The University Press of North Georgia is proud to be a teaching press and is committed to providing NGCSU college students with real-life instructions and internship experience in a variety of different arenas of publishing. One of the ways this is accomplished is through the “Intro to Publishing” class offered by the English Department and taught by Dr. Bonnie Robinson, UPNG Director.
This week the students are focusing on print ads and press releases. This section of the class is crucial in the students’ understanding of the publishing world and how they can effectively and appropriately approach the business and marketing portion of publishing.
Hannah Parson shares her thoughts on this experience:
This week we are covering print ads and press releases for new books. These are two very important aspects of creating a market for a new book. Print ads run in magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals. The ads typically contain a picture of the Author, book jacket, quotes from critics praising the book, and the publisher, price, author, and book title. Press releases include interesting facts and excerpts from the book. This is sent out to journalists. These press releases are the means of getting your book reviewed and exposed to the public.
This work will be useful in our future work because of the experience in marketing that we will be using in a job with a publishing agency. This is the first exposure to the world of book marketing that we will need not only as employees in a publishing firm but also as a professional author attempting to market themselves and their work. Without this experience, we would lack the fundamental knowledge of the tools necessary for the successful launch and retail of any book we will ever work to publish.