Matador Launches Marketing & Distribution Services to Book Trade For Indie Authors

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MatadorMatador, an imprint of Troubador Publishing, is one of the longest established self-publishing service providers in the UK and has decided to make its distribution and marketing services available to all indie authors and small publishers. The new services will provide both distribution and sales representation, whether an author has self-published entirely independently or via another self-publishing service company. The new services will also offer full marketing and promotion for books to booksellers, media outlets and readers alike.

Our marketing service ensures that the retail trade is fully aware of an author’s book and how to obtain it; enables reviewers in the print and online media to review it; supplies a range of marketing materials for authors to use in promoting their book and endeavours to gain editorial coverage about the book in the media.

This works in conjunction with our distribution service, which allows us to distribute and sell books on behalf of authors to the UK book trade using our extensive distribution network, including wholesalers, retailers and library suppliers, at standard industry discounts.

Both of these services can be taken separately, or for a combined cost. For authors who opt for our distribution service, we also offer a sales representation service via Star Book Sales. Star have a team of sales representatives who actively hand-sell new titles into retailers’ head offices, local stores and other book retail outlets in the run up to a book’s publication date.

One of the biggest challenges to self-published authors is properly marketing and promoting their books to both readers and the retail book trade. Many self-publishing service providers, while promising a great deal when it comes to marketing, have little or no direct sales distribution to the book trade and marketing services can amount to little more than advice or cookie-cutter marketing kits that the author uses, not the company publishing their book. That means that while your book might be available and listed on many online retailer’s websites, beyond the individual efforts of the author to promote their book, no one is actually pitching the book directly to buyers in retail bookstores or readers. It’s often the biggest shortcoming with reputable self-publishing service providers when compared to how legacy publishers operate with the book trade.

A full list of the new services (in PDF form) can be downloaded here.

The new services are ideally put together for indie authors working directly with professional editors, designers and printers, though Matador state it can still help to improve marketing and distribution if the author has used another self-publishing service provide. This really isn’t something suitable for authors who only have books available through print-on-demand (POD) because the services are intended to get books onto physical bookshelves and the POD model simply isn’t set up to do this. The services are not pitched as ‘buy off the menu’ for anyone. Matador will only consider authors based on book and suitability through an application process.

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