Marketing, promotion, distribution

Mission Point Press offers a range of promotional and marketing programs to help you sell your book. From print marketing to social-media promotion to website development and Amazon optimization. Here are the programs.

Print Marketing

Print marketing is essential if you wish to sell to bookstores or request reviews from individuals and media. A SELL SHEET is the entry ticket to both bookstores and reviewers.

We offer two options, a unique printed version for you to distribute yourself, and a print and digital version that we distribute for you.

SELL SHEET

We would create a one-page, nicely designed summary of the book as a PDF. This industry-standard Sell Sheet would contain a description, ordering information, the book’s specifications, and an image of the cover. The Sell Sheet would be branded to you as the author, of course. The sheet could be mailed or emailed to retail outlets, libraries … to anyone who would want the technical and ordering information about the book.

SELL SHEET PLUS

This service has three elements to it:

 1.     We would create the same one-page, nicely designed summary of the book as a PDF (described above).

 2.     In addition, we would send a version of your Sell Sheet to a list of national list of major bookstores (and a Michigan bookstore and library list if your book is Michigan themed). Although we don’t follow up with bookstores individually after the mailing, we encourage authors to do so.

 3.     And we would write a press release based on the Sell Sheet and email that to a state’s media list that includes all print, radio and TV outlets. This could be timed to coincide with your first public book signing event. Again, follow-up would be done by the author. Media lists are available in all 50 states; ask us about pricing. The Michigan media push is always included.

Michigan Publicity and Promotion Services

Mission Point Press’s marketing director can help you publicize your book, with the goal of getting it mentioned or reviewed in print and digital publications and on TV and radio. We can also help you promote your work by arranging interviews with media and setting up signings and other appearances at book stores and libraries.

•  A book-signing tour: We will spend a minimum of 10 hours to create a book-signing tour at Michigan regional bookstores and other venues.*

• Facebook Live: We will arrange an on-site Facebook Live broadcast of your book-signing tour. This can include one broadcast or multiple broadcasts, depending on what the author wants. We would be on-site to help with the broadcast.**

•  Media promotion: We will spend a minimum of 10 hours to create interview opportunities for you at Michigan regional radio stations, TV stations, newspapers and online sites.*

 *Please know that we will make every effort within the hours specified to line up these opportunities. But tour and media results are not guaranteed. Much depends on how your book is received by these outlets. 

 **The book-signing tour with Facebook Live is available only within the seven-county area surrounding Traverse City, Michigan. Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Charlevoix, Manistee, Emmet, and Antrim. 

Social Media Marketing

Social media has changed forever the way writers promote their books.

A social media campaign can work for both fiction and nonfiction, but there’s a learning curve. And that’s where we can help.

Social-media promotion … we teach you how to do it:

This is a customized consult from our social-media experts, who would guide you through your promotional options, including discussion of the ideal mix of platforms – Facebook, Instagram, etc. – for you to use. We would also work with you on messaging and frequency, creating some sample posts focused on the books. We would start with an audit of your existing social-media presence. The goal is to teach you to use the techniques and tools to manage your own campaign.

Setting you up on Goodreads:

Goodreads is an invaluable social-media site for promoting your book and having an ongoing conversation with your fans. We can get you started with this all-in-one package. It includes:

• Helping the author set up their Goodreads account, including the author's profile with headshot.

• Uploading the author's metadata and book cover.

• Verifying that the book is available on Goodreads and if not, troubleshoot.

• Pointing the author to how-to information on Goodreads for self-marketing, communications, and promotion.

  Note: Goodreads requires that authors have an author website and a Kindle Direct Publlishing (KDP) account before applying to Goodreads. We can guide you through what this means. Most Mission Point Press authors will have KDP accounts prior to publication. Our website services are listed below.

AMAZON ADVERTISING

If your book is on Amazon, then you likely should explore the merits of advertising it on Amazon. But it takes some guidance to do it well. Mission Point Press has partnered with a company that specializes in helping self-published authors promote their books to Amazon shoppers.

Click on the logo below to learn more about this advertising program and pricing.

Amazon Optimization

Here the goal is to ensure that all aspects of the book’s presentation and metadata work with the Amazon algorithm to maximize discoverability, clicks, orders, and page reads. This service includes optimization of:

• The book's title

• The book's subtitle

• Series name and series description (if relevant)

• 7 Amazon keywords

• Book description

• Back cover copy

• 3 Amazon categories

• 3 Subject listings (for IngramSpark)

• Endorsements

• Pricing

• Author Central page

• Amazon A+ Content (graphic design not included)

Amazon Bestseller Campaign

This custom blueprint will ensure bestseller status for the book during the launch week. It includes:

• Recommendations for various paid book promotion services based on the genre

• Submitting applications for the recommended services on behalf of the author

• Ensuring that all bookings are scheduled

• Ensuring that the book listing and price is correct on the promotion date(s)

• Tracking the results including screenshots of the bestseller ranking

• Sales reports

• Guaranteed #1 Amazon bestseller in at least one sub-category for non-fiction

• Guaranteed Top 100 Amazon bestseller in at least one sub-category for fiction

Note: the Amazon Optimization package is a prerequisite for this service as an optimized book listing is necessary for the bestseller promotion to be effective. Also, paid promotions may be necessary. Those costs are in addition to the fee. Click here for details.

marketing and promotion case studies

WEBSITES

Mission Point Press offers two options for author websites. Either will get you on your literary journey, but the gold package includes more custom design, more social engagement, and more site detail. If you have any questions as to which works best for you, please contact our team.

Customized add-on features and content are available. Ask us for details. 

Six-Point Coordinated Marketing Package

We also offer a comprehensive marketing program that marries traditional book marketing with social-media promotion on various platforms. It includes some of the options above and groups them into a single, interrelated package.

This program is administered by our coordinated-marketing manager, a veteran book sales and marketing professional.

Note: We will only recommend this program for books that have strong national potential. We reserve the right to decline this service to an author if we feel it’s not an appropriate fit.

The six-point program includes:

1.     Amazon optimization to make sure your book has the ideal cover design, descriptions, keywords, subject listings and other traits necessary to maximize its appeal to Amazon audiences.

2.     Social-media marketing that will secure for your book a valuable presence on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, and other social-media platforms and raise awareness through targeted advertising.

3.     Website creation, including unlimited online information about your book, you as the author, “buy the book” purchase options, and connections to social-media feeds. This becomes your promotional home base.

4.     Sell Sheet Plus service, which targets a custom list of bookstores, libraries, and media with fact sheets and press releases about your book.

5.     National publicity and sales, including pitching your book to trade magazines (e.g. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus), national media, and national accounts. We would also work to ensure your book is listed on all book-industry portals used for ordering, both wholesale and retail.

6.     Amazon Bestseller Campaign, in which paid advertising promoting your book is secured on book-promotion sites with the goal of achieving “best seller” status on Amazon. 

Edelweiss

For authors who choose print-on-demand (POD) publishing, we feel it’s essential that their book be included in Edelweiss. Edelweiss is the book industry's platform to market, sell, discover, and order new titles. All major U.S. publishers use Edelweiss, and there are around 1,000 U.S. stores doing their ordering on the site. This includes: 41,000 Booksellers, 33,000 Librarians, 13,000 Academics,130,000 Reviewers.

The cost to do this will be built into the author’s publishing fee.

Loading a DRC (digital review copy)

We might also recommend that we load a review copy of your book into your Edelweiss page and announce its availability to the same list of 200,000 booksellers. It's a highly effective way to generate early buzz, reviews and orders. Users can share their reviews with publishers, Indie Next, LibraryReads, and more. 

Mission Point Press, though, must review and approves each request. DRCs are not effective for some books, especially those of a local or regional nature.