A big part of what I do at Day Job is a non-profit association’s book marketing: what sells, what doesn’t, what costs us more than it delivers, and other gritty parts of the book trade.
My conclusions, as applied to a denominational or ministry press, are:
- Cheap books aren’t worth printing.
- Most people don’t appreciate how much good materials cost to produce.
- Free materials are also often expensive to produce. This comes through when you see a lot of small church websites.
- Fair alternative means of paying-for and delivering free materials is a must.
- Pamphlets are the worst of all world. (Little wonder they’re vanishing in a webbed world.)
None of these rocket science, just the kind of thing you think about when you’re applying Day Job realities (which does pretty well) to a church situation. I’m thinking of the diminished UU World — which I think should be able to pull in better ad revenue — and the role of the UUA website for mission.
Do comment.