with a while background and a classic edging to add style to your ad.

What do readers look for in an ad? There is no denying that covers are eye-catchers, as are headlines, though covers rank 4th in what readers report as their reason for actually buying a book from an ad. Readers rank the information they want to see in an ad as a representative blurb for the book followed by author recognition, reviews and then a cover. Never forget to include URL for author and company.



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