How Publishers Build Indie Next Campaigns
Part 2 in the Series on the Indie Next List: Getting Books on Booksellers' Radar and Pushing for Nominations
Read Part 1 of the Indie Next List Series: How the Indie Next List Works.
Welcome to Part 2 of the Indie Next series. In this installment, I’m going to share some of the things publishers do to build Indie Next campaigns for their books. In Part 1, I delved into how the list works — there’s lots of nuance to the program, but the key detail is that indie booksellers nominate titles, and the 25 books that get the most nominations make the monthly list.
With that in mind, here are some of the main ways publishers get booksellers to take notice of selected titles and nominate them for Indie Next.
First and foremost, and the most powerful tool in the box, is existing, long-standing relationships between the publisher and the booksellers. For Indie Next campaign efforts, this is predominantly handled by sales reps, but marketers, publicists, editors and more all contribute, depending on their relationships and connections. The publisher’s representative makes the pitch, letting the bookseller know this is a book to read and stock, and, if its to their liking, to consider nominating for Indie Next. So many of these relationships run deep — there is knowledge of the bookseller’s tastes and interests, and trust in the rep’s recommendations. This makes a huge impact and is one of the cooler things about book publishing.
(As mentioned in Part 1, publishers do have to pick their shots, so there are coordinated, strategic choices made about which books get the Indie Next push.)
But there are additional, functional elements to an Indie Next campaign, that help solidify, support, and expand the messaging, beyond just a push from the sales rep team. These include:
— An author letter printed in the galley, which allows the author to convey a personal message to those receiving an advanced copy of their book. Sometimes it’s a letter from the Editor or the Publisher. This is an effort to have the galley stand out, but is now so common as to be slightly diminished in terms of its effectiveness. Still, a personalized note never hurts.
— Sticker or burst on the galley, specifically making the ask to “Nominate for Indie Next.” Usually there is also mention of the deadline for that book’s nominating period. Yes, the ask has to be made, many times, in many different ways.
— Printing a larger quantity of galleys. With that author letter ready, and a sticker on the cover, there is an effort to get that book into the hands of as many booksellers as possible. This means more galleys need to be printed, of course — for mailings, giveaways, and trade shows.
— Setting up indie bookstore events early. By securing an event, you know the bookseller is already invested in the book. It’s a great opportunity to make the ask for an Indie Next nomination for a book they are already supporting by hosting an event.
— Ad promotions in the main trade publications. Through banner ands and dedicated mailings, as well as specific programs for galley giveaway promotions via the main trade publications — Shelf Awareness and Publishers Weekly — publishers can promote their titles, push for that Indie Next nomination, and make their calls-to-action “Request a Galley.” The click-thru usually leads to a form, where a bookseller can put in their contact information. It’s great lead generation, allowing the publisher to follow up on the solid leads (definitely there’s a sizable percentage of leads that need to be weeded out, but that’s standard when making these kinds of offers for what is essentially a free book).
— Dedicated mailings and sponsorships via the Independent Bookseller Association newsletters. This is another effective way to create awareness of a title to a very targeted audience, specifically pushing for an Indie Next nomination. Similar to the trade ads, these promotions usually encourage booksellers to request a galley — another great opportunity for lead generation and follow-ups.
— Promotions on Edelweiss and NetGalley — These are two very important industry platforms for a variety of reasons, but of note here is that booksellers can submit their Indie Next nominations through both of them. So of course it makes sense for publishers to spend some marketing dollars to showcase selected titles on these platforms when working to secure Indie Next nominations. Both Edelweiss and NetGalley offer a number of promotional opportunities, everything from banner placements to newsletter spotlights. Solid options and ideal audience targeting.
— Box Mailings. This is a promotion the American Bookseller Association offers, which involves mailing out a bi-monthly box to its members — all 750. Publishers can pay to have a galley or other types of promotional material included in the box. You can learn more about this promotion here. Again, it’s all about making sure booksellers are aware of the title, and continuing to make the ask for an Indie Next nomination. One method of outreach is not enough — the campaign has to be multi-faceted.
— Trade shows, especially the regional Fall Independent Bookseller Association events. The face-to-face conversations and personal connections forged at these trade shows are extremely impactful on multiple levels, and can be very effective in laying the groundwork for Indie Next nominations. Publishers are strategic in their messaging, and authors with forthcoming books get to meet and make strong impressions with booksellers. I wrote about the power of these Indie Bookseller Association trade shows in an earlier newsletter, which you can read it here. Note that these shows are going on right now — by looking at some of the coverage, you can get a sense of what they are like and what is accomplished by participating as exhibitors (publishers), attendees (booksellers), and panelists (authors).
KEY TAKEAWAY
All the things publishers do for an Indie Next campaign certainly help create awareness, reads, and orders, even if the book doesn’t make the list. At the end of the day, it’s a fight for attention and a continual push to spark and build momentum. An Indie Next campaign provides an example of some of the key techniques publishers use to get booksellers to take notice of their titles. This all happens well before the pub date. When publishers start to make headway and see some momentum building, they lean into it. When these efforts falter and momentum is elusive, it’s not that publishers give up, but it’s a signal that the book is going to be tougher to successfully launch.
Stay tuned for more Indie Next insights in upcoming installments of the series, including things authors can do to help in the effort. Very open to your feedback and questions, so leave a comment or drop me a note.
MORE PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
After reading my series on pre-orders, author Pallavi Sharma Dixit (who I was very fortunate to work with on the campaign for her excellent debut novel Edison), tipped me off to a McSweeney’s piece that takes pre-order strategy to a hilarious extreme. It’s frighteningly on point, and will resonate with all authors and industry folks who have had to cope with the drumbeat of the never-ending pre-order asks. Please do yourself a favor and read this essay by Jeff King: Preorder Book Sales Are Key.
FALL INDUSTRY EVENTS AND PROGRAMMING
Fall officially starts on Sept 22. Hard to believe there’s just a little over 3 months left in 2024. I just did a Resource post for paid subscribers about events and programming in 2025, which got me thinking about all the book industry related events that are still yet to come in 2024. Quite a few! So in addition to a US presidential election (Nov. 5 — register to vote!) and all the usual holiday activities, there’s still an avalanche of industry happenings to plan for and possibly take part in before the end of the year:
Banned Books Week — Sept. 22-28, 2024.
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Fall Trade Show in Portland, OR— Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2024.
Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA) FallCon in Denver, CO — Oct 6-9, 2024.
Heartland Fall Forum in Milwaukee, WI, put on by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA) and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) — Oct 6-9, 2024.
Frankfurt Book Fair — Oct. 16-20, 2024. Major rights fair that takes place annually in Frankfurt, Germany.
New York Comic Con in NYC — Oct. 17-20, 2024.
YALLFest in Charleston, SC — Nov. 15-16, 2024. A popular festival celebrating YA books and authors.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) — Nov. 1-30, 2024.
Indies First — Nov. 30, 2024. Activities and events in support of independent bookstores, held in conjunction with Small Business Saturday, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Basically, a creative push to make sure people are buying books from independent bookstores during the holiday, gift-giving season.
I am sure there are countless other events, not to mention all the regional book festivals, like the Brooklyn Book Festival (Sept 22-30, 2024), the Twin Cities Book Festival (Oct. 19, 2024), or Books by the Banks in Cincinnati OH (Nov. 16, 2024).
Mark your calendars accordingly!
And for paid subscribers, check out the 2025 Calendar of Book Publishing Industry Events and Conferences to get ahead on your calendaring for next year. (Note this is an in-progress post, as not all dates have been announced for the key events).
Thank you for reading, sharing, and subscribing. Hope you’ve got a fun Fall planned, but still have enough open slots in your schedule to take advantage of all the cool book happenings taking place during these last months of the year.
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ABOUT THE WRITER OF THIS NEWSLETTER
Jeffrey Yamaguchi recently spent an afternoon cleaning out gutters (which hadn’t been done in maybe five years?!?) and dealing with not-so-great, probably need-to-be-replaced gutter grates (though they are good at slicing hands). He also figured out how to open the water meter box, fixed the broken base of a folding closet door (so that it would not fall to the ground upon being opened), put in (very evenly!) a brick border on a flower bed, and replaced a fill valve in a toilet. I have no skills when it comes to fixing things around a house/apartment. YouTube and advice from my Dad guide the way. None of these things are particularly hard, but damn, it feels so good to figure this stuff out and get it done. Just step one, step two, step three and so on until the task is complete. If I mess something up, I just pick it up in the AM with fresh eyes. Onward!
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Note: Not currently available to do work around your house/apartment. Too much on my own to-do list on that front.
All of this. And more (Edelweiss banners! Seasonal Previews! Newsletters!)
I once was invited to present at an event for prospective children's authors at a major indie. The woman ahead of me was self-published and made is sound easy. I gave a rundown of all of the people and a lot of the campaigns, trade shows, marketing, publicity, etc. and the dozens of people who do them at a traditional house. I had one slide about self publishing and said, "If you think you can do all of those things better than a traditional publisher, go for it."
I bring that up because Indie Next campaigns are one of the dozens of things publishers do that are under the radar and the kind of thing I think of when authors say their publisher did "nothing" for their book.