John Kremer
1001 Ways to Market Your Book

Let's say your publisher has decided not to reprint your textbook, but you are convinced there is still a viable market. Or let's say you have an idea for a textbook and you are pretty sure that no publisher will be interested in it because its market is just too small. What do you do? In either case you might consider starting a little publishing company and produce it yourself.

I was asked to review 1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer. I don't need to review it because if you are thinking about starting a publishing business, you will need it. It has lots of essential information. You will also need The Complete Guide to Self Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross (Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1994) and Self-Publishing Books and Materials for Students, Academics, and Professionals by our own Franklin Silverman (Greendale, WI: CODI Publishers, 2000). For another indispensable reference, go to the library to consult LMP (otherwise known as Literary Market Place), which tells you, for example, how to get mailing labels for direct advertising and where to get books printed. (I recommend College Marketing Group for the former and any printer listed in or near Ann Arbor for the latter.)

Eduardo Dias and I started a publishing company in 1974 in order to publish our European Portuguese textbook. No publisher would touch it because the expenses were too great for what they all thought was too small a market. We were convinced the market was larger than they thought. We had very low overhead because we didn't have to pay an editor, a book designer, a photo researcher, a copy editor, although we did hire a wonderful artist. We reprinted that book about 18 times, a thousand or two at a time, and it is now in a second edition. We also added a Brazilian Portuguese textbook, and early on took on books by other authors. The business is still run out of our basement shipping room and a U-Store warehouse. We have one part-time assistant, and an outside accounting service. We made a success of the business, but we didn't have these useful resources at the beginning when they were needed.

If you start a publishing business and succeed you'll do a service to students and make some money, and if you fail, you'll have lost a few thousand dollars. If you need some advice, get in touch.

Review by
Tom Lathrop
University of Delaware