Cold Calling professors with a nonfiction work. Guerilla marketing. Or insane?

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Hi.

Insane or good marketing idea? Or both.

From an academic perspective the book's topic is art history.
Podcasts around the book received decent engagement.

The idea:

1 - Do university campus talks around the book. A job in itself to get 20 to 50 people in a room. Why do this? To prove to the art history profs that there's interest when I cold call them during their office hours.

OR, 1a- I could skip the campus talks and just say hi, lending profs a hard copy for the semester.

2- Figure out how to be allowed to present at art history conferences.

Easy things that are wrong with this:

1- No citations.

2- Very factual and detailed, with a bibliography and a 60GB folder of source material I could make avaliable. But. It's not "p.c."
 
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Helix

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What's your goal here?

The answer to 2 is to submit abstracts to conferences. You might or my not have them accepted. But you can always pay the conference fees, attend and network.

How about 3. Submit articles to scholarly journals and/or magazines & websites covering your topic.
 
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The goal? Professor X pays a $$$$ pdf licensing fee out of their budget, or the department budget.


Not yet sure how uni book budgets work, tbh, but I assume profs would be happy to get a % of that fee as a thank you.

Students who want to, can buy their own hard copy.

Prof X tells Prof Y his/her students are actually reading something assigned.

Would consider (more) media coverage, including magazines and journals. It's not written in IAE or academic language, so abstracts may be too abstract a direction.
 
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neandermagnon

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The way to achieve what you say you want to achieve in your 2nd post is to have truly ground-breaking ideas that are written in an entertaining and lively way and are backed up by robust research. If you have that, you don't need to "guerrilla" market it. If it's that good and important, it'll market itself.

If it's a mediocre rehash of not very original ideas and/or not grounded in reality/not backed up by a sane interpretation of the existing evidence, then "guerrilla" marketing is going to make you about as popular as any other cold caller and might get you removed by campus security.

It's worth noting that in academic circles, it doesn't matter how much "engagement" an idea has. What matters is that it's got the research to back it up (i.e. it's not just some random person's crazy delusion). Flat Earth is an idea that gets a lot of engagement (some people believe it and others argue with them and even more people take the blatant piss out of flat Earthers) but it has no place in academia, beyond being an educational tool to teach people either how the ancient Greeks worked out that the world is spherical 3000 years ago, or it can teach people how cognitive dissonance works, by observing people who systematically delude themselves that the Earth is flat.
 

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The goal? Professor X pays a $$$$ pdf licensing fee out of their budget, or the department budget.

That's not how things work at all. An academic's budget is for their own research. The department head is responsible for the department budget and that is for the department not some rando wandering in off the street.
Not yet sure how uni book budgets work, tbh, but I assume profs would be happy to get a % of that fee as a thank you.

Sounds like fraud and/or money laundering to me. An aca uses some of her research budget to pay you and then you give her some of the research money for her own pocket. Hello, university disciplinary committee.

Perhaps you should read up about university presses and approach them directly.

Students who want to, can buy their own hard copy.

Prof X tells Prof Y his/her students are actually reading something assigned.

Good grief, this is getting murkier and murkier.

Would consider (more) media coverage, including magazines and journals. It's not written in IAE or academic language, so abstracts may be too abstract a direction.

If it's not an academic work, why would an aca set it for her students?

Do your homework on university presses or scholarly non-fiction/specialist art publishers and submit to them.

Otherwise, as Neandermagnon says, you might end up escorted off by campus police (USA) or the local plod (elsewhere).
 
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escorted off by campus police (USA)
Did projects on campuses for years and am pretty sure what I have in mind isn't a crime.

I'll check though.


Students who want to, can buy their own hard copy.
Prof X tells Prof Y his/her students are actually reading something assigned.

The pdf is cheaper and X to Y is called "word of mouth".

Thanks for the info on budgets, that's what I'll be asking my academic friends about, how textbook/supplemental texts buying works.
 
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Unimportant

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From an academic perspective the book's topic is art history.
Podcasts around the book received decent engagement.
Pitch it to an agent and get it published as a reference text? (I'm coming at this as a recently retired university academic.)
1 - Do university campus talks around the book. A job in itself to get 20 to 50 people in a room. Why do this? To prove to the art history profs that there's interest when I cold call them during their office hours.
You could try, but universities don't allow people willy-nilly to book a room at no cost and invite people to a talk that could end in a brawl, for all they know. You'd need a university academic to arrange this on your behalf and sponsor it.

ETA: Conversely, universities may allow an outsider to book a lecture hall after hours for their own purposes such as a public talk or a conference, but the individual has to pay for it, and they have to submit a lot of info that lets the university research the person and vet the material and ensure that it's not something likely to end in a brawl, check to make sure it's not controversial/political enough to bring the university into disrepute even though the university isn't sponsoring it, and the individual will also have to pay for the presence of university fire wardens, security, cleaning afterwards, etc.
OR, 1a- I could skip the campus talks and just say hi, lending profs a hard copy for the semester.
You could email everyone in the department with a copy if you liked.
2- Figure out how to be allowed to present at art history conferences.
Follow the conference instructions on submitting an abstract.
1- No citations.
Why not? Conferences and academics are unlikely to touch it with a barge pole without citations.
It's not "p.c."
I've no idea what that means, and frankly don't much care. Either it's based on fact, or it's fantasy.

The goal? Professor X pays a $$$$ pdf licensing fee out of their budget, or the department budget.
If your work is to be used to teach a course, then the university will list the work as required reading (in which case the students have to buy a copy). Textbook publishers used to give me one free copy of their textbooks in my area in the hopes I'd like them enough to use them as the assigned texts for my course.
Not yet sure how uni book budgets work, tbh, but I assume profs would be happy to get a % of that fee as a thank you.
No, no professor wants to be fired for unethical behaviour and academic misconduct for a few dollars.
Prof X tells Prof Y his/her students are actually reading something assigned.
I can't see that this goes anywhere
Would consider (more) media coverage, including magazines and journals. It's not written in IAE or academic language, so abstracts may be too abstract a direction.
This does not sound like it's targeted at university academics and their students, but rather at the lay reader. I think you're pitching this to the wrong audience.
 
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Unimportant

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And, belatedly --

Welcome to Absolute Write. As suggested in the materials you received when you registered, I warmly urge you to go over to the New Members section and start a thread to introduce yourself. It's nice to tell folks a little about yourself (ETA -- and even offer up how you plan to contribute in return to the community you are asking to assist you) -- before you start asking strangers to volunteer help and advice, after all!
 
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Chris P

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As Helix and Unimportant point out, there are more than a few issues with this approach. I echo the advice to learn a bit about how books (including textbooks and supporting materials) get into the hands of profs and then get assigned to students.

I only had a non-teaching adjunct appointment with a US university for a few years, but between having access to the high-end academic textbook publishers (Oxford Univ Press, Taylor and Francis, Blackwell) and getting my badge scanned at the expos at conferences, I was deluged with options for books, some of them written by people I know to be authorities on the subject. There's no reason I would be tempted to review and consider assigning students a book by someone with no credentials who is unknown in the field. An email solicitation from someone I don't know is going to get, at best, a "thanks but not thanks" reply, but more likely will get completely ignored. Even if there were no legal or ethical issues with this (and I'm not saying there are, I don't know) it's likely to be tons more work than it's worth.

As Unimportant points out, if you are going for the lay reader, there are other options you could pursue. Find out who is publishing similar books to yours and explore that model.
 

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Many professors have a hand in writing their own texts for their classes to buy. They're not outsourcing that.
Because I know students are cash-strapped, and there are now heaps of excellent free resources online with CC licensed material, I used to create my own study guides (usually ~200 pages for a semester course) and lab manuals, and give them to my students. I did have a sufficient budget allocated to give them print copies for free. Updating them yearly kept me current in the field and acted as a refresher for me, so win-win!
 

mccardey

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From a marketing point of view, this idea is based on the concept that guerilla = inexpensive. It really doesn't. It also needs to be very much cleverer than this.

Most importantly it needs research - really basic stuff which you don't seem to have done. In marketing, there's an art to making something seem 'guerilla' rather than shoddy. I don't think you've nailed that. I haven't done any research at all but I'd be extremely surprised to learn, for instance, that a professor could choose an unsupported teaching text on the basis that she gets a kickback.
 
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The pdf is cheaper and X to Y is called "word of mouth".
Pretty much all textbooks nowadays are available in the less expensive PDF format.
Thanks for the info on budgets, that's what I'll be asking my academic friends about, how textbook/supplemental texts buying works.
Would you be willing to share why you didn't ask your academic friends about how this works before approaching a bunch of rando strangers on the internet and asking for help?

ETA: Office hours are set aside for students. During that time we don't meet with sales reps, or have coffee with colleagues, or whatever. So that'd probably be the worst possible time to cold-call academics. Better to email them and say "I'll be on campus next Tuesday, would you be willing to meet with me" the way all standard sales reps do.
 

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To follow on from Unimp's suggestion about emailing them, you need to show the academics you contact exactly how your book fits into their course(s) and the benefit of adopting it as a text. That's a lot of homework for you.
 

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Prof X tells Prof Y his/her students are actually reading something assigned.
Bet profs don't spend that much of their off-duty time talking with their colleagues about their students that specifically.
Also, how can you guarantee that much reader engagement? Unless you have written a lavishly illustrated history of the nude in art through the eras?
 

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Don't forget that textbooks often come with support materials, including study guides, lecture notes, question banks etc, which make an overworked and underpaid aca's life a bit easier. Can you offer those?
 

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Less interesting than you might think...
Yes, but a title that might appeal to undergrads.
I mean, as an adult, I bought a book called "Bright Earth', which explores the history and techniques of ground-earth pigments.
But I am an arts/crafts nerd, so I was fascinated.

When I was 18 and at Uni, and had to spend my own money on it? Especially if it wasn't an 'essential' text? I'd have been annoyed at small, dense print and few illustrations.
 
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An email solicitation from someone I don't know is going to get, at best, a "thanks but not thanks" reply, but more likely will get completely ignored

Which is why an in-person approach might be useful.

Thanks for the feedback, all noted.
 
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Helix

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An email solicitation from someone I don't know is going to get, at best, a "thanks but not thanks" reply, but more likely will get completely ignored

Which is why an in-person approach might be useful.

How are you going to know when an academic is in their office?

Thanks for the feedback, all noted.

Do go to the New Members forum and introduce yourself!
 

Chris P

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An email solicitation from someone I don't know is going to get, at best, a "thanks but not thanks" reply, but more likely will get completely ignored

Which is why an in-person approach might be useful.

Thanks for the feedback, all noted.

Not to be harsh, but you will spend more money on the first visit than you are likely to make from the whole endeavor. I know I'm going to sound like a bitter old timer set in my ways, but I have solid non-fic credentials (which pale in comparison to others in this very thread who have been providing input--we know this space).

How many books do you hope to sell? Even if you're in a city with a large university and a few colleges or branches of other universities, I doubt there are going to be more than one maybe two profs in that entire city who would specialize in that topic. If they aren't interested, it's off to the next city at your own expense to take the same gamble. Even if you are successful with one, that prof is going to be very much less invested than you are in word of mouth recommendations. At very best, you might get one to write a review. The only time I've written such a review was at the request of the editor of a professional society magazine (not the book's author) and I have maybe only once bought a book for my own interests based on a review.

I really honestly and truly think you will be much better off approaching publishers and their powerful marketing folks, promotion apparatus, and networks (and making them do the hard and expensive work). Self-publishing in the non-fic world makes sense if you have the platform and network already in place, and have the means to do the hard work. As you've described the situation, you're facing suuuper long odds, to put it lightly.
 

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High cost (higher if campus security can fine someone), virtually no chance of success and only one close campus enough to try this at without spending even more funds and time on travel?

I don't see this as anything but a losing proposition with far lower odds than the trade publishing route.
 
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CMBright

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Go ahead and try. If trade publishing is winning lotterty ticket in your pocket odds, I'd expect walking in during office hours to random professors to be getting hit with a meteor with a winning lottery ticket in your pocket odds based on the advice in this thread.

I am seeing a whole lot of issues with this stunt. I am seeing it as a stunt and a stunt that might get campus security involved. Which might get you barred from one or more campuses depending on the university policies. What professor(s) are you targeting? When are their office hours? What is the campus policy for solicitation? (That is a legal question AW can't answer, by the way, you'd need to look into it yourself.)

Costs: gas, parking, time that could be spent writing or working, possible fines (depending on campus whether campus security gets involved, if they can issue fines and what policies they can reasonably say you broke, such as solicitation), possible legal costs if you dispute possible fines instead of just paying them.

Cost for looking for trade publication? Cost to send an email. Which you are paying anyway if you own a computer and have a home internet service. And I'd expect to have much better odds of being successful. And if the publisher is large enough, will do your marketing as part of the publication deal.

In the end, it's up to you.
 
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