Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
Simple book promotion ideas for every author
Published about 1 month ago • 8 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Dear Reader,
If you're a returning reader of this newsletter, you know that every month I highlight the experience of a different scholarly writer who has recently published a book. This month, I'm excited to share an interview with art historian Elizabeth Petcu, author of The Architectural Image and Early Modern Science: Wendel Dietterlin and the Rise of Empirical Investigation, which was recently released by Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Petcu is an alum of my Book Proposal Accelerator program, and she did such a great job on her proposal that I reached out to her a while back to ask if I might use parts of her successful proposal as model examples for other participants in the program to learn from. When corresponding with Dr. Petcu, I noticed that she was doing a few cool (and simple) things to promote her forthcoming book, so I asked if she might share the steps she took with my newsletter readers, and she kindly obliged. Our interview is transcribed below.
First, here’s a description of the book from Cambridge University Press’s website:
“The Architectural Image and Early Modern Science: Wendel Dietterlin and the Rise of Empirical Investigation explores how architectural media came to propel scientific discourse between the eras of Dürer and of Rubens. It is also the first English-language book to feature the polymathic, eccentric, and long-misunderstood artist Wendel Dietterlin (c. 1550–1599). Here, Elizabeth J. Petcu reveals how architectural paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints became hotbeds of early modern empiricism, the idea that knowledge derives from sensory experience. She demonstrates how Dietterlin's empirical imagery of architecture came into dialogue with the image-making practices of early modern scientists, a rapport that foreshadowed the intimate relationships between architecture and science today. Petcu's astute insights offer historians of art, science, and architecture a new framework for understanding the role of architectural images in the foundations of modern science. She also provides a coherent narrative regarding the interplay between early modern art, architecture, and science as a catalyst for modern empirical philosophy.”
Laura Portwood-Stacer: Congratulations on your recent book release! When did you start thinking about promoting it?
Elizabeth J. Petcu: There were two phases to considering what I could do to promote this book. The first phase began while writing the book proposal, and I think that is partially a factor of having taken your Book Proposal Accelerator and doing the exercise of the marketing questionnaire that begins it. It wasn't really until I encountered that exercise that I actually started this type of thinking, during which I started planning backwards from the very end stages of the publication process and trying to understand what it would take to get me there.
My publisher, Cambridge University Press, is very good at combining academic rigor with an understanding of the different markets that are still welcoming high quality research. They do care about book promotion and in doing that early brainstorming about promotion, it really helped me to find my publisher, and then it prepared me for thinking in a more tangible way about what I would need to do to get my book to its intended audiences.
I also remember reading one of the newsletters you did about book promotion. In it, you interviewed a publicist and they said you should really consider starting to promote your book at least twelve months prior to its release. I can’t say I followed that model of good practice to a T. I was seven months pregnant when my book was a year away from its scheduled release. That wasn't the best timing, but I did start thinking about tangible steps to take roughly ten months from the projected publication date. It soon became clear to me that certain actions were more important than others, such as lining up people who would write a blurb, because these are very busy senior scholars who need a lot of lead time.
I know that my process is not perfect, and maybe not exemplary, but I feel good about the steps that I've taken, considering all the demands on my time and where I am right now.
LPS: That's great, and something is better than nothing. I think some authors would really rather prefer to do nothing to promote their books, so if you're doing anything, you're doing great.
EJP: My editor has been very excited anytime I tell her about any action I've taken to promote the book, which really reinforces this behavior.
LPS: I want to talk about a couple of the concrete things you've done, and maybe we could sort of walk through them a bit so people could be inspired to follow your example. For one thing, you put your new book right in your email signature.
EJP: I’ve come up with a lot of my tactics by looking left and right and seeing what other people are doing. I have seen some of my UK-based and US-based colleagues putting books in their email signatures for a few years now. It seemed like a natural step for me to take. I do think that including a reference to my book in the email signature has started some conversations about the book that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
LPS: I also noticed that on your website, you have a very simple page for your book. Can you walk us through what you decided to include on your webpage?
EJP: In my work as an art historian, I am someone who leads with the visual material, so I decided that an image needed to be front and center behind the title. It's an image that encapsulates a lot of themes that are important in my book: the intersection of art, architecture, and natural philosophy in the 16th century. It happens to be the image we used for the cover of my book, but I didn’t wait for the cover to be ready before putting the image on my webpage.
I also included a very brief, four-paragraph precis of the book that basically could stand in for the summary text on the jacket.
And, really importantly, I included an FAQ section as well. I tried to keep it short and limit it to the most essential questions I could imagine my various audiences posing about the book. This has had a couple of benefits. First, I think I've answered fewer emails than I would have otherwise, continuously saying the same thing. But the FAQ section also gave me a chance to talk about the book in ways that enticed people who didn’t already have such questions. I suspect it has prompted them to imagine different ways of using my work.
LPS: Such as how they could use it in courses. I love that you list the types of courses your book could be taught in, which I imagine you’d already thought about when writing your proposal since this is part of the Book Proposal Accelerator curriculum. It was easy to present that information on your website because you’d already done it for your proposal.
EJP: Yes, exactly. The types of courses I listed are what I saw when I researched course catalogs from institutions that are large enough to maybe purchase this book for students.
LPS: You also have an email list sign up on your webpage. What are you doing with that?
EJP: It’s important to me to respect people’s time when they share their email address with me, so I will just be sending some basic updates. I will tell them when the book is released. I may also let people know when I am giving lectures about the book, which I plan to do in the UK, Germany (where I researched the book) and in the northeastern US (where I did my doctoral work).
LPS: Excellent. Is there a specific technology you’re using to collect the email addresses?
EJP: My website platform has a function to embed a form on my webpage. Then when someone inputs their email address, it gets sent to me and I store it in a spreadsheet. I don’t know if this would be hugely surprising, but I’m not constantly bombarded with submissions. It’s very manageable to transfer each address over to my spreadsheet one at a time.
LPS: Going back to your book proposal, did you talk explicitly about promotion in your proposal?
EJP: In a manner of speaking. Cambridge has a proposal format that really foregrounds marketing-style thinking. They ask you to begin with a page or so explaining the market niche that your book is filling, and which audiences it is engaging. It was an interesting thought exercise to compose the proposal with this in mind.
LPS: Do you have any tips for other authors who are thinking (and maybe worrying) about book promotion?
EJP: I think a lot of people might be hesitant to take certain steps to promote their book, because it's often conflated with self-promotion. But promoting your book and your research is not the same thing as self-promotion. All kinds of people at all stages of their career should be really savoring this moment, and if they want to, doing what they can to promote their books and share ideas with their target audiences.
LPS: Great. I agree with you, 100%. Thank you so much for making the time to share all of this with my readers!
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If you’d like to get a copy of The Architectural Image and Early Modern Science by Elizabeth Petcu, you can order directly from Cambridge University Press or request that your library acquire the book.
This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing consultant. I help scholarly writers navigate the book publishing process with more ease and agency.
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Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.