Monday, March 4, 2013

Sales conference - Fall 2013

I think I might thrive under pressure.  I say that because this week, here at Llewellyn headquarters, we will be doing our Fall 2013 sales conference and I have been slow to get prepared.  For those of you unfamiliar with sales conference, it is a huge meeting where the acquiring editors showcase the fall titles for the sales, marketing, and publicity departments.  For each title, we create a document that gives those departments all the information it needs, such as:
  • release date
  • cover image
  • synopsis
  • author bio
  • physical book description (page count, sub-genre, ISBN)
  • who the audience is
  • a one to two sentence sound bite
  • three comparable titles with book description and life to date sales

We also create a powerpoint to go with the presentation.  During the presentation, I give a verbal summary of the book and often go deeper into why I chose the applicable comp titles.  I also talk a bit about the author, especially if I have personally met the author.
 
After each title presentation, I ask if there are any questions or other information to add.
 
Is it stressful?  Heck yeah.  The most stressful part for me is the question time, because I have no idea what might come up!
 
But in general, I find sales conference to be fun and exciting.  I acquire books that I love and often refer to them as my children.  And at sales conference, I get to whip all my baby pics!  I tell stories of hanging out with authors and getting to know them.  I might go on and on about how much I loved a manuscript.  I can talk about a series - where it has been and where it is going.  I also work in my vision of Midnight Ink.  Where we have been and where I see us going.
 
But alas, I procrastinate.  Which means I should be filling in my powerpoint rather than typing up a blog post.  By noon today, I will start feeling anxious and stressed out.  Tuesday I will probably be a wreck and finish up my powerpoint.  Wednesday starts the sales conference with nonfiction lines.  Thursday we do fiction.  I can't wait...  now to just finish this powerpoint!

 
 
 
 
I give a big shout out to Kelly Van Sant who did the heavy lifting on my onesheets.  And to Brian Farrey-Latz who put the bones of my powerpoint together.  :)
 


4 comments:

Maegan Beaumont said...

Thanks for the post!I'm always interested and excited to learn what goes on behind the scenes in the publishing industry, Terri.

Kelly said...

No problem! My favorite part of Sales Conference? The drinks we're going to have when it's all over!

Kathleen Ernst said...

Who could not love an editor who talks about whipping out baby pix at a sales conference?

Dru said...

I see a couple of books that I want to read.