Temple U.P. Swings to Viral Sales Success
by Gayle Feldman, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 6/29/2007 7:26:00 AM
Frankie Manning, a Tony award-winning choreographer and legendary swing dancer who has worked with everybody from Duke Ellington to Spike Lee, turned 93 on May 26, the official pub date of his memoir, Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, written with dancer (and school librarian) Cynthia R. Millman and published by Temple University Press.
It was quite a birthday for a man whose star turns flipping his partner into the air at the Savoy Ballroom are iconic images of a bygone era. It was also quite a day for Temple, since by midnight Manning’s book had climbed to #7 on Amazon’s bestseller list, a stunning accomplishment for a university press title that three weeks before the official release had hovered around the #44,000, and an example of what a little help from viral marketing can do.
Temple originally printed some 3,000 copies. Marketing director Ann-Marie Anderson and publicity director Gary Kramer began by doing the usual: telling major accounts like Ingram and B&T that this was an important book, and sending galleys targeting African-American communities in New York and other cities where the indefatigable nonagenarian is scheduled to perform. The orders were “nice, but not commercial quantities,” Anderson said. “They listened, but we are a university press.”
However, Temple listened, too, to coauthor Cynthia Millman and her friend and fellow dancer Rik Panganiban, one of the guiding spirits behind Yehoodi.com, the “premiere Web site” for all things swing.
On April 12, the authors and representatives from Yehoodi and Temple met to brainstorm in New York. They fixed on a goal of getting people to buy the book online on Manning’s birthday. To meet that objective, Millman worked with Yehoodi to produce a video clip that was used on YouTube and Google. Panganiban and fellow Yehoodistrator Dave Jacoby got dance studios to donate discounted lessons, musicians to donate previously unreleased tracks and dance venues to donate free admission as incentives to customers who bought the book on May 26, and Yehoodi sent e-mails to its database of some 2,000 to 3,000 swing dancers and dance organizers about the book and the offers.
On May 25, according to Panganiban, the book had moved to about #2,000; at 6 a.m. on the 26th, it reached #120; and by midnight, Millman saw it reach #7. The book had been given the usual discount, but with such velocity, Amazon discounted it further around 5 p.m., when it could be had for $16.50, off the retail $27.50. Nearly 1,500 copies were sold that day, with Temple running out of stock. The press went back for a 3,000-copy reprint, and Temple has a chance, in Anderson’s words, “to rekindle the passion”: on June 29, Manning, Millman, the Big Apple Lindy Hoppers et al. will gather at Manhattan’s Riverside Church for a book celebration cum free dance party.
Not surprisingly, Anderson sees more viral marketing in Temple’s future. As for the man behind this particular campaign, Panganiban said, “Amazon was just the launch. Our real goal is to get the book into all kinds of bookshops, libraries and stores. An idea that gives people in a strong community something to do can be very powerful. We learned to just get out of the way and let people respond.”
