“Reaching worldwide markets for our books has always been a challenge. Marketing from the United States with US-orientated staff just does not work. We have dramatically increased our presence in Europe and the UK over the past ten years by working with The Oxford Publicity Partnership Ltd. We rely on them to make honest judgements about how to most wisely spend our marketing budget and they have proven themselves again and again as experts who know what will sell - and what will not sell - in those territories. They are intelligent, creative, enthusiastic and most importantly committed to The National Academies Press.”
Barbara Kline Pope, Director, The National Academies Press

OPP is the UK and European sales, marketing and publicity office for a number of international publishers.

For these publishers we are, to all intents and purposes, an international branch of their own offices. In contrast to agencies which handle a number of different presses and promote them as a group, we ensure that each publisher’s books are promoted independently, helping them build their reputation and increase their revenue in this crucial sales territory.

We do this in a variety of different ways:

• In conjunction with the publisher we help formulate a budget for the UK and Europe, for which we are then responsible and which we account for on a monthly basis

• We import quantities of the publisher’s own catalogues and fliers and mail them to appropriate lists of libraries, academics, professional groups, and others as appropriate

• We also produce our own mailing pieces for individual or groups of books that we recognise should do particularly well in this market

• We handle inspection copies, sending out books to academics who request them for course use along with questionnaires which we share with the publisher

• Using our extensive review database, we produce review lists for every book published and coordinate dispatch with the publisher’s warehouse

• For key books which have trade potential we produce press releases and organise PR campaigns

• Each publisher has its own database of customers, built by adding names of people who contact us as a result of catalogue and inspection copy mailings, and other general enquiries. Divided by type of customer and subject interest it is used regularly to generate on-going sales

• We ensure that books and/or publicity material are sent to all appropriate exhibitions and conferences, and in some cases where there is common interest amongst our publishers, we will attend conferences on their behalf

• In conjunction with each publisher, we help select the most appropriate UK and European distributor and team of sales reps, and work closely with them on all matters. For some publishers we handle key account management and operate Amazon Advantage accounts

• We run regular sales conferences to brief the reps about forthcoming books

• We work closely with each publisher to ensure an appropriate level of stock is kept in the European warehouse, and we advise on shipping, pricing, discounts, and on sales reporting