Alison Baverstock

Alison Baverstock is a former publisher, who now writes about publishing, how to get published, and marketing within the book trade.

Her How to Market Books, now in its fifth version, is often referred to as the ‘bible’ of book marketing. Both this and its companion volume Are Books Different? (published by Kogan Page and available in 16 languages) are used as the basis of publisher education worldwide.

Alison has also written widely about how to write and get published – Is There a Book in You? and Marketing Your Book – An Author’s Guide (published by Bloomsbury) have been featured on Richard & Judy, BBC Breakfast, Open Book and Woman’s Hour. Her new book, The Naked Author (also Bloomsbury) tackles the formerly vexed subject of self-publishing, which Alison believes is ripe for reappraisal.

A regular commentator in the press on book-related issues, Alison has written for The Bookseller, Mslexia and has a regular column in Writer’s Forum. She has also contributed to the past eight editions of The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook.

Alison speaks regularly at conferences for writers and publishers and at many literary festivals. She has run seminars for The Society of Authors on how to best work with agents and publishers, and trained generations of publishers to promote books and writing. In 2007 she received the prestigious Pandora Award, presented annually to a woman who has made a valuable contribution to the publishing industry.

Alison leads the modules Marketing in Publishing and Working with Authors, as well as managing the Dissertation component of the MA.

Follow Alison at Twitter at @alisonbav.

Read all Alison’s Kingston Publishing blogs.