Author Toolkit

Marketing Timeline

1. Once you sign your contract and complete peer review and revisions, your book is officially slotted into a season—Fall/Winter or Spring/Summer.
2. About 12 months before publication, we ask that you complete the Author Information Form (AIF).
3. AIFs inform catalog and jacket copy, and marketing begins planning.
4. About 9 months before publication, we ask that you complete the Marketing Questionnaire and submit an author photo.
5. About 6 months before publication, the catalog is finished and sent to customers, distributors, and retailers. Electronic catalog and data feed are sent to online vendors and databases, which makes books available for preorder. You can begin sharing preorder information about the book to your own contacts and networks.
6. About 5–6 months before publication, marketing sales reps start working to secure preorders; publicists begin pitching titles to media contacts; and the marketing team plans and implements promotions, advertising, and electronic marketing.
7. About 4–6 weeks before publication, books are received at the warehouse and publicists send publication announcements and review copies to media outlets. We try to include your media suggestions as much as possible and we make additional pitches when appropriate.
8. Publication: We announce new books on our email lists and social media. Publicity continues to follow up with pitches and requests.
9. Seasonally and Ongoing: Your book is included in appropriate advertising, conference exhibits, and programs, and included in digital marketing efforts. Your acquisitions team will handle awards submissions.

Terminology to Know

Backorders/Pre-orders: Each season sales representatives call on buyers, distribute a list of the forthcoming books, and solicit preorders. These become backorders, which are considered in setting an initial printing. Especially given changes and uncertainty in the supply chain, it’s very difficult to reprint a book quickly after its release. The more we know about demand in advance, the better we can adjust print runs and ensure we don’t go out of stock during the first months following publication.

Blurb: An advance promotional quote that may be used for a book’s cover/jacket and in marketing materials. At UTP, the acquisition department solicits these, usually as soon as typeset pages of your book are available.

Catalog (Seasonal): Historically, publishing houses primarily communicated with their accounts via printed seasonal catalogs in which they announced their offerings for the next fall or spring. With electronic metadata and online catalogs dominant today, print catalogs are used less frequently by reps during their calls on booksellers and buyers.

EPUB: A free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It is an XML-based file type designed for reflowable content. The only major e-reading device on which you can’t read an EPUB is the Amazon Kindle. Amazon converts ebooks to their own format.

Galleys/Advanced Reading Copies: Typically printed from uncorrected typeset pages, advance proofs are used by the marketing department to send to media and sales contacts.

ISBN: International Standard Book Number. Unique identifier for books, managed by Bowker, an information management company.

Media Kit: An online folder of all the essentials that media and reviewers need to consider your book for review. Generally, this includes a high-res image of your book’s cover, an author photo if we received one, and an electronic (watermarked) PDF of the book for review. Media kits are not shared publicly.

Publication Date: The date on which your book goes “public.” Since moving physical copies between printers, distributors, and retailers takes some time, we set a publication date approximately 4–6 weeks after books are received at our warehouse. This gives us sufficient time to distribute books to vendors, and for our marketing and publicity team to send review copies.

Review list: A list of media contacts selected to receive finished copies of a book when it is available. These are the people we deem most likely to write/talk about the book.

Season: Typically, there are two major selling seasons, fall and spring. Some big trade houses have a winter season. UT Press seasons generally run September–February and March–August.

Trade: The wider book trade, aimed at general readers. Trade publishing is an area of publishing like academic publishing, textbook publishing, and technical publishing.

University Press: The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) explains it best. See https://aupresses.org/about-aupresses/.

Download our Social Media Author Guide.

Coming soon!

Each year the University of Texas Press attends numerous scholarly meetings and trade conferences and staffs various regional exhibits in support of new and forthcoming publications. Whether staff members attend in person or virtually, we regularly offer discounts on titles in relevant disciplines. Our acquisitions team is excited to greet all of those who attend and offer more information on current projects, submitting proposals, and more.

Below, you will find a list of meetings that the University of Texas Press regularly attends and advertises.* Please follow this page to connect with us, and if you happen to miss us at a meeting, don’t hesitate to be in touch with our acquisitions team.

*The list below is not exhaustive. If you feel that your upcoming conference or exhibit would be a great fit, please reach out to our exhibits coordinator at exhibits@utpress.utexas.edu.

Scholarly Meetings

• African American Intellectual History Society
• American Anthropological Association
• American Historical Association
• American Institute of Archaeology/Society for Classical Studies Joint Meeting
• American Studies Association
• College Art Association
• Latin American Studies Association
• Latina/o Studies Association
• Middle East Studies Association
• National Association of Chicano/a Studies
• National Women’s Studies Association
• Organization of American Historians
• Popular Culture Association
• Society for American Archaeology
• Society for Architectural Historians
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• Texas State Historical Association
• Western History Association

Trade Conferences & Regional Exhibits

• Boerne Book Festival
• San Antonio Book Festival
• Texas Book Festival
• Texas Library Association
• Texas Tribune Festival
• Winter Institute

Flyers and Marketing Materials

High-resolution cover images are available for many of our titles and do not require permission for publicity or promotional use. Search for your book on our website and click on “Download cover image” beneath the cover. If a larger image does not appear, a hi-res image is not available.

Book flyers or sellsheets are available for many of our titles. Our book flyer template makes it easy to promote your book or event. Search for your book’s page and click on “Download book flyer” beneath the cover image. If a PDF does not download from your browser, a file is not available.

If you have any questions or need other promotional materials, please contact us at publicity@utpress.utexas.edu.

Catalogs

Your book is featured in our seasonal catalog, which is distributed physically and digitally to booksellers, retail contacts, and librarians in the United States and abroad. In addition, more than 1,500 targeted media outlets including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television also receive the catalog. And, of course, we will include your book in future promotional pieces and subject catalogs whenever appropriate. You may find our seasonal and subject catalogs available for download.

Social Media

Your book will be featured on its own page on our website as soon as the seasonal catalog featuring your book goes to the printer. Your book will only be available for preorder until we receive finished copies from the printer, and we will be sharing the link to your book in our social media promotions. If you have a website of your own, we encourage you to link to your book on the UT Press website. We can also include a link to your personal website on your UT Press book page, if you wish.

If you actively use social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), you are encouraged to talk about your book and its contents. However, if you don’t currently use social media, it is not necessary to do so. The press has active social accounts and would love to have you as a follower! If you plan to post about your book on social media, please tag us @UTexasPress and we will be happy to share with our audiences. For more information on how to use social media as an author and best practices, please download our Social Media Author Guide.

Email Marketing

The University of Texas Press has a dedicated and robust email marketing program that announces available titles to scholars and readers interested in each of our core publishing areas. We announce new books monthly to our email subscribers, as well as in targeted campaigns:

• Your book will be included in relevant subject-specific email campaigns sent to our database of email subscribers, which include academics and students, book reviewers, booksellers, librarians, students, and general readers.
• Your book will be featured in a stand-alone publication announcement email sent to our subscribers in relevant fields.
• Your book will be included in subject-specific emails promoting conference and event discounts.
• If appropriate for course use, your book will also be featured in a stand-alone course adoption pitch to instructors in relevant fields

We appreciate your input on our marketing questionnaires, where we ask for a list of individuals in your network or field that should receive your book’s publication announcement. We will use your suggestions as the basis for our email outreach. Do you belong to any societies or associations we could contact to offer a discount? Please let us know!

To ensure announcements about your book reach your target audience, please use the “Forward this email” function when you receive our emails to disperse to friends, colleagues, your librarian, and established leaders in your field. If your friends and colleagues would like to be notified when your book becomes available, our email list is the best source for new book news. You can help us increase the number of people who see our emails by directing people to sign up for our email list: http://bit.ly/UTPEmail. (Please note that we are subject to data-protection laws and will only email people with permission, giving them the chance to opt out of any future communication.)

When sharing your book with instructors who may adopt your book for course use, please spread the word that all books are available as digital examination copies to review before adoption and can be requested directly from our website here.

Email lists and professional listservs can be excellent ways to reach interested readers. Unfortunately, many lists have policies against commercial postings, which would make it inappropriate for the press to announce a book there. In most cases the author is granted permission to mention their own book. If you personally subscribe to any email lists that would be good places to promote your book, please feel free to do so. Any questions about digital marketing can be directed to Bailey Morrison at bmorrison@utpress.utexas.edu.

Advertising

We selectively advertise our books in magazines, journals, newsletters, academic conference programs, and online outlets. These ads may include other books of interest to the same readership. We do ask for your input in the marketing questionnaire regarding which outlets might be best suited for advertising. Though our budget may not allow us to advertise in all of the media you recommend, your input is invaluable to our planning process.

Sales overview

The University of Texas Press sells books through multiple channels to reach readers and scholars. Our sales team sells to distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, making books available to consumers all over the world. We also sell books directly to consumers via our website, subject and seasonal catalogs, promotional materials and emails, author events, and academic conferences and exhibits. Also, we license or distribute ebooks when we have the necessary electronic rights and can identify appropriate target markets; our ebooks are available to individuals on all major ebook platforms (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play, and Kobo). Our ebooks are also available to participating libraries through Ebrary, Ebsco, De Gruyter, OverDrive, 3M, JSTOR, and the Project MUSE University Press Content Consortium. Please ask your local library for details on how to access the ebooks in its collection.

Please find information on book orders here, and information on our sales representation here.

Author Discount

Authors also order copies of their books directly through the Chicago Distribution Center (CDC) customer service department via the contact information below. Please be sure to reference your author discount. You will be asked to pay for your order at the time that you place it. If you have questions about your discount, please email info@utpress.utexas.edu prior to placing an order.

• Phone orders: (800) 621-2736 (USA/Canada) or (888) 630-9347 (TTY Toll Free)
• Fax orders: (800) 621-8476 (USA/Canada)
• Email orders: orders@press.uchicago.edu

If you need copies of your book for an upcoming event, please place your order with CDC at least three weeks in advance to ensure timely delivery. Be sure to let CDC know the date of your event. If the order is time sensitive, we suggest you call CDC directly instead of sending an email.

For authors in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific (EMEA/APAC), please contact our distributor, Combined Academic Publishers, at enquiries@combinedacademic.co.uk or call +44 (0)1423 526350.

Sales FAQs

What happens when my book arrives in the warehouse?

Once the books arrive, they are inspected for quality, shelved, recorded into inventory, and activated in our database. Once that happens,

• Our acquisitions department will order your contractual gratis copies.
• Your publicist will have review copies sent to appropriate reviewers/journalists.
• The warehouse will begin releasing orders to wholesalers, bookstores, online vendors, libraries, book reviewers, and anyone else who has preordered the book. Orders placed after publication are shipped as soon as the order is received and processed by our warehouse (usually within a day or two).
• For international distribution, books are shipped by boat to warehouses in Europe, Asia, and Australia. This takes about a month.
• Ebooks become available on devices and at institutional aggregators on a book’s publication date.

Will the press sell my book online?

Your book will have a dedicated page on the University of Texas Press website where prospective readers can purchase the book directly. Our books are also available for purchase from online retailers such as Bookshop.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com. We supply online retailers with descriptive information and book covers prior to publication, and we update the information frequently. Despite our best efforts, data occasionally become corrupted, resulting in erroneous information on the site. Please let us know at info@utpress.utexas.edu if you spot an error so that we can get it corrected.

Can I get a custom order form for my book?

Yes! Search for your book’s page and click on “Download book flyer” beneath the cover image. If a PDF does not download from your browser, a file is not available, but you may email us at info@utpress.utexas.edu and we will be happy to send you a PDF of your custom book flyer. Each book flyer offers a 25 percent discount off the retail price of your book for purchases made directly from UT Press.

I’ve been invited to a workshop. Can I take a small inventory of my book with me to sell?

We advise authors to work with the organizers of the event to arrange for on-site sales. Here are a few options:

• Many local bookstores, including campus bookstores, will handle on-site sales. The store will purchase copies of your book and send a representative to the event to sell books. All you have to do is bring a pen.
• The host organization might be willing to handle book sales. They can purchase the book at a bulk discount and make a little profit for their organization. If this is an option, please put the organizer in touch with your publicist at publicity@utpress.utexas.edu.
• If on-site sales are not possible, bring a stack of printed book flyers and a sample copy of your book. Attendees can order books at a discount on our website or by phone, fax, or mail through the Chicago Distribution Center. Please email us at info@utpress.utexas.edu with any questions.

There will be a book exhibit at a conference I am attending. Will the press have a booth?

If the conference is not one we normally attend , we may be able to arrange book sales through a third-party exhibition company. If that is not possible, we will send a display copy of your book and book flyers with information about ordering. Please let us know as soon as you have made your plans so that we have time to make arrangements and flyers.

How can I find out how many books have sold? And when will I receive royalties?

Please contact your sponsoring editor to be updated on how many books have been shipped or sold. Unless stated otherwise in your contract, you will receive your annual royalty statement by March 31.