An ally for authors
Below are portraits of some of the authors we've worked with over the years. We’re proud of their diversity.
A holistic approach to LITERARY PROMOTION THAT Brings BOOK PUBLICITY & AUTHOR Brand development TOGETHER under one roof
You can count the major American book publishers on one hand. While there are world class independent publishers that publish national best selling titles, and a flock of independent imprints that specialize in publishing on a smaller scale, the publishers that publish with the greatest mainstream success are the imprints of the five major publishers - Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon and Schuster.
Having sat on the other side of the desk at Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, NBC Universal, and the BBC, Suzanne and Elliot Balaban are well acquainted with the decision making culture of major media companies. Their many decades of experience ensures that an author is doing the right things and receiving the right publisher attention at each stage of the process through which intellectual property becomes a successful book.
As book publicity leaders, they’ve been responsible for some of the most ballyhooed publishing successes of the 21st century, like Lisey’s Story by Stephen King which Suzanne Balaban launched at Scribner (and through which she was able to help rebrand King as a literary novelist in the mold of James Joyce), and The Complete Works of Primo Levi, publisher Robert Weil’s labor of love for Norton/Liveright, edited by Ann Goldstein, that Edward Rothstein writing in the Wall Street Journal called “this season’s publishing blockbuster.”
As literary brand development pacesetters, our work with authors like Stephen King, stakeholders like Peter Thiel, and publishers like W. W. Norton & Co. redefined what can be done for an author or book’s reputation and reach.
When working with literary agents, each book proposal to which BMM Worldwide lends assistance includes a publicity plan and, pursuant to offer of publication, the author’s commitment to provide a six month, external, BMM Worldwide, Class A national broadcast and print publicity campaign - supplemental to the publisher’s in-house campaign.
By including external publicity in their book proposals, authors and literary agents reduce the publisher’s risk, increase the chances of a publication offer, and beneficially effect publishing contract negotiations. The prospect of BMM Worldwide’s involvement in the project as publicists after the publisher acquires the book, and the assurance that the title will receive major media attention, can sway a publication decision.
Where there are opportunities related to the author’s brand, BMM Worldwide works within budget to deliver outstanding value. Learn about BMM’s brand development practice here.
THE STATE OF PUBLISHING
Publishing in the Amazon Era is a brand-driven arena where over 3 million new titles vie yearly for the rapidly declining reading attention of book buyers, where distribution and discovery is dominated by Amazon, and the curator-publishers contend with a dynamic, technology-charged industry.
With more titles, fewer resources available to market them, and in-house publicity campaigns reduced from six months to a couple of weeks, publishers have increasingly sought to share the marketing responsibility with authors.
Established authors and celebrities have platforms that can be used to this end but often lack the direction, expertise, and time needed to do so. Other authors find themselves being asked to develop new skills far afield from what they do best. Given the choice, most authors would rather be writing.
Stanford University Professor of History and POGROM author, Steven J. Zipperstein and New York Times, editor, Jonathan Weisman sign books at a BMM Worldwide-produced launch event at The Cooper Union in New York.
BMM Worldwide alleviates these burdens by bringing book publicity and brand development together under one roof. This complete solution is an unorthodox approach to literary promotion albeit for no other reason than the fact that no one besides BMM Worldwide is in a position to provide it. Traditional literary agencies do not provide author branding or book publicity services. Traditional book publicists are not set up to focus on author branding.
WHat was is no more
Twenty years ago, before an author’s brand became the single greatest determinant of a book’s chances in the world, the publicity and marketing functions were siloed. Agents sold books to publishers. Midlist authors received respectable advances. And publishers began working on promoting their books 6 months to a year before launch. Over time, the author’s brand grew “organically” — or didn’t.
As today’s Amazon-dominated landscape began to emerge and advances for mid-list authors were slashed, a handful of author-pioneers recognized that the financial upside potential of writing books had shifted away from the legacy revenue streams covered in their publishing contracts. They now resided in developing and monetizing their brands (e.g. through lucrative speaking engagements, pyramiding publishing offers, building platforms, products, services, and the like) and they began viewing their books in an entirely new way. In the new paradigm, the book was firstly a vehicle for generating publicity, developing a following, and growing a monetizable author brand, and only secondarily a source of new revenue itself. And it was these long view, brand-building authors, the ones who understood the new economics of writing books in the Amazon era, that began investing in external publicity teams to supplement the publisher’s reduced in-house efforts.
As VP publicity at Scribner (Simon and Schuster’s flagship imprint), looking after authors like Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt and then MSNBC gossip columnist and The Glass Castle author, Jeannette Walls, Suzanne Balaban began integrating her own in-house publicity team with these external teams. After she worked with Dr. Mark Hyman and his team to launch New York Times Best Seller Ultrametabolism, the functional medicine pioneer and “physician to the Clintons” went on to build a functional medicine product and services empire — and write ten more New York Times Best Sellers. Today, authors and publishers use external publicity teams all the time and, for better or worse, publishing has become focused almost entirely around author brands.
The legacy approach to publishing books still lingers as an image in the minds of many authors. This, despite the centrality of their brand to the publisher’s acquisition equation, the reduction in advances, and the disappearance of the 6-12 months of book marketing publishers previously provided. They can be forgiven. As publishing icon and book marketing genius, Esther Margolis observed about the slashing of the publisher’s book marketing efforts: “that never used to be the case.”
Painting on a Large canvas
BMM Worldwide is able to work with authors, their agents and publishers in this holistic way because of the breadth of our core competencies. These encompass:
publishing
marketing
publicity
journalism
business development
video programming,
and technology.
By combining the functions of a publicist and author brand developer, and assembling tailored project teams from around the world, BMM Worldwide can help develop an author’s career on a larger canvas than is available elsewhere.
Testament to the effectiveness of BMM’s approach is the number of landmark publications with which we have been associated, and the fact that our author brand development projects have attracted the participation of some of the world’s highest profile investors and foundations.
Learn more about BMM’s brand development practice here.
Peter Thiel
Jedediah Bila photo:
Lou Rocco/Disney General Entertainment