We are pleased to offer a wide range of book and ebook marketing services to Matador authors.

If you decide to sign up for our Book Trade and/or Media/Public Relations Marketing, our Marketing Department will work with you on a one-to-one basis to market your book to the retail trade and publicise it to the media. Matador offers in-house trade marketing and media and PR services for books and ebooks, based on many years of active marketing knowledge and experience.

We also offer further marketing services through our industry partners at discounted rates.

Uniquely among self-publishing companies, Matador offers a full range of active trade, retailer and media marketing services to authors. If you take any of our Book Trade or Media/Public Relations marketing services, our Marketing Department will work with you on a one-to-one basis to market your book to the retail trade and publicise it to the media.

Marketing a book and marketing an ebook are very different activities, with the target audiences for each format in different locations. We thus offer separate ebook and book marketing services to enable authors to choose exactly what they want. We offer the following services:
Book Trade Marketing
Sales Representation
Media Marketing
Ebook Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Supplementary Marketing Services

Book Trade Marketing

Marketing your book to the retail trade is the cornerstone of getting your book sold more widely than just to your family and friends. Without retail trade marketing, your book will still be listed by retailers as it carries an ISBN number, but no retailer will stock it or buy copies unless a customer specifically places an order.

Uniquely among self-publishing companies, we offer full retail trade distribution and active marketing to self-publishing authors. We have been working with wholesalers and retailers for over 20 years, so they know us and trust that our books are well produced and saleable by retailers. As a result, most of our book sales are still made through high street bookshops and via library suppliers and wholesalers.

Our Book Trade Marketing is designed to get your book in front of those people in the retail trade who make the buying decisions. Our marketing team regularly meet with retailers’ buying staff to show forthcoming titles and ensure that titles have the best chance to be stocked by those retailers.

Matador offers authors a full retail trade distribution service, coordinated by the Marketing Department using the services of distributor Orca Distribution. Our distribution service is offered as part of our Book Trade Marketing.

Our Book Trade Marketing service includes the following specific services:

  • Book Trade Marketing
  • £300,00
  • The production of an Advance Information (AI) sheet for local and national retailers. The AI is sent to wholesalers, library suppliers, chain store book buyers and specialist outlets, plus online bookshops.
  • Full retail distribution through Orca Distribution (for authors printing over 100 copies of their book), or distribution via Print On Demand (POD) for authors opting for this distribution method.
  • Full bibliographic data management of your book, including supply and ongoing updating of information about your book using industry standard Onix data, through which we supply your data to Nielsen, Bowker, BDS and Gardners.
  • Making your book available through online bookstores including Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and WH Smith. Your book will be available through any bookshop in the UK, either from stock or to order. 
  • Access to a comprehensive marketing section on our website. These pages are crammed full of things you can yourself carry out yourself. 
  • Access to a comprehensive marketing section on our web site. These pages are crammed full of things you can yourself carry out to market and promote your book.
  • A PDF copy of your AI sheet to use when visiting bookshops. 
  • Inclusion on Google 'Search Inside' and Amazon 'Look Inside' programmes. Inclusion in one or both of these programmes allows people to 'browse' selected pages in your book online. 
  • Matador has a comprehensive opt-in email database that we use to promote Matador books direct to our customers. Our book sales e-newsletters drive traffic to our webshop. 
  • A unique entry for your book in our webshop. This includes the ability for you to add certain information yourself, and for readers to review your book. Media coverage is also placed on the book's webpage. 
  • Author access to online sales information 24/7, where you can view your sales at any time. 
  • A quarterly detailed sales report showing sales, discounts, stock figures and accompanying royalty payments.

Sales Representation

For authors wishing to give their book the best possible chance of selling through high street retailers, we offer full trade sales representation through Star Book Sales. Star have a team of 11 regional 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.

To qualify for sales representation, authors must print 300 copies or greater so that there are enough copies to place on retailers’ shelves.

Our sales representation service includes all of the administrative work involved in setting up a title to be represented by Star Book Sales, and includes a range of other benefits designed to maximise the efficacy of the sales representation.

Full details on Star Book Sales and sales representation are available on our Factsheet.

  • Sales Representation
  • £200,00
  • Title set-up with Star Book Sales; book trade sales representation through Star in the run-up to publication

  • Fast-track preparation of the Advance Information (AI) sheet; this is disseminated to the regional sales reps well in advance of publication, along with any ongoing information that will maximise their efforts (eg. media coverage, reviews)
  • Fast-track front cover design (required to maximise the time in which a book can be represented by the sales reps) (subject to technical aspects)
  • A half page entry in Troubador’s quarterly 'Highlights' magazine. We distribute thousands of copies of 'Highlights' to retailers and book buyers.
  • Display on Matador’s exhibitor stand at April’s London Book Fair

Starter Media Marketing

Our media/public relations marketing service is for authors who aim to give their book a cost-effective media profile. Run in-house by Matador’s marketing team, it concentrates on seeking to achieve a basic media coverage for you and your book.

Our media services are only available to authors taking our Book Trade Marketing service, as without effective trade marketing, media and PR work is pointless. While we target selected national media as appropriate for your book, we do not undertake national TV and radio marketing (this is included in the Enhanced Media Outreach Service).

Media Marketing work aims to interest print and online media in reviewing a title, interviewing the author or in placing an article on the subject of the book. The service is targeted closely to each specific new title, it does not use a ‘blanket’ approach that is the same whatever the title.

  • Starter Media Marketing
  • £400,00
  • Preparation and distribution of a local Press Release (PR). Working with you, we create a local PR that specifically targets your local area (or a geographical area relevant to the book). Using our extensive in-house media contacts, we create a bespoke list of print, broadcast and online media recipients for the press release.

  • Preparation and distribution of a specialist or national PR. This is sent to selected specialist or national media, as relevant, with a view to getting coverage for you or the subject of your book.
  • Sending of review copies to selected media. Together we identify those media that are most likely to review your book, and send a copy of it with a press release inviting them to review it.
  • Liaising with media requests for further information, interviews, serialisation or extract publication, photos or review copies.
  • A PDF of your PR for use by you in your own promotional work.
  • Ongoing update of your book entry on our website with media clippings, endorsements or reviews.
  • Inclusion in Matador’s Twitter and Facebook social media accounts to pass on information about your book and any media coverage.
  • Ongoing help and support from the in-house marketing team to assist you with your own marketing efforts.

Enhanced Media Outreach

For authors whose book has a wide national appeal, or who wish to carry out a more comprehensive/prominent media campaign, our Enhanced Media Outreach service is designed to capture the attention of print, radio and TV journalists across the country. Using Vuelio, a PR service used by publishers including Random House, Taylor & Francis and Emerald Group, we can directly contact up to 60,000 journalists, working in subject-specific areas of the industry, to tell them about you and your book.

When we distribute press releases via Vuelio, we frequently get instant responses from the journalists who wish to find out more information – which often leads to major media coverage. Using Vuelio, we have had coverage in the major daily papers, including The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Guardian and The Independent, as well as prominent regional publications like The Irish Post, South London Press and Absolutely Media, plus in subject-specific publications like Travel Guide London, Footy Boots and Parents Net.

This service is designed to increase the number and depth of media responses that you will receive. It is most effective carried out in advance of your book’s publication; we start Enhanced Media Outreach before your book has been sent to print, in order to give us more of a lead-in time to work with key print, broadcast and online media.

  • Enhanced Media Outreach
  • £850,00
  • The Enhanced Media Outreach service includes everything in the Starter Media Marketing Service, plus:

  • A targeted six-week marketing campaign
  • A meeting at our offices in Leicestershire, or over the phone, to identify different marketing angles for your book
  • Media outreach through Vuelio, one of the UK’s leading PR services, which allows us to contact journalists across every media sector. Your press release will be published to our newsroom, which can be accessed by 60,000 journalists, and we prepare and send at least two targeted outreaches (both by subject and by local interest/area). Each outreach can comprise up to 100-500 contacts, dependent on subject area
  • Email or phone follow-ups with journalists who express an interest in your book (either by requesting a review copy, more information or an interview with the author). We also make further targeted follow-up pitches to a list of key journalists, agreed upon in advance
  • Contact with bookshops and libraries within your local area (or in an area relevant to the book that you would be willing to travel to) to see if we can set up a signing or event to promote your book
  • A comprehensive media report of all of the media outreach work and coverage that we have achieved to achieve.

Ebook Marketing

At Matador we offer ebook marketing services designed to give your ebook the best chance of being seen by journalists, bloggers and reviewers worldwide. Our ebook marketing services are ideal for authors who want a comprehensive, cost-effective media campaign that they can tie in with their own marketing work.

We offer two tiers of ebook marketing service, designed to suit different budgets and goals. Both include an entry on NetGalley, the leading ebook media review service – where ebooks have a chance of being seen by members of the media, bloggers, reviewers and retailers worldwide. Having an ebook on NetGalley gives it equal footing with those from the main commercial publishers, where over 300,000 opted-in members worldwide are told about newly released ebooks and can then request a review copy. We then amplify any media coverage using our social media channels to ensure that it's reaching as wide an audience as possible.

Ebook marketing is undertaken around the time your ebook is released for sale, so our marketing services are designed to work around the release of an ebook to retailers by our in-house production team, over a period of around six weeks or so. Our marketing department works with an author on a one-to-one basis to maximise the impact of marketing activities on an ebook’s marketing campaign. We will also directly follow up with each NetGalley member after publication of your ebook has passed, as following up can often result in further reviews and coverage.

  • Starter Ebook Marketing
  • £250,00
  • An expertly prepared ebook listing on NetGalley.com, the leading ebook review site for librarians, publishers, reviewers and bloggers (the listing will be live for three weeks).

  • We pass on any reviews that are sent to us as a result of the listing.
  • We follow up with everyone else who downloaded a copy of your ebook and encourage them to leave a review.
  • Ongoing help and advice from a dedicated ebook marketing professional during your campaign.
  • An extensive online booklet looking at things you can do yourself to promote your ebook – alongside our marketing effort.
  • Extended Ebook Marketing
  • £450,00
  • All of the Starter Ebook Marketing services, plus:

  • An extra week on NetGalley (four weeks in total)
  • A NetGalley ‘widget’ that allows journalists and other contacts to download your ebook directly – a great way to send protected review copies.
  • Mentions of your ebook, and any ebook news, through our social media channels (Twitter and Facebook).
  • The creation of two promotional graphics for use on social media or in your own advertising efforts. These will also be displayed on our stand at the London Book Fair.
  • A paid ebook advert on Amazon or Goodreads* to the value of $100, which we will coordinate on your behalf. (*We can only create a Goodreads advert if we have created your Goodreads account through our Social Media Marketing Service.)

Combined Book and Ebook Starter Media Marketing

Readers and retailers prefer to have a choice of format for a new title, so both a book and ebook available from the one publication date. Marketing a book and ebook is done to entirely separate audiences, but the benefits of this are enormous, as reviews for the ebook or book can be cross-posted, or vice versa, and media coverage on one format can be used for the other. For this reason, we recommend that authors publish both a book and ebook together at the same time.

Yet marketing to the book media and to the ebook media are entirely different tasks with different target audiences, which is why we offer different marketing services for the two formats. For authors who opt to publish both a book and ebook with us from the start, we offer a combined book and ebook marketing service at a discount (the normal cost of the two separate services is £650.00, the discounted price saves 10% at £585.00).

  • Combined Book and Ebook Starter Media Marketing
  • £585,00

    • Book Marketing

    • Preparation and distribution of a local Press Release (PR). Working with you, we create a local PR that specifically targets your local area (or a geographical area relevant to the book). Using our extensive in-house media contacts, we create a bespoke list of print, broadcast and online media recipients for the press release.
    • Preparation and distribution of a specialist or national PR. This is sent to selected specialist or national media, as relevant, with a view to getting coverage for you or the subject of your book.
    • Sending of review copies to selected media. Together we identify those media that are most likely to review your book, and send a copy of it with a press release inviting them to review it.
    • Liaising with media requests for further information, interviews, serialisation or extract publication, photos or review copies.
    • A PDF of your PR for use by you in your own promotional work.
    • Ongoing update of your book entry on our website with media clippings, endorsements or reviews.
    • Inclusion in Matador’s Twitter and Facebook social media accounts to pass on information about your book and any media coverage.
    • Ongoing help and support from the in-house marketing team to assist you with your own marketing efforts.

    Ebook Marketing

    • An expertly prepared ebook listing on NetGalley.com, the leading ebook review site for librarians, publishers, reviewers and bloggers (the listing will be live for three weeks).
    • We pass on any reviews that are sent to us as a result of the listing.
    • We follow up with everyone else who downloaded a copy of your ebook and encourage them to leave a review.
    • Ongoing help and advice from a dedicated ebook marketing professional during your campaign.
    • An extensive online booklet looking at things you can do yourself to promote your ebook – alongside our marketing effort.

Social Media Marketing

The use of social media to promote books and ebooks has become an industry-standard means of reaching a diverse yet closely-targeted audience. For many people, however, social media like Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads remain something of a mystery. For this reason, we offer a separate social media marketing service, designed to establish an author presence online, that enables authors to promote their work using the various social media.

We focus on Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter, the leading social media sites; these are also the most author-friendly, and are proven in increasing discoverability of authors and books. It can take years to build an author brand, but this campaign will kick-start your knowledge and use of the social media sphere. It is especially suitable for those who struggle to find their way around the internet or learn how to use new websites. This service, along with our invaluable social media handbook, will have you tweeting and posting in no time!

We create and help you set up professsional-standard social media accounts and start building your author brand, while gently introducing you into the world of social media. This campaign will give you a period of dedicated social media support from our experienced marketing team. Our aim is to fully involve you in using the accounts we set up for you, so that by the time the campaign has ended you will be confident with using them yourself.

  • Social Media Marketing
  • £300,00
  • Creation of a branded, author-specific Twitter account.

  • An author profile and book page set up for you on Goodreads, the most popular book recommendation website.
  • Creation of an author-specific email address (which we use to register your Twitter and Goodreads accounts, and then pass over to you for personal use).
  • Provide a half hour tutorial to assist in setting up a dedicated Facebook page for the book. Talk through the necessary elements to include on the book page. Design and supply images for page setup (Facebook Banner & page profile picture).
  • A four-week comprehensive social media campaign that starts when your book or ebook is available.
  • One week of daily tweets and three subsequent weeks of ongoing support, and tweeting/posting from author submissions.
  • Design and supply of graphics for use on social media channels.
  • When the campaign has been concluded, all social media accounts established are handed to you so that you can continue to use them.
  • A handbook showing how to use your social media accounts, and how to be creative with your ‘posts’, so that you can take over posting and continue to build your online author brand.

Social Media Consultation

For authors who already have established Twitter and Facebook accounts, we offer a consultation service to enable authors to familiarise themselves with the use of social media to promote their work. This involves a member of our marketing team discussing the way in which the various social media channels work, how best to use the strengths of each to market and publicise your book or ebook, and ways in which social media marketing can enhance your book’s presence.

  • Social Media Marketing
  • £100,00
  • A one hour consultation either by phone or at our offices in Leicestershire

  • Overview of Twitter and Facebook, their varying functions and differences and how to maximise the potential of each channel
  • A look at your own social media accounts with constructive feedback on each
  • A look at using Facebook advertising
  • Assistance with aspects of the ongoing set-up or editing of Twitter/Facebook
  • Advice on using text and graphics posts, social media etiquette and the social media community

Supplementary Marketing Services

We offer all our authors – whether or not they are taking any of our marketing services – a wide range of supplementary marketing services. All are designed to raise the profile of your book or ebook, and many can be used by you directly to promote your work to retailers and readers.

Our Supplementary Marketing Services are detailed in our flip-book, and include:

  • A wide range of printed promotional materials, including pop-up banners, posters, bookmarks, business cards, leaflets and postcards.
  • A video Book Trailer with which to promote your work on websites and social media.
  • Discounted promotional opportunities with the likes of BookBag, NetGalley, The Bookseller and 'Highlights’ magazine.