Marketing Q&A with Tirgearr Publishing

Looking to improve your marketing and publicity efforts? Perhaps you’re looking to be signed by a publisher during the upcoming #Pit2Pub Twitter Pitch Party? Check out our Book Publicity Tips series where we ask real publishers to share their experiences, thoughts, and advice to assist both new and established publishers and authors.

When do you start planning an upcoming release’s marketing?

We start planning a book’s marketing the moment we see the submission. If we feel the submission is strong, we’ll watch it through the review process. We look at the author’s current author presence and how active they are with it and follower response. And once contracted, we work with authors to start making contacts during the editing process so that when the responses start coming in, they’ll have a finished product ready to send for reviews, and potential author interviews. Marketing a book and the author is a two-way street, so the author is involved from the moment the contract is signed.

How valuable are book reviews for your authors? How do you leverage them?

Reviews are an invaluable tool for author and publisher marketing. Reviews tell potential readers how others felt about the book. Authors discover how readers are taking their books . . . using those notes to improve on future stories. Publishers learn how readers felt about the book and how the author uses the information in their marketing strategy. And it helps publishers aim their own marketing efforts. Reviews also enable authors to pick up spots on paid subscription services, which send readers book suggestions via their daily newsletters. Reviews are also used as a means of attracting new readers.

What is the biggest marketing challenge your company has faced? How did you overcome it?

The business is full of challenges these days. One of the biggest challenges we have are authors who won’t promote their work. They don’t treat writing as a business, and they don’t work hard to gain a readership . . . they don’t want to engage with readers. Authors are the ones who know their stories and characters the best, so are the best people to tell readers about their work. For us, it’s hard to market an author’s book if they’re unwilling to share the task.

Is there a particular genre or sub-genre you plan to look for in 2016?

We publish adult commercial fiction in all genres and sub-genres. We look for the best stories, regardless of genre, but they must be commercial fiction (romance and erotic romance, mystery, thriller, suspense, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, women’s fiction, etc, and all their sub-genres). We don’t take YA or children’s at this time.

And we do have a no-go list — No: pedophilia, bestiality, incest, rape, necrophilia, urolagnia, erotic asphyxiation, race/gender intolerance, etc. If you have to ask, we probably don’t allow it.

In your opinion, what is the trick to writing a great pitch in 140 characters (or less!)?

The best pitch for us is one that can tell the story in 140 characters. That’s such a short amount of space, but a story can be broken down to its bones — Her mother’s will sends Mary on a journey to find her real father, but he doesn’t want to be found . . . Found unconscious in the woods, Mary awakens with amnesia. John is falling in love w/her. Will he still love her when he learns who she is? . . . You get the idea. Basic but tells us the gist of the story. Be creative. One trick is to think about a tagline for the cover — Her touch could mend his immortal soul. His touch could kill her . . . A quest to uncover the past; will the boxes provide the answer?

What is #Pit2Pub?

A Twitter Pitch Party (“TPP”) allows writers to tweet a 140-character pitch for their completed and polished manuscript(s) directly to publishers. Make sure to leave enough room to include the hashtag #Pit2Pub and the category (#YA, #MG, #A, #SFF, #W, etc.) in the tweet. The next event is scheduled for July 13, 2016.

Keep up to date on #Pit2Pub information here by visiting Kristin’s Blog and Ann’s Blog.

About Tirgearr Publishing

Tirgearr Publishing is a small independently-owned publishing company of commercial adult genre fiction. We work with authors on a one-on-one basis through editing and cover design states to ensure each book we publish is of the highest quality. Using our expertise from nearly twenty years in the publishing business, we work side-by-side with our authors to develop effective marketing plans and promotional programs, advising on career choices and forward career planning, and assist in setting up the author’s overall image.