The Marketing, PR, and Sales team is a cargo ship. We take the product (in this case, our book), and provide it the avenue by which it can be sent out into the world. Just as a ship can carry parts of a product or a whole, marketing works in two ways: we can broadcast specific parts of our book by posting our cover on Goodreads or our title on Facebook without having the entire product, or we could publicize the entire book by selling it in bookstores.
In short, our purpose is to ship our book out to the public.
While it's somewhat our job to make sure the book is appealing to readers, the idea of aesthetics and a coherent book falls to the design and editorial teams, respectively. We're here to take what we have and sell it. We're mainly the ship, but we're also the colorful cargo containers that house the product.
As of now, we've been able to load a few parts of our book into the cargo hold. But first, we created a list of nearly everything we need to do as team (along with deadlines). Even though I'm not the official leader of our team, I've made an effort to lead without overshadowing the official leader. I assigned roles and tasks for our class's team, and the other class's Marketing, PR, and Sales team assigned their own roles. Even before taking the initiative to assign roles, I suggested the idea of (and went on to create) our class's email address: atwritingseminar@sas.edu.sg.
Currently, I'm the liaison for the SAS Communications office as well as in charge of contacting Kinokuniya. I've already created a class Goodreads account and added our unpublished book to the website. Now that we have a title, I'm soon going to update it, but without a cover it's still difficult to get attention. One way we've gone around that roadblock is by writing a Journeys article (I wrote one half, Chloe wrote the other). It will be published as a part of a feature on AT courses. Because AT courses are relatively new, I think concerned parents will be trying to do as much research as they possibly can on the program. The feature will serve two purposes: publicizing our book, and assuaging parents' worries and fears.
(Update: I attempted to change our title, but Goodreads is preventing me from doing so for some reason. I sent a message to the Goodreads librarians asking for help.)
A ship can't leave the port without what it came for, and our team can't leave the publishing dock without the parts of other teams. We rely on the work of other teams to help get our project out on the sea: Design's cover page, Event Planning's dates, times, and venues, and Editorial's final version of our short story collection. There's a lot we're waiting for before we can go on to contacting bookstores and creating hype for our book.
Right now, we're waiting in the harbor. We're anchored down, so our main purpose hasn't been fulfilled quite yet, but we have enough slack on the rope to move around, enough time to refuel. Just enough to prepare for the real cargo.
In short, our purpose is to ship our book out to the public.
While it's somewhat our job to make sure the book is appealing to readers, the idea of aesthetics and a coherent book falls to the design and editorial teams, respectively. We're here to take what we have and sell it. We're mainly the ship, but we're also the colorful cargo containers that house the product.
As of now, we've been able to load a few parts of our book into the cargo hold. But first, we created a list of nearly everything we need to do as team (along with deadlines). Even though I'm not the official leader of our team, I've made an effort to lead without overshadowing the official leader. I assigned roles and tasks for our class's team, and the other class's Marketing, PR, and Sales team assigned their own roles. Even before taking the initiative to assign roles, I suggested the idea of (and went on to create) our class's email address: atwritingseminar@sas.edu.sg.
Currently, I'm the liaison for the SAS Communications office as well as in charge of contacting Kinokuniya. I've already created a class Goodreads account and added our unpublished book to the website. Now that we have a title, I'm soon going to update it, but without a cover it's still difficult to get attention. One way we've gone around that roadblock is by writing a Journeys article (I wrote one half, Chloe wrote the other). It will be published as a part of a feature on AT courses. Because AT courses are relatively new, I think concerned parents will be trying to do as much research as they possibly can on the program. The feature will serve two purposes: publicizing our book, and assuaging parents' worries and fears.
(Update: I attempted to change our title, but Goodreads is preventing me from doing so for some reason. I sent a message to the Goodreads librarians asking for help.)
A ship can't leave the port without what it came for, and our team can't leave the publishing dock without the parts of other teams. We rely on the work of other teams to help get our project out on the sea: Design's cover page, Event Planning's dates, times, and venues, and Editorial's final version of our short story collection. There's a lot we're waiting for before we can go on to contacting bookstores and creating hype for our book.
Right now, we're waiting in the harbor. We're anchored down, so our main purpose hasn't been fulfilled quite yet, but we have enough slack on the rope to move around, enough time to refuel. Just enough to prepare for the real cargo.
Roopal, this shows hard work and good ideas in action; you have a great wrapup too, explaining the metaphor as it applies to your thinking and your actions. I like how the ship is still waiting in the harbor--and just consider what happens if the cargo doesn't arrive at the port! Then what?
ReplyDeleteYour use of links and evidence is also exemplary, showing several initiatives with your team, all of which, I think, will help fulfill your purpose.