Tracy Barrett discusses ‘Marabel and the Book of Fate,’ a series opener that both uses and subverts fairy-tale stereotypes and conventions as a princess sets out to rescue her “Chosen One” twin brother.
Those early decisions contributed to the 25-year-old press being named one of 25 best small companies in the U.S. last month in Forbes’s second annual list of “Small Giants.” Barefoot, with annual sales of $5 million, was the only publisher to be so honored, along with a number of significantly larger businesses like the Dansko shoe company, with revenue of $120 million. The press made its numbers with a staff of 23, including three people in the U.K., plus interns.
For Traversy, who started the business when her first child was three weeks old, the question has long been, “How do we reach more children?” In searching for the answer, she told PW in a recent conversation at her office, “The values that underpin the business haven’t changed. Parents want to introduce kids to other cultures, and they don’t want [books] to be dumbed down. We’re about bridges, not boundaries. What we’re doing is timely.” She acknowledged that Barefoot has a particular audience. “We don’t appeal to everyone,” Traversy said. “We attract a lot of multicultural families and children with disabilities.”
But it’s not just Barefoot’s longtime emphasis on branding and on multicultural books and products that make it stand out. It’s also the way it went about lowering returns and maintaining the value of its books in the marketplace. In 2006, Traversy and Strickland cut off sales to what were then the top two chains in the U.S., Barnes & Noble and Borders. In 2013, they stopped selling to Amazon in North America and the U.K. That same year, Barefoot terminated its trade sales force. At one point, Barefoot also had 150 gift reps. Its books are available to booksellers through Ingram and Baker & Taylor.
To find new readers, Barefoot experimented by opening a bookstore/community center near its Cambridge offices in November 2001, where customers could not only buy Barefoot’s books but read manuscripts and weigh in on jacket designs for forthcoming titles. In 2010, Traversy moved the store closer to her home in Concord, Mass.; the store closed in 2015. There was also a short-lived boutique inside the FAO Schwarz flagship location on Fifth Avenue in New York City, which opened just ahead of the recession in 2008, as well as a bookstore and café on Strickland’s side of the pond in Oxford, England. “I decided not to renew the leases,” Traversy said, “because we’re going to focus and grow in North America.” She still values her readers’ opinions and seeks them out on Facebook.
Traversy’s latest efforts to diversify and grow the company’s income have begun to pay off. Roughly 65% of Barefoot’s business comes from the trade; with the remaining 35% from the web and homesellers. In the first quarter of 2017, trade sales rose 23% in the U.S., with direct and Ambassador sales up 46%. U.K. sales through trade wholesalers were also up in the double digits, 40%. To boost Canadian sales, Barefoot has begun releasing more French translations; it has long published Spanish-language editions. Last fall Barefoot began working with Fraser Direct in Milton, Ontario, to handle consumer direct and Ambassador fulfillment. Fire the Imagination is the press’s exclusive distributor to the Canadian trade.
At its peak, Barefoot published 24–26 new English-language titles. Now it is aiming for 10–14 new titles, along with reissues. Last year it published 22 books: 13 new releases, including Spanish and French translations, as well as nine reissues. To date the press has published more than 600 books. Many of its bestsellers have been selling steadily for more than a decade. Traversy said that the popular illustrated deck Yoga Pretzels is on track to sell between 35,000 and 40,000 decks in 2017. That’s one reason why she’s especially excited to have Mindful Kids, which is in the same format, on the upcoming fall list.
Although Traversy is proud of the company’s 2012 app, The Barefoot World Atlas, which has had four million downloads and earned its money back in six weeks, she has no plans for more. Nor is she interested in broadening the company’s coverage of children’s books to include YA. “We always want to publish illustrated books,” Traversy said. One area where she does want to continue to focus is on independent bookstores and libraries. Barefoot plans to increase its presence at book and library shows. It will also continue to reach out to literacy programs like Books for Africa.
“Now at 25 years,” Traversy said, “we want to focus on getting the word out. We’ve worked out that we’ve put over 20 million books in kids’ hands. I’d like to make that 200 million.”
June 16, 2017Marketing a Book on Any Budget, Part 1: On The Cheap
Book marketing can be a challenging—and very expensive—task for most indie authors. After spending months working on a novel or work of nonfiction, for no pay or advance, many authors find they have little money for buying up targeted ads, hiring a publicist, or giving author websites all the bells and whistles. So what are cash-strapped authors' options for book marketing on the cheap?
Build a Website
Even authors who make a habit of digging under couch cushions for spare change can afford and should invest in a professional website. Author websites remain the foundation of marketing campaigns, and the central place where curious readers should be directed to learn about books, events, and promotions. And while author websites are vital, they don't need to cost much.
Hosting a basic website through a service like WordPress will cost $18 to register a domain and $13 per year to maintain it after that. Creating and hosting the site on WordPress ranges from no charge for a basic free site to $8.25 per month for a premium template that allows for additional audio, video, etc. There are tutorials available on YouTube to help authors learn how to get the most out of available templates. From these baseline options, authors may find it worthwhile to make a few additional investments.
“You can get a premium theme that is mobile friendly and SEO optimized for around $80, which will help discoverability,” says Joanna Penn, author of How to Market a Book, who writes about book marketing at TheCreativePenn.com. She adds that she recently redesigned her own website and is “definitely a fan of off-the-shelf design than can be upgraded over time.”
Those looking for a wider selection of options and higher level of design quality can consider services such as Squarespace. The company offers some beautiful templates, ideal for authors who want to make visuals central to their sites. But the basic Personal package will set you back $12 a month—more than some authors might feel comfortable spending.
Whether authors opt for basic or more advanced options, the key is to have a site with eye-catching information about books (and where they can be purchased), news and events, and contact details. And none of this needs to put a deep dent in self-publishers’ pocketbooks.
Get Social and Discoverable
With a professional website in place, the next essential step is letting readers know about your books. This is easier and cheaper than ever thanks to the wealth of social-media and book-discovery platforms available to authors, most of which are free.
“Choose one or two social-media platforms where your audience is and start an account,” advises Jan Bear, author of Target Marketing for Authors. “Get to know people, have conversations. Begin by being supportive before your book is out, and then when your book is ready, if it's good, your friends will help you promote it.”
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest all have their advantages and all cost nothing. So authors can easily create accounts from which they can connect with other book enthusiasts and fans of specific genres.
Authors will also want to get on book-specific social platforms, particularly Goodreads, as well as LibraryThing. These are great places to connect directly with book clubs or interest groups, to connect with influential voices in these communities, and to run giveaways and other promotions. Besides the time it takes to update these profiles and to research whom to target, an author does not have to spend a dime to use these platforms as effective marketing tools.
And finally, authors should pitch their titles to book bloggers and writers who review self-published books for free.
Write Away
Authors can also get some cheap, effective marketing by using their writing skills to help draw attention to books. This begins with blogging (or creating video, audio, or other engaging content) regularly, ensuring that it is engaging, shareable, and gives visitors a reason to check back. Authors can get the most from these posts by sharing them on their social media sites and syndicating them on Goodreads and elsewhere.
But writers don’t have to stay only on their own blogs. An useful and free marketing tool is offering guest posts to other book blogs or submitting articles at outlets read by relevant audiences.
“You get introduced to new readers, the readers get introduced to a new writer, and the host blogger gets a break,” Bear says of guest blogging. She adds that authors can extend this idea with a “blog book tour” when books are first released, in which they “schedule guest posts with relevant bloggers over a period of time—say, a week—and list the stops" on their websites.
Bear adds that of course there is another way authors can use their writing to help promote new books, and all their previous works: get to work on the next book.
The Children’s Book Council has announced the inaugural Reading Beyond book list, an annotated bibliography for parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians, and others seeking book recommendations for children who read at an advanced level. The list will be updated biennially.
The 75 books featured on the 2017 Reading Beyond list were selected by the ALA-CBC Joint Committee from more than 600 books submitted by publishers and librarians. Titles were evaluated with an eye toward challenging yet age-appropriate content for young readers.
The list represents a variety of genres and formats, and is divided into three categories, with 25 books each: for kindergarten and first graders reading at a third grade level; for second and third graders reading at a fifth grade level; and for fourth and fifth graders reading at a seventh grade level.
To read the article, click here: CNC Launches Reading Beyond Book List by Emma Kantor, Jun 13, 2017
Publishing’s Bright Future (Really!)
Here’s good news for publishing: printed objects offer time away from the news cycle, a hot commodity these days. Compared to pricey floats in a sensory deprivation tank or self-led meditation sessions where you usually end up making grocery lists rather than taking deep breaths, books offer an affordable and easy escape from reality, including the unsavory one unfolding on our touchscreens.
That’s not to say that digital publishing won’t continue to prosper—people aren’t ready to say sayonara to their screens—but rather that it’s going to become a status symbol of mindfulness to be seen reading a book.
Read her article here in Publishers Weekly.
Publishers Weekly PW KidsCast
Interviews with children's and YA authors conducted by Publishers Weekly children's reviews editor John A. Sellers. Jerry Spinelli, Marcus Pfister, Kwame Alexander, Maggie Stiefvater, A.S. King, David Shannon, Matthew Reinhart, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Kenny Loggins – listen to these and other top writers and artists discuss their new books for children and teens in the PW KidsCast podcast.
