Happy Thanksgiving!

What's in a name? Or, more accurately, what's in an email subject line?

Like many companies large and small, we use Constant Contact (an online marketing company program) to create emails for our readers and accounts. We use it to send out a monthly newsletter to a nice number of subscribers, email readers each time we have a special offer on a new book or an announcement about an upcoming author event, and to send pitches to media suggesting authors as source/guests.

We give a lot of thought to email subject lines. What works? What doesn't? What makes people click to open it? This post on the Constant Contact blog has great examples of different types of subject lines, their purpose, and how to use them to engage your audience. (Or, let's face it, just to get them to open the email.)

I looked back through our archive of marketing emails and here is a handful of different types of subject lines we've used recently:

• Civil War presentation in NYC - or get a signed copy no matter where you live!
• Only $3.99 for U-boat book Steel Boat, Iron Hearts - Limited time only! 
• Interview Idea! New York City, the Civil War, and the 150th Anniversary. Wait--What? 
• 150th Chickamauga Anniversary Offer - SIGNED copies of the new book!

The majority of our email subject lines use "The command" or "The teaser" approach. Maybe we should give "The list" a try . . . "Top Five Savas Beatie books that should be on your Christmas list" perhaps?

TODAY ONLY: Get an eBook version of Once a Marine for just $2.99!

Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander's Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage, and Recovery by Nick Popaditch is available for download on your Kindle (or with any device that has a Kindle app) for just $2.99 on November 7. Download now.

Please help us spread the word. Forward this offer to your friends and SHARE it on your FB page too! A perfect way to start celebrating the Marine Corps Birthday a little early!

Click here to get your copy TODAY ONLY!

Only $3.99 for U-boat book Steel Boat, Iron Hearts - Limited time only!

Get an eBook version of  Steel Boat, Iron Hearts for $3.99.

Steel Boat, Iron Hearts by Hans Goebler with John Vanzo is available for download on your Kindle (or with any device that has a Kindle app) for just $3.99 through the month of November. This deal is just too good to beat! Download now.

Act now before the promotion ends. Don't forget to forward this offer to your friends and family, or treat them to this great read!

Click here to get your copy today.

Sharing Our Authors’ Content

Many of our authors have blogs and write some great content. We frequently share their posts on the Savas Beatie Facebook page and in our monthly newsletter to customers for others to see. Recently, we thought of a more effective way to make sure that our readers see this great content.

We sent out an email to our authors who have blogs and asked them to send us a link to a recent post on their blog with some historical content (preferably one that mentioned their most recent book by name with an image of the book cover). Or, write a new post and email us that link. We collected these links for a week, and then put together an email listing these posts, plus the name of the author, a link to his blog, and the name of his books that we published.

Click on the image above to view the email we sent out. Make sure you let the author know you appreciate his blog and posts by leaving a comment. Sometimes being an author is lonely work, and they always appreciate knowing you are there, and supporting their work. Happy Reading!

Savas Beatie to Sell Angle Valley Press Titles

For Immediate Release

Contact: Sarah Keeney, 916-941-6896, sarahs@savasbeatie.com.

El Dorado Hills, CA, October 17, 2013

Savas Beatie is pleased to announce that it has finalized an agreement with Angle Valley Press to distribute its titles into non-book trade accounts within the United States and Canada.

Savas Beatie, a leader in the independent military and general history book publishing industry, has produced many award-winning titles and national book club selections. One of the company’s strong suits has been its ability to open and maintain a vibrant revenue stream outside the general book trade. In addition to bulk specialty sales, the company has been especially successful establishing relationships with state and national park sites, gift shops, museum stores, and other related outlets. This ability has been especially important given the weak general economy and shuttering of Borders, Inc.

Angle Valley Press of Winchester, Virginia, is an independent craft publisher of unique award-winning books on the Civil War and is well known to students and buffs of the conflict.

“We have long respected what John Fox does at Angle Valley, and his books are always well-received by the community,” explains Managing Director Theodore P. Savas. “This agreement allows each of us to focus on our strengths. This broadens the title selection Savas Beatie can offer outside the book trade, and John can focus more of his attention on creating additional titles for sale.”

Angle Valley Press’s publisher, John Fox, is also looking forward to the partnership. “This indeed is a win/win for both of us, and allows me to focus on two exciting new titles we have planned for release soon. I am very pleased to be working with a dynamic and creative company like Savas Beatie.”

About Savas Beatie

Savas Beatie LLC is a leading independent military and general history publishing company. For more information, visit www.savasbeatie.com

About Angle Valley Press

Angle Valley Press is an independent craft publisher of unique award-winning books on the War Between the States. Accurate & Dependable. Our books cover new ground. For more information, visit www.anglevalleypress.com

Engaging your audience – Book covers determined on Facebook

There are two seasons per year in the book publishing world: Spring (January through June) and Fall (July through December). Twice a year, we compile a list of titles that we will be publishing the following season for our distributor Casemate to present to the book trade. Unlike many publishers, we always engage the author in the process and have many rounds of back and forth to determine book titles, create subtitles, and develop just the right catalog description for each book. This season, we decided to engage our READERS in the process too, and asked for their thoughts as we created the front covers of each book. It was a fun, interactive, and rewarding process.

Step 1: As usual, we collected suggestions from authors of what photos, images, or illustrations they thought should appear on the front cover of his or her book, and looked into acquiring high resolution images and the rights to reproduce each image.

Step 2: After sifting through the options, we posted a book title, subtitle, and potential cover image on our Facebook page every day for one upcoming title, and opened up the comments for a dialog with our readers to get their suggestions, feedback, and thoughts.

Step 3: We took their ideas into consideration, worked with our graphic design to create some wonderful covers, and posted the end results on our Facebook page to complete the process.

Scroll down to read the comments on our Facebook page for the last few weeks. We had a wonderful exchange with a lot of readers who are already looking forward to our 2014 line-up and our Facebook Insights for the past month show dynamite numbers!