Ep. 62: Behind the Scenes of Book Marketing with Morgan Hoit (@nycbookgirl, Avid Reader Press) + Book Recommendations
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.9 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2020
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 62, Morgan Hoit (Associate Marketing Manager at Avid Reader Press & @nycbookgirl) and I go behind-the-scenes of book marketing…including read-alikes, celebrity book clubs, author blurbs, and cover art. Morgan also shares some of her favorite memoirs, a genre she’s been loving lately.
This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
Highlights
- How Morgan made the jump from #bookstagrammer to working for a publisher.
- The most surprising thing she learned when she began working for a publisher.
- Who the “quarterback” is for a book.
- How the process of coming up with a book’s marketing plan works (including how much the author is involved).
- How Avid tracks #bookstagrammers’ reading taste.
- Morgan’s take on posting negative reviews online.
- How coronavirus has changed book marketing (and the changes Morgan thinks might live on post-coronavirus).
- The “holy grail” of celebrity book clubs.
- How those read-alikes are chosen.
- How publishers get author blurbs for their books.
- How publishers choose cover art.
Morgan’s Book Recommendations [32:52]
Two OLD Books She Loves
- The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan | Buy from Amazon [33:03]
- Places I Stopped on the Way Home by Meg Fee | Buy from Amazon [35:19]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [37:54]
- Stray by Stephanie Danler (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
[39:59]
Two Books She DIDN’T Like
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis | Buy from Amazon
- I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe | Buy from Amazon
One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar (Release Date: June 2, 2020) | Buy from Amazon [47:04]
Rate It Game [49:15]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by Garrett M. Graff (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- Three Women
by Lisa Taddeo (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [20:42]
- Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- All Adults Here by Emma Straub | Buy from Amazon
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt | Buy from Amazon
[25:09]
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- Educated by Tara Westover (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
- The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch | Buy from Amazon
- Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [40:07]
- My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [43:49]
- Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney | Buy from Amazon
- Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe | Buy from Amazon
- A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe | Buy from Amazon
- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [47:26]
- The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [47:26]
- The Vanishing Half
Other Links
About Morgan
Prior to joining Avid Reader Press, Morgan worked as an Associate at Jill Furman Productions for two and a half years, where she assisted in the producing of new plays and musicals for Broadway and the NYC theater industry. At Avid Reader Press, Morgan is the voice of the imprint on social media and also manages title marketing campaigns, working closely with authors on their digital presence and social media strategy. In her free time, Morgan is also the content creator and book worm behind nycbookgirl – a blog dedicated to book recommendations, guides to NYC, and more. She was born in NYC and raised in New Jersey, and she graduated from Duke University magna cum laude with degrees in English and Theater Studies.
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The following week, there will be a full length episode featuring Helena Dea Bala, author of Craigslist Confessional (airing July 8).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm |
| 0:15.5 | talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new |
| 0:22.7 | release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things |
| 0:28.3 | books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends, |
| 0:33.8 | subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes |
| 0:40.8 | by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my |
| 0:47.5 | Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, welcome to a full-length episode of Sarah's Bookshelves Live. |
| 0:55.0 | Like in my last episode with Kimberly McCreed, I wanted to add a special note at the start of this episode because so much has happened in the world in the past month. |
| 1:03.6 | Time and events are moving super quickly, which, as I said, two weeks ago, is a little bit difficult for me to manage with this podcast, |
| 1:11.9 | since my guests are often booked months in advance of when you hear the episode, and the |
| 1:18.3 | episodes are often recorded weeks or at least a month in advance of their air dates. |
| 1:24.8 | This particular episode was recorded on May 19th, which was six days before |
| 1:29.6 | George Floyd was killed and many protests for racial justice followed. So I wanted to timestamp this |
| 1:35.4 | to provide appropriate context for our discussion. If you missed it, I aired a bonus podcast episode, |
| 1:41.7 | which is available to all listeners, highlighting some of my favorite |
| 1:45.1 | books by Black authors last Wednesday, which was June 17th, and that was originally slated to be |
| 1:50.4 | an off week for the podcast. So if you miss that episode and you're interested in my picks for that |
| 1:55.5 | topic, go check that out. All right, let's get to the episode featuring Morgan Hoyt, Associate Marketing |
| 2:02.3 | Manager at Avid Reader Press. You all know I have wanted to have somebody who works in marketing |
| 2:08.2 | at a publisher on the show for ages. So I am thrilled that Morgan Hoyt, who is also known |
| 2:14.2 | on Instagram as NYC Bookgirl, is joining me today. |
| 2:18.4 | Morgan is an associate marketing manager at Avid Reader Press, |
... |
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