Publishers Design Group | Custom Publishing: Case Study

Custom Publishing: Promoting a Service

CUSTOM PUBLISHING: EXTENDING MARKET REACH

Custom publishing is an excellent platform for a service business to extend its market reach. If the book is unique, it may qualify for being shelved in the bookstores and on Amazon. If it can catch the attention of experts in the category, it can propel the author or product to the top of a potential customer’s short-list.

Candidates that can benefit from custom publishing include: editorial and publishing services, marketing and publicity agencies, travel consultants, fitness coaches, fishing and hunting guiding services, financial planners, management consultants and training program developers, and art teachers, to name a few.

CASE STUDY: ULTIMATE RIVERS Publishing Program

Publishing Goals: Ultimate Rivers runs one of the top guiding services in Alaska and Russia. Their customers learn about them primarily through referrals and articles in fishing magazines. The client wanted to use book publishing as a way to extend its market reach, to further establish the author as an expert, and as a springboard for future publishing projects.

Primary Consideration: How to create and sell the highest priced book in an oversaturated, niche category, profitably.

Primary Solution: Establish the book through credible expert endorsements as “the most comprehensive, definitive resource” in its category, and clearly distinguish it from its competition through striking page design and brilliant content organization.

Price-point Issues: The prevailing consensus of the book trade was that a 464-page, full-color edition, retailing for $34.95, could not compete with a typical 250-page, black and white fishing guide priced at $19.95. Research at the consumer level indicated otherwise.

Client Consultation: For this title to have a fighting chance in the marketplace and to achieve the client’s overall publishing goals, we suggested that nothing be spared in two key areas: Design and Production and Pre-launch Marketing efforts.

Marketing Approach (pre-launch)
Research showed that of the 400,000 people who travel to Alaska annually to fish, the majority planned their trip by consulting with the top twelve relevant magazines and websites on Alaska fishing. Research also showed that the gateway to reaching this audience was through the editorial departments of these publications, not their advertising departments.

Early in the project’s development stage, an effort was launched to acquire as many major, prominent endorsements from the sport fishing media as possible. A full-color, 16-page, pre-publication promotional piece (catalog) was produced that highlighted every aspect of the book—its thoroughness, stellar photography, reader-friendly organization, and excellent writing by the top ten fishing experts. This effort garnered over a dozen endorsements from major magazines, newspaper fishing columnists, fishing experts, and fishing book publishers. The endorsements were placed on the back cover of the book and were used to convince consumers that this was the best, most comprehensive book ever published on Alaska fishing. This allowed the author and the publisher to make no claims about the book; instead, book sales were driven by the credibility of the powerful endorsements.

Design & Production Approach
Early in the project’s development, the vast amount of information (300,000 words and over 500 photos, charts, and diagrams) was organized. The book needed to be user-friendly and easily navigated. A template with three major sections and dozens of chapters was created with enough flexibility to handle various photo sizes and different amounts of text on each spread.

Marketing Approach (Post-launch)
The magazine editors who submitted endorsements for the back cover were sent finished books upon publication. They were then asked to feature a review in the publications they represented. As a result, the book was highly applauded in these publications, which helped garner more attention from other media, allowing the author to then publish dozens of full-length articles and features in national magazines and newspapers that catered to his core audience as well as secondary audiences, such as travel, seniors, and conservation groups. The title went on to win seven national book awards and has been cited and written about in over thirty publications by other writers. Each article, feature, new endorsement, or award offered opportunities to create more publicity. As a result, Alaska Fishing has been the best-selling book on Alaska fishing in bookstores, sporting retailers, travel concessionaires, on Amazon, and through direct mail and websites for three years running. The author is consistently invited to speak at major sporting expositions, nationwide.

Line Extension
In early 2007, PDG and Ultimate Rivers created a 32-page, saddle-stitched, 4” x 7”, full-color pocket-guide that would be used as a premium incentive for customers responding to advertising for the big book. The booklet, Alaska Pocket Fishing Guide, not only served the client well as a giveaway item for direct sales of the big book, but was also used to promote the big book on a promotional page within, and has been so well-received by retailers that it is now being sold in point-of-purchase counter displays, as a stand-alone booklet, at hundreds of travel concessionaires in the Northwest. Selling at $7.50 each, sales are projected to be well over 50,000 units, annually. Plans are to extend the line further with the release of several other pocket guides over the next two years.

Publishing Model
Alaska Fishing was a Custom Publishing project and was eventually published to the book trade by PDG. The client, Ultimate Rivers, handled all other retail and wholesale venues in the sport fishing market, including all sales and distribution of Alaska Pocket Fishing Guide.