Ex-FutureBrand boss scores success with book launch

A book marketed and branded by former FutureBrand London managing director Jasmine Montgomery has this week topped the bestseller list in London bookshop Foyles.

Montgomery is behind the branding and marketing for A Taste for Green Tangerines, the debut title by author Barbara Bisco, published by Black Lotus.

The book is Montgomery’s first official solo venture since being axed as part of a cull by FutureBrand that saw the departure of three members of its senior management team earlier this year.

The book’s success so far, says Montgomery, is due to doing things differently from the traditions of book publishing.

‘One of the things publishing does wrong [in terms of branding] is that booksellers don’t think about the market they are selling to in the retail chain. Book retailers differ greatly and should be dealt with differently. What we’re doing is being able to respond to different retailers’ needs,’ says Montgomery.

‘The rules of publishing say that you should make all the money within the first few weeks of launch, but we don’t have that distribution, so we’re focusing on one retailer at a time,’ she adds.

The next focus of distribution for the book, which launched last week at Foyles, is travel bookshop Daunt, and then Borders. An online launch with Amazon will be supported by a digital and viral push.

The cover of the book, commissioned by Montgomery, is intended to evoke ‘a fantasy adventure holiday’.

‘We didn’t want it to look like a Lonely Planet guide to Borneo – we wanted a sense of ethnic splendour with contemporary chic. With the white background, it avoids the usual graphic shouting that goes on in so many book covers today,’ says Montgomery.

For further details, go to www.atasteforgreentangerines.com.

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  • Jane Beck November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Heard Jasmine on radio 4 today and liked what I heard so this is me investigation further. I went down the internet publishing route with my first novel which I refused to bin. I made my heroine a woman of sixty on the premise that forty five per cent of women’s book buying demographic are over fifty and anyway why not. I think traditional publishing needs shaking up and you might just be the person to do it. Good luck! I’m now off to investigate your mother’s book. Good luck with that as well.

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