“No book is for everyone, but every book is for someone.” —Al Hsu, Senior Editor

Marketing is the business of promoting or selling a product or service. At IVP, we define marketing as the strategic process of helping make each book discoverable by its rightful readers.

One of the keys to our marketing success is how we partner with our authors to create customized strategies and to provide high-touch support throughout the publishing process. There is nothing boiler plate about our marketing efforts. We take the time to understand what is unique about your book, your audience, and your networks to craft marketing strategies that work.

View the video below to get an overview of our marketing process.

There are three main categories of marketing: paid, unpaid or free, and direct. When we market your book, we utilize each of these categories. Let’s dig into these categories.

Paid marketing is just as it sounds: we pay to advertise your book. This includes print and media advertising, digital advertising, collateral and creative projects, and events. See below for some examples of paid marketing.

• Print and Media Advertising:this includes ads in magazines, journals, conference programs, etc.
• Digital Advertising includes ads through 3rd party email lists, websites, and online vehicles (e.g., Amazon ads), as well as podcast ads. If there’s a digital space where your audience lives and an opportunity to advertise, we want to explore it.
• Collateral and Creative Projects: These items creatively showcase your book and its content. The collateral can be used by both IVP and authors at events, in mailings, etc. Various ideas for collateral include postcards, samplers, bookmarks, banners, business cards. There’s lots of options to explore!
• Event Marketing: We invest a good deal of time and effort in showcasing your book to prime audiences. IVP travels to 40-50 conferences and events in the U. S. and around the world each year. With fewer bookstores in existence, bringing your book to these events serves as a key way for readers to find books that are right for them.

Unpaid (free) promotion is covered by our Publicity and Social Media teams. Head over to their sections to learn more.

• Publicity
• Social Media

Direct marketing includes email marketing and other forms of customer engagement that we initiate with readers who have established a relationship with IVP or find us through our website. A couple of examples are this website, where we host monthly sales, and our email newsletters like Books & Deals and Excursus.

IVP is a Division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. IVCF, a parachurch ministry, has presence on nearly 700 college campuses across the U.S. Over 1,000 IVCF staff work to promote IVP books to their students. One of IVCF’s hallmark events is its triannual missions conference called Urbana, which brings together over 16,000 college students and ministry attendees. Urbana boasts one of the biggest missions bookstores in the world. IVCF also hosts localized events every year across the country, selling IVP books to students, staff, and faculty.

To maximize the chance that your marketing efforts succeed, we want to establish communication, collaboration, and trust with our authors. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Specific ways that you can contribute to the marketing efforts of your book include:

• Embrace your role as an “expert” in the subject matter.
• Prepare to step into the public eye, considering your digital presence (social media platform, author website, etc.). See more information on building a social media platform below.
• Find a group of supporters/prayer partners, or as one author put it “book doulas.” Bringing a book into the world is hard work and having a group of helpers around you can make all the difference.
• Remember your purpose for writing your book. The time gap from proposal to book launch can be a wide one. Take time to continually remember your reason for writing.
• Lastly, remember you are not alone. A whole host of marketing, publicity, sales, and creative professionals are working to bring your book to market!