I'd Appreciate Your Input...

Hi!

Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you are a new fantasy publisher. Suppose that it was your plan to publish a fantasy trilogy over two and a half years. Now imagine that the books (but especially the first one) basically stand alone, and can be read without regard to each other, but when read together the story is enhanced and fully realized.

Now since you're the publisher, how would your approach the marketing of each book vis-a-vis the cover. Would you note on the front cover that Book I is book one of a trilogy, or would you leave that to the back cover, or not at all? What would you do?

Remembering the economics of the situation( i.e. new, small publisher), and that it will be a year for the second book to come out and then another half a year for the third book to come out. Also, note that in the first book's previous life it was something of a cult hit which garnered much publicity on its own. Imagine also, that this book is being completely revised and will feature an introduction by a famous genre writer and a killer cover by a famous, and extremely talented, genre cover artist.

What would you do? I truly appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Thanks very much, my friends. Anyone else?

sunandshadow said:

Or if I was really the publisher I'd consider publishing them closer together and marketing them together.

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Oh boy, I'd love to be able to do this, but it's impractical for a few reasons:

1)Economic: These aren't going to be POD books. These books are being professionally edited, with top rate professional cover work. We have to pay these people well. We also have to pay for the introduction (no pros write anything for free). We're looking at preproduction costs of at least $2,000 per book. Off-set print runs for 1,000-2,000 books run between $3,000 and $4000 (per book). Then there's distribution costs and marketing costs. The only place to save money with your way would be on marketing. I'm first and foremost a business woman. This isn't a vanity project, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think there was real money to be made here. This business has to support itself. I wouldn't invest that much money (to pub all three books back to back) if I had it.

2)Time constraints: For obvious reasons, there are advantages to using the same editing/cover/preproduction team on all three books. They don't have time to do all three books so close to each other. My timeline is about the best I can expect. These people are pros who take other jobs, they don't just work for me.

3)The Power of the First Book: The first book will be relatively easy to market. People want this book. It's hard to find a used copy for less than $70.00 in the US (in the UK you can't usually find one for less than 200 pounds). Plus I have a very innovation trick up my sleeve for a viral marketing campaign that will work best with the first book.

I will however try to bring out books two and three as closely as I can to each other, and as closely as I can after the first book, but publishing is hard work, and it does take time to do things right. Thank you though, I appreciate the thought, and your input.