My Role as a Book Manager: Guest Post and Promo by Dane Cobain!

Hi, folks! My name’s Dane, and I’m a book manager. Now, I guess you’re asking yourself what a book manager is, and what exactly it is that a book manager does. Luckily, I’m here to enlighten you!

See, my writing is published by a company called Booktrope, which uses a community-based model to hook authors up with a team of likeminded individuals to get a high quality book out. I’m a writer too, and I work with a bunch of talented people to get my own books out, but I also work in marketing, which means that I have an edge over other authors.

Which is why I also work with Booktrope as a book manager. Basically, every author who releases a book through Booktrope will be required to work with a book manager – think of them as like a marketing manager, only with an extra edge.

Book managers take on the role of guiding authors through the publishing process and then working with them on a comprehensive launch plan to help to get their books out into the world and into the hands of readers. Book managers need good project management skills and an eye for detail, as well as plenty of experience in marketing and public relations.

I work as a book manager for myself, as well as for two other Booktrope authors – Michael-Israel Jarvis, the author of a fantasy novel called Gravedigger, and J. G. Clay, the author of a collection of short stories called Tales of Blood and Sulphur. Both of them are great guys and fantastic authors, which helps – it’s always nice to work for people that you like on a personal level.

My job as a book manager is to help them to sell books, and there are a whole heap of different ways that we try to do this. A big part of it is blogger outreach, which is why I’m here in the first place – authors love to work with bloggers, because it introduces their work to a new audience and it also gives them some unique content that they can share on their social media profiles. Bloggers love working with authors, because they can wrangle guest posts (like this one) for free and with no effort involved from the blogger, and they also often get free books and competition prizes.

Contacting bloggers and offering to work with them has worked really well for us. We’ve set up a number of guest posts, competitions and reviews that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to release, and it also has an impact on the bottom line – helping to sell books, which is what we need to do once we’ve got a release out.

But the responsibilities of a book manager don’t end there – I’ve helped to organise book launch parties, read, reviewed and interviewed them both, and I even travelled to Birmingham for the Second City Signings to support J. G. Clay at his first major author event. In return, he came down to High Wycombe to help me out by being a guest speaker at the writers’ workshop that I used to organise.

Authors are better together, and what better way to work than with a community of friends? It all comes round in the end – if I offer my marketing expertise, then I’ll be able to source an editor, or a proofreader, or a cover designer when I need one.

Ultimately, relationships are reciprocal, whether we’re talking about my relationship with the authors that I manage, my relationships with the readers of my work, or whether we’re talking about relationships between myself and the authors that I manage, and with the bloggers that we work with.

Making friends is cool. Reading books is cool. And when the two come together, you’re onto a winner. I wouldn’t change the way that we work if you paid me. But let’s not put that to the test though, yeah?

No Rest for the Wicked: Synopsis

When the Angels attack, there’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED.

Father Montgomery, an elderly priest with a secret past, begins to investigate after his parishioners come under attack, and with the help of Jones, a young businessman with an estranged child, Montgomery begins to track down the origin of the Angels.

The Angels are naked and androgynous. They speak in a dreadful harmony with no clear leader. These aren’t biblical cherubs tasked with the protection of the righteous – these are deadly creatures of light that have the power to completely eradicate.

When Jones himself is attacked, Father Montgomery knows he has to act fast. He speaks to the Angels and organises a final showdown where he’s asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

BIO

Dane Cobain is a writer, poet and musician from a place you've probably never heard of, somewhere in England. When he's not writing books, he's reading and reviewing them on his book blog - SocialBookshelves.com - or working at his day job in social media marketing. Find him at Facebook.com/DaneCobainMusic or follow @DaneCobain on Twitter.

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