Promoting your work

We actively engage with our authors to help them promote their titles and work, via our extensive network of agents and distributors, to make all books easily accessible world-wide.

No one should understand the market for their book better than the author, however, and there are many ways you can raise the profile of your book (whether you are the author, or a contributor to an edited volume). We’ve listed some suggestions below – not all of these may be appropriate for your title and you may have additional ideas, specific to your title, which we would be pleased to discuss with you.

It’s important to consider all possible audiences for your title – this will include readers directly within the field of research, but don’t forget about non-specialist audiences who may have an interest in the title because it is particularly topical, or whether your work has relevance to other disciplines. Might it be a useful inclusion on university reading lists? Our Promotion Information Form is a valuable resource to consider when it comes to marketing your work.

 Increasing your book’s visibility

• Add information about your book to your university/personal homepage (where possible, linking to the book information page on the Cambridge Scholars website)
• Add a link to your book on your email signature
• Link to information about your book from your Virtual Learning Environment
• Ask your organisation’s library to stock at least one copy
• Let us know if local bookshops should be holding stock (e.g. if your title might be appropriate for reading lists) so we can work with them on this
• Are you speaking at a conference? Remember to let us know (at least a month in advance) so we can send you promotional materials to distribute, where appropriate. It may also be possible (with at least three months’ notice) to arrange delegate pack inserts, or for print copies to be available for purchase.
• Remember to let your university press office or organisation’s PR team know about the new publication. They may be able to help you promote it or mention it in forthcoming university publications. 
• Is your book particularly topical, or has a book you’ve published with us in the past become topical due to news events, for example? Do tell us about this and we can work with you on ensuring that the relevant news outlets are aware of the title.
• Ask your peers for testimonials and endorsements – these can be included in the print edition if received during the production process, but are of great value at any stage as they can be added to the book information on our website and used on future promotional materials.
• Ask colleagues/contacts to review your book on Amazon and other sites, and suggest publications to us which might be interested in reviewing the title.

 Social media

• Promote the title on your LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter account
• Share information about your book on listservs and discussion forums
• Set up a blog discussing key themes in your book.
• Remember: it’s important not to spam people with direct marketing messages, but to use social networks to communicate key messages from your book as part of relevant discussions or to start a debate.  People will be interested in your research and insights – the book is an interesting and valuable by-product, but a far more effective way of raising your profile (and thereby that of your book) is by promoting its core ideas.

 Raising your profile

• Create a Google Scholar public author profile to keep track of your publications and their impact. See https://scholar.google.co.uk/intl/en/scholar/citations.html#overview
• Create an Amazon author page at https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/