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So, the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of South Carolina’s secession (you know, that little event that started that whole War Between the States thing) is just 2 years away. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War is just under 3 years away.

If you’re involved with a historic organization, Civil War-related historic house, museum, Civil War author, etc and you’re thinking, “So what?” - YIKES!!! Now is when you should be planning out a heavy series of events, anniversary books, documentaries, tours or whatever. Don’t be like those retailers who wait till Halloween to start thinking about their Christmas promotions. Those guys lose out then wonder what went wrong. The time to plan your Christmas promotions is March or April… May at the latest.

Likewise, the time is now to plan for what I expect to be a major spike in War Between the States interest. Don’t find that the date is suddenly upon you and you don’t know why everyone else is getting attention and you’re being passed over.

Have you given this any thought at all? What are you doing to get ready? If you have ideas to share, drop me a line or share them in the comments section. That’s what it’s there for.

Eric Wittenberg is an accomplished Civil War author, cavalry authority and fellow blogger, in addition to his day job as a lawyer. Eric has more than a dozen published books to his credit, including his newest One Continuous Fight:
The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863, and more than two dozen published articles. Eric is often called on as a speaker on the subject of cavalry and as a guide for tours.

A couple of months ago, Eric published a really good series on his blog titled “Things I Wish I Knew Then But Know Now.” The series discussed the lessons Eric has learned over his years as a published book author. The series inspired me to do an interview with Eric about marketing history books from the author’s point of view. (BrandingFire Note: I’ve never been a published author, but I have several years of experience on the distribution and publisher’s side of things.)

 
BrandingFire (BF): My friend, author Dan Miller, has told me several times that authors need to be prepared to do their own book marketing. He says that unless your name is John Grisham or Stephen King, publishers just aren’t going to invest the time and money needed to market a book properly. Do you find this to be true?

Eric Wittenberg(EW): Sadly, it’s absolutely true. The truth is that most Civil War books don’t sell sufficient copies to give publishers much of an incentive to invest a lot of money into major marketing campaigns. There are, of course, exceptions, as occasionally a Civil War book will hit the bestseller lists—Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals comes to mind immediately—and then the publishers will spend the necessary money.

 
BF: I know you’ve gone to the trouble of putting up your own websites to promote your books. Is this something you’ve always done?

EW: No, it’s something we started in 2006 with the release of Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg.

 
BF: Do you build your own sites or do you hire out the job?

EW: I have no competence for that sort of thing, so it’s much better for me to hire a professional to do that work for me.

 
BF: When you put up a site to support a title, what is your goal for the site?

EW: Sell books and spread the word.

 
BF: How long do you leave a site up?

EW: Good question. I actually haven’t had to address that issue yet. Plenty of Blame continues to sell well two years later, and as long as it does, we intend to leave the site up.

 
BF: Have you tried any book marketing tactics that didn’t work? If so, will you share any?

EW: I have found that taking books to Civil War Roundtable meetings generally doesn’t work well. There are only a few I’ve encountered where people are hardcore book buyers, while most just don’t care.

 
BF: What other marketing tactics do you find to be successful?

EW: Honestly, there is no substitute for word of mouth marketing. Having someone say “this is a great book and you need to read it” is without question the best marketing tool that there is. I try to encourage that sort of thing as often as I can.

 
BF: How important do you think author signings are for promoting a book?

EW: I think that they’re critical. People like to collect signed first editions of books, and in-person signings are the best way to meet the public and sign for them. The location of the signing and the promotion work done by the sponsor is, of course, critical. If nobody knows about, it’s a waste of time, but if the promoter does a good job of getting the word out, a good book signing can be one of the very best ways to sell books that I know.

 
BF: You and I first became acquainted through your blog. How important are blogs in book promotion? Any advice to authors considering or involved in blogging?

EW: I have found that blogging is a great way to make and maintain contact with the readers of my books, and I have also found that it’s a great way to remind people of one’s work. If authors feel that they have something to say that’s not just shilling their books, then I would definitely encourage them to try blogging. In September, I will have been blogging for three full years, and I have a large contingent of regular readers. It never ceases to amaze me how many people invest their valuable time into reading what I have to say each day.

 
BF: How much do you consider the marketability of a subject before you write a book on it?

EW: Some of my projects are carefully calculated to try to select topics that I know will sell, but others are strictly pursuing things that interest me, nothing more, nothing less. As an example, this week, I decided to tackle a tactical treatment of the June 10, 1864 Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, and in part, I selected that topic because I know that books on Nathan Bedford Forrest sell well, and I’d like to make some money on the one of these projects.

 
BF: Do you have a set marketing budget before you start promoting a book?

EW: No. It all depends on the book and how well I think it might sell.

 
BF: My personal experience with publishing is that going through traditional mass market distribution channels is very difficult. The discounts distributors like Ingram, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, etc. are steep and leave little room for profit. Has this been your experience?

EW: Not at all. To date, all of my work has been published by conventional, commercial publishing houses, and I wouldn’t even consider a publisher that didn’t use the traditional mass-market publishing channels as the primary means of getting books out there.

 
BF: What methods of distribution have you found more effective than the “mainstream” ones listed above?

EW: To be honest, none. Short of selling books on the Internet, I can’t think of another means of selling books that is more effective.

I’d like to thank Eric again for kindly contributing his time and experience. If you haven’t read his blog, The Rantings of a Civil War Historian, you should. You can also find Eric’s books at major bookstores, including Amazon.com. I should also mention that Eric and author J. D. Petruzzi are leading a tour at Ted Alexander’s Mother of All Gettysburg Seminars on July 23-27. If you want the chance to have Eric and J.D. give you a personal tour of some of JEB Stuart’s cavalry ride during the Gettysburg campaign, you should sign up ASAP. It’s filling up fast.

In the July/August 2008 issue of Fast Company is a good article on the new visitor’s center at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Setting aside personal feelings you may have about the new center (some I know don’t like it), the article does a great job of explaining why designers of the center went with the choices they did. • Basically, the goals were to:
• Increase tourism revenue for the town
• Increase average trouist stay in town
• Engage younger visitors
• Better inform visitors about the battle and the soldiers who fought it
• Increase revenues

The article correctly states that historic sites are having an increasingly difficult time vying for the attention of our increasingly attention-deficit citizens. Americans are used to microwave cooking, fast food, 30 minute entertainment shows and 5 minute thrill rides. Taking day-long tours of sites where something happened decades or even centuries before they were born is almost too much to bear.

“While a movie studio can roll out Indiana Jones sequels, there will never be a Gettysburg 2: Robert E. Lee’s Revenge. The best they (historic sites) can do is to modernize their presentations.” (from the article)

“Most people aren’t visiting to learn. They want to have an experience, to be immersed in something.” Elliott Gruber, vice president, Gettysburg Foundation

You can read the full article here.

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