Headline digs deep for 'major' American Dirt campaign

Headline is going big on its marketing and PR campaign to launch American Dirt in the UK, with widespread review coverage and "major statement advertising" in the UK and Ireland.

On the publication of Jeanine Cummins' novel on 21st January 2020, an exclusive piece will run in the Guardian Weekend (25th January), following on from reviews that have already run in the Observer, the Sunday Times, the I-paper and the Telegraph newspapers. It has been selected for BBC Radio 4’s "Book at Bedtime" and BBC Radio 2 "Bookclub" (24th February). Interviews have also been arranged with BBC "Newsnight" and in Woman & Home Magazine (March issue).

Cummins will be interviewed on the Guardian Podcast, which goes out post-publication, and will take part in the Oh Do Book Off podcast with fellow début author Abi Dare. After touring the US during the first half of 2020, she will be in the UK in the autumn undertaking a select number of events to continue the PR campaign.

The accompanying marketing campaign meanwhile includes "major statement advertising" in both the UK and Ireland, including 48-sheet panel advertising at large commuter stations in London and "key" cities nationwide, alongside 12-sheet adverts across the London Underground and a targeted poster campaign in Dublin. In addition, a cinematic video trailer has been released online across social media. There is also material for independent bookshops to be able to create in-store displays with point-of-sale material including designed paper bags.

Tinder Press acquired American Dirt in a competitive auction in 2018, with the intention that it would be the imprint's lead title for 2020. Going for a seven-figure advance to Flatiron Books in the US after a nine-way auction, it tells the story of a mother and her young son as they flee across Mexico and attempt to cross the US border to escape a drug cartel that murdered the rest of their family. The book's author, who worked for 10 years in US publishing, researched the book by spending time in the borderlands and listening to the personal stories of migrants.

Mary-Anne Harrington, publisher, Tinder Press at Headline, said: "It’s thrilling to see the early response to it [American Dirt], and all of us at Tinder Press are looking forward to what we hope will be a truly stellar year for this novel, and for the phenomenal Jeanine Cummins."