Authors frequently ask me if Telemachus Press offers marketing. My response is no, we do not. This is somewhat qualified in that we are always seeking ways to get the word out about our amazing authors through blogging, social media, the Telemachus Press website and partnerships we have with other websites. This is a benefit of being part of the TP team.

Reason #1 We Do Not Offer Marketing as a Service of Telemachus Press

It is not our area of expertise

Plain and simple, marketing is not part of our business model. We are not Jacks and Jills of all trades and masters of none. We are masters of what we do well: getting our authors’ books ready for sale from the cover design to the ISBN, formatting, opening accounts and uploading to all chosen platforms. We are really good at that. We have no intention of straying from our expertise. Do you want your car mechanic to also sell cars? I don’t. I want him to concentrate on fixing my car and nothing else.

Reason #2 We Do Not Offer Marketing as a Service of Telemachus Press

We do not sell dreams

We do not sell dreams. We sell reality.

Here is the reality: the author has written a book and has chosen (wisely, we feel) to self-publish and to be his own boss. We make that a reality. We take the manuscript and turn it into a beautiful eBook or print on demand book that is available for purchase.

Here is the dream: that the book sells a lot of copies. It may, it may not. We certainly hope it does, but we cannot guarantee that part of the dream.

Reason #3 We Do Not Offer Marketing as a Service of Telemachus Press

We cannot promise people will buy any book

We can guarantee the book will be properly formatted and available for sale and it will be a book to be proud of. We cannot guarantee how many copies will be sold. The author knows her book and her target audience better than anyone and she is the best to tailor a marketing campaign.

Here’s What Needs to Happen to have a Successful Book

(Successful = a lot of copies sold)

1.     The author needs to write the best book he can,

2.     Telemachus Press needs to publish the book with the highest level of quality, and

3.     The world needs to find out about the book.

Let’s review these one at a time.

The Author Needs to Write the Best Book She Can.

That’s the author’s job. And, hopefully, after much writing and rewriting, and then more rewriting and editing and more rewriting and editing after that, the Author has written the best book she can.

Telemachus Press Needs to Publish the Book with

the Highest Level of Quality 

That’s our job. And, we do that exceptionally well (in our opinion and in the opinions of our authors). We have highly skilled human beings (not computers) reviewing, touching, reading, and handling each and every manuscript - from the cover art to the final uploads - with precision, care and consideration for the hard work the author has put into writing the best book he can.

The World Needs to Find Out About the Book

This is the hard part and this goes back to the Author. There are many books out there on marketing. Read a few, if you choose. But most of all, unless you’re famous and already have a following, or you are lucky (which I hope you are), the marketing of a novel is as hard or harder than writing the book. It takes dedication and a concentrated effort. No paid marketer can guarantee success.

I do not mean this to be discouraging, although I know it can be. But the reality is that the marketing of a book is very difficult and comes with no guaranteed success.

We are happy to discuss marketing ideas with you, at no cost. We also work with a website designer and a few marketing specialists that some of our authors have used.  We would be happy to provide you with their information so you can get in touch with them. We never take referral fees. We do it because we want to help our authors.

At Telemachus Press, we only sell services that we can guarantee. Isn’t that what every good company needs to do?

If you have questions or comments, please email me at joanne.lewis@telemachuspress.com or call me at 941-504-5496.  I look forward to hearing from you.