[1] ? If you plan on creating a new newsletter please contact Eleanor.Cox@harpercollins.com, and cc Deborah Johnstone.
You will need to provide the following information:
- What is the purpose of the newsletter?
- Where will you be collecting subscriber names?
- Is this a public or private list?
- How often will this newsletter be delivered?
- Who is the contact person for this newsletter?
[[ Insert submission form here ]]
[2] ? DO NOT have ANY newsletters designed before you speak with Deborah Johnstone and in her absence, William Kolasa. There are several technical issues and numerous design issues to consider before retaining a designer to build a newsletter. It is imperative that we meet and disucss our technical issues with any designer prior to the design process. We do not have the time to spend on constant changes and fixes.
[3] ? Please allow TWO WEEKS for the preparation of your newsletters. Yes, this means that you should devise a schedule for yourself or who ever is editing the newsletter. Begin to gather copy and ideas at least a month before you anticipate sending out the newsletter.
****An excellent procedure would be to have your newsletter to me no later than the 15th of each month to ensure it's delivery.
See "Streamline the Process" for more help!
[4] ? Designate someone to be in charge of "Final Approval" of all copy and images. It is imperative that someone in your department assume responsibility for checking copy thoroughly BEFORE and AFTER submitting it for the design process. Think about what you want to say and how you would like it to appear. Edit and tighten copy at all times. Band width limitations for the new vendor are strict and if necessary, we will be forced to cut newsletters that are too long.
[5] ? DOUBLE CHECK YOUR COPY!! YOU are responsible for final corrections and errors including grammar, spelling and links. Changing anything after the design process begins will incur delays.
[6] ? If you
are charged with producing copy for a newsletter, set up a schedule
of content delivery. You already know what books you will be
publishing months in advance. Use this to your advantage and get
into the habit of jotting down copy and ideas in a folder for future
issues.
[7] ? MAKE SURE that any book you include in your newsletter has a working book page at our site with the jacket image posted. This also applies to chapter excerpts, reading guides and author Web sites. If you are not sure, simply GO TO THE WEB SITE AND LOOK. You will need to do so in any case in order to provide the URL of the page.
[8] ? There must be a working e-mail
address in the newsletter that subscribers may reply to if they are
so inclined. This means that someone in your department MUST assume
responsibitly for creating an e-mail box and checking it each month
for any replys/comments from subscribers.
You are know ready to PREPARE your newsletter :
?? PREPARATION
SEE a perfect example of how to prepare your newsletter. This reflects how you would present the text version in a Word doc.
YOU MUST INCLUDE:
- ISBN ( There are often several versions of a book: trade PB, audio, mass market, etc. Each one has a different ISBN and we have NO WAY of knowing which you want to feature unless you indicate it in your copy.
- URL of book page, feature, chapter excerpt, or which ever page you want copy to link to.
PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE BOOK YOU WANT TO FEATURE HAS A WORKING BOOKPAGE AND JACKET IMAGE AT OUR WEBSITE. If you are not sure, CHECK NOW.
- The name of the contact person who will be responsible for submitting corrections.
- DON'T include paranthesis or any other
special characters. These will be deleted anyway.
The copy in this newsletter example is too long and we never encourage this much copy, but because Scene of the Crime is a popular newsletter that had skipped a month in production, we included everything. In general, plan on featuring no more than several books in your newsletter and trim copy to the bare necessities. Our band width limit for the newsletters is 70K, This is well over the amount of what any good newsletter can feature and means that seven to ten books is probably the limit.
- If you wish to include anything special or out of the ordinary, please put your request at the head of the newsletter and give Deborah Johnstone a call (207-7450) to discuss the specifics.
- If you want to run a contest and have subscribers submit their names to become eligible to win a copy of a book (As this newsletter does) you should set up a separate mailbox to catch all the names. Call Customer Service [This step should be the first thing you do when setting up the newsletter] (81-1234) or e-mail them with your request and the name of the mailbox. They will need to check to see if that name is available.
- We always display the jacket image of the book -- no need to request this -- UNLESS the jacket image is not final in DAM. In that case you will need to contact the Art Department. As a general rule of thumb we link the TITLE OF THE BOOK to the book page unless otherwise requested. The jacket images DO NOT LINK.
- You MUST have a mailbox set up to correspond with your newsletter. This mailbox may be sufficient to serve as a contest mailbox as well. (YES Do use the name of the newsletter as the mailbox name -- for instance Scene of the Crime has a mail box set up. The most important thing to remember is that someone must keep track of the mail box and periodically check it.
- Once the HTML build is complete I will submit it to you for approval. THIS IS THE TIME TO CAREFULLY DOUBLE CHECK THAT ALL THE LINKS GO WHERE YOU WANT THEM TO. PLEASE ALSO CHECK GRAMMAR AND SPELLING. YOU are ultimately responsible for any errors.
Below you can view our Scene of the Crime Mystery newsletter.
View what the text version of your newsletter should look like HERE.
Now VIEW THE FINISHED HTML build of the newsletter HERE.
[[continued from home page]]
-
A basic book page on harpercollins.com gets created in the following way -- give or take a few exceptions.
- It is automatic
- When a record (a book, audio book, e-book etc.) has a sales and marketing code in PIX of "Active" or Forthcoming", the basic bibliographic information is automatically published to the site when a record is "active" or "forthcoming" AND a jacket image or detail has been saved to the database for that isbn. Therefore no listing will appear online without SOME content. The exception is if it passes release date. The the listing will be published regardless of no content being in the database. This rarely happens though.
- The author bio is affiliated with the author id in PIX. The info comes to us in an automated way from PIX. The author bio is taken from the jacket mechanical after it is archived in DAM
- The author photo comes from DAM. We manually copy, download and resize.
- The book cover must be "Final" in DAM for Internet Development to be able to access it. As soon as a cover snapshot has the routing level changed to "final" we receive an automated e-mail notification. Within 24-hours, it is copied and downloaded from DAM, resized and added to the The Internet Development database. It will automatically appear on the site when the site "turns over" -- which happens each night.
- Book description is from the jacket mechanical in DAM. The jacket mechanical must be routed to "Final to printer" for Internet Development to be able to access it. As soon as a jacket mechanical is routed to "final" we receive an automated email notification. Within 24-hours, it is copied and downloaded from DAM, html coded and added to the Internet Development database. It will automatically appear on the site when the site "turns over" -- which happens each night.
- Chapter excerpt or sample illustrated spread is from the book mechanical in DAM. The mechanical must be routed to "Final to printer" for Internet Development to be able to access it. We do not receive email notification. We run reports to see if the material is final in DAM. We then copy and downloaded from DAM, html coded and added to the Internet Development database. It remain on HOLD until the on-sale date. It will automatically appear on the site on the on-sale date.
Things like interviews, reading guides, author's notes and features are handled differently.
Cover snapshot sare feed to booksellers nightly.
Book descriptions and chapter excerpts are feed to booksellers weekly.
I hope this helps you
understand the process a bit. Basically, all the value added
content must be final in DAM before it goes anywhere. That's why
it is so important to have a procedure from the beginning that
supports deadlines. The sooner things can be changed to "final"
and published, the bigger the pre-sales
opportunities!
- Thanks to Ronnie Gambon, Director
of Online Content and Operations and Kate Bobbit, Web
Content Producer, for their assistance and clarification of DAM
prodecure.
|
 |
|
|
- Do check to see if jacket
images are FINAL in DAM
- DO prepare before the 15th of the month
- DO allow TWO full weeks for production
- DO include the entire URL of the link
- DO include a table of contents
- DON'T include extraneous characters
- DO double check spelling and links
| |
|
