A: Myrna
Rochester, TAA Member:
"I am guessing
that your book is with McGraw-Hill 'Professional' or 'Trade' (based
in Chicago), and not with McGraw-Hill Higher Ed. (I write for both
of them in a different field.) You are doing the right thing
to make your book known, with your personal marketing and making
contacts in your own area. Whereas the McGraw Higher Ed division
has a very well developed marketing system, McGraw Professional doesn't
(to my knowledge) go to schools and universities to market individual
titles.
They rely on
their catalogs, websites, word of mouth, and interest by individual
booksellers. You might also re-contact the editor you originally worked
with, and his/her supervisors, to ask specifically what is being done towards
the marketing of your own book. Request that they run an ad in your trade
journals, and tell them the names of those journals. They may not know,
since they work in so many areas."
A: Andrew
P. Johnson, Professor of Holistic Education, Minnesota State University,
Mankato, TAA Member:
"Have you thought
about making conference presentations with lots of fliers, order
forms, and books? If there are related conferences in this construction
area, you might let McGraw hill know this. They can send a book
rep or make arrangements to have some sort of display. Remember,
they want your book to sell as much as you do."
A: Richard
T. Hull, TAA Executive Director:
"First of all,
congratulations on getting your textbook on construction management
published! The title is pure genius! I'm still trying to figure out
how to manage a nonprofit organization on 20 hours a week, because
it seems to take 20 hours a day!
Second, I think
you have started well in contacting individual faculty who teach the
course. Can you access the membership list of the organization that
has the meeting you attended? Do they have a newsletter or website?
You might try advertising in the newsletter or on the website.
See if you can
get your book reviewed in one of the appropriate professional journals
that those faculty likely read. See if your publisher will foot the
bill for an ad in same.
Third, consider
another market: engineering and construction organizations that actually
do the construction management. I know a structural engineer; he is
always reading to kee abreast in his field, and that behavior might
net you some sales. I can even imagine such a firm ordering copies
for a number of employees and having seminars devoted to discussion
of your work. Graduates of such educational programs often maintain
contact with their former profs, because they learn things in the
field that can make for better courses.
Fourth, if there
are student organizations of prospective construction managers, you
might contact them and suggest that they look at sample chapters of
your work, maybe on Amazon.com or another bookseller that will put
up sample chapters, and treat it as an auxillary to the text they
are using. Yours is doubtlessly better than others in the field; maybe
students will be sufficiently impressed to call it to their profs'
attention.
Fifth, submit
your text to TAA's Texty Award competition. If it wins, your publisher
will get some nice stickers to put on comp copies that will indicate
it is an award-winning text in its field. That should help sales.
Sixth, interacting
with your publisher's editors responsible for marketing is a great
idea. One of our members really works on these connections, sending
small gifts or flowers or candy to marketing reps. Amazing what gratitude
and appreciation can do! Also, meet with your publisher's staff several
times a year to discuss their marketing plans, in order to see how
you can augment them, improve them, etc.
Seventh, and
finally, utilize the TAA listserv. Your question will be read by hundreds
of TAA members who have dealt with similar problems in marketing their
own texts. They may well respond with ideas you and I haven't yet
thought of."
