WILL MY BOOK REACH ITS TARGET READERSHIP?
Our parent company, Tommies Guides, as both established bookseller and publisher is dedicated to the military genre and helps authors reach likeminded individuals, specialist outlets and museums all over the world.
SALES & DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
We supply specialist retailers, museums and organisations with whom we enjoy good relationships, such as the Imperial War Museum, National Army Museum, The National Archives or dedicated overseas outlets on the Western Front such as the Memorial Museum Passchendaele and In Flanders Fields Museum on the Ypres Salient, or on the Somme at the Historial de la Grande
Guerre, Péronne and Thiepval Visitor Centre.
Review copies are automatically sent to specialist and niche-market publications and websites.
As an independent publishing company, we handle our sales and marketing on a title by title basis and our independent sales force represents us within the UK trade, maximising the exposure for all titles.
Our distribution network utilises state-of-the-art print facilities in the UK and US combined with the UK’s largest wholesaler who has reciprocal supply arrangements with European and International wholesale operations. As of 2014 we are setting up additional print and distribution arrangements for the US and Australsian markets.
Our supply chain partners fulfil these orders to independent, specialist and chain retailers such as Waterstones and WH Smith.
We are registered as an independent publisher with Waterstones so any store is able to order your product if not already in stock. The same supply chain also fulfils on behalf of all the major online retailers including orders placed via Amazon.
WILL MY BOOK SELL?
No publisher, mainstream, vanity or fee-based can guarantee your book will sell. Of the many thousands published every year in the UK, only a small percentage makes any ‘real’ money for the publisher and author.
Reveille Press will however ensure a complete focus on your product, with targeted marketing and publicity including appropriate Western Front Association coverage combining peer reviews and publicity that will help get your book exposure to the right people in the right places at the right times.
MAKING YOUR BOOK STAND OUT
For many people, publishing a book marks the end of an ambition. For others it is a desire to maximise sales, and to achieve this, a marketing and promotional effort will be required.
In 2010, more than 151,969 books were published, an increase of over 14% on the previous year’s total of 133,224. The new book production figures have also increased the overall number of bibliographic records held by Nielsen BookData to 15m globally and over 6.0m for UK and Ireland. (Source: Nielsen BookData January 2011).
What we do not know is how many of these (and those from previous years) sold more than 52 copies over a 52-week period. Consequently with more books being published all the time, all vying for space or virtual space on retailers’ shelves, the market is sometimes very daunting for new authors. Titles published via the traditional mainstream publishing model will incur significant expenditure but the publisher will hope to secure profits with high volumes of sales via high street retailers.
For many books the realistic market is likely to be more specialised. At Reveille Press, we deal only in military history and have access to a wide range of dedicated museums and organisations in the UK and overseas, which may be potentially interested in selling your book. We actively promote our titles to these outlets in addition to press releases and issuing Advance Information sheets to the traditional book trade and ensure product information and availability via our distribution partners.
Review copies and/or press releases of all titles are sent to major military, regimental and other relevant organisations and publications in addition to promotion and peer review via the WFA. For example we always include some, if not all, of the following:
- Soldier Magazine
- RAF News
- Navy News
- Britain At War Magazine
- Military History Monthly
- Family Tree Magazine
- WWII Re-enactors Magazine
- Guild of Battlefield Guides journal and website
- Friends of the Imperial War Museum
- National Army Museum Friends
- England’s Standard – The Royal Society of St. George
- FlyPast
- Skirmish
- New Writer Magazine
- Army Museums Ogilby Trust Newsletter (AMOT)
- Great War Forum and Army Rumour Service website (ARRSE)
The innovative model that our publishing service offers, provides authors with a realistic, professional solution which targets dedicated outlets on their behalf. This can prove successful with sales volumes much lower than those required by typical mainstream operations.
SELF-HELP IN MARKETING
If you have any special connections with museums, organisations or Regimental Associations, we would like to hear about it as part of your project proposal as it will help us plan any extended promotional activity. Accordingly, we recommend our authors also adopt a focussed approach to their own promotional efforts. The more information you can supply us with on the author questionnaire the more detail we can pass on to potential sales outlets.
Please advise us if you have any contacts with local history societies, bookshops, radio or press so we may consider this for inclusion in the initial marketing campaign. If you are available for interview or a book-signing this can also be useful in promoting to potential outlets or review bodies. We also recommend contacting your local library, which may run or host writers’ or readers’ groups.
Many regional bookshops and media are only too pleased to hear from local authors about their projects, so do bear this in mind. You are able to order copies from us for any events you may arrange and this can help with any financial return you may be looking to gain. In our experience, those authors who are most active in promoting and selling their book are also the ones who are most successful.
