Book Marketing - The Author Toolkit

Book Marketing: Packaging Your Book to Match Your Market

Whenever I speak to authors I am always peppered with questions on the topic of 'book packaging.' This includes questions about cover design, binding, trim size, and page count. Most questions go like this…Should my book be hardcover or softcover? Should I include a dustjacket? How many pages should my book be? What trim size should my book be?

These questions are common. Before you publish a book the way YOU want it, I challenge you to stop and examine what your target market wants. A few questions to ask yourself…

Is my market professional (business people) or general consumers? As a rule of thumb, professional markets have a higher price threshold when purchasing books. Professional markets typically prefer hardcover books with dust jackets. On the other side of the coin, close to 80% of general trade (read: consumer) books are paperback. Trade consumers are generally more price sensitive.