Marketing masterclass: Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

A deep dive and review into the UK campaign for the multi-award-winning marketing campaign from Borough Press, HarperCollins.

Please note that all the information in the following case study is publicly available online, and no member of HarperCollins has provided any additional corroborating details.

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Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang was first announced to the literary world in October 2021 in The Bookseller, when the team at Borough Press, HarperCollins snapped up the rights.

Rebecca F. Kuang, or R.F. Kuang as she was more widely known at the time of the announcement, had previously published The Poppy War trilogy and Babel with HarperVoyager, the fantasy imprint of HarperCollins. Her social following was already high across Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, and her name, though altered as she entered a new genre space, was fairly recognisable.

It was never a given that Yellowface would be the success that it became, but it certainly wasn’t a surprise either.

Hardback Campaign

Timeline (Oct-Dec 2022)

• Following the announcement in October 2021, Yellowface was added to NetGalley in June 2022. First proofs were also shared via HarperFiction in June, with a design by Micaela Alcaino. The proofs were tongue-in-cheek (I loved them!) and targeted publishers, booksellers and avid readers. They were sent out to a selection of reviewers - press, booksellers and buyers - in late July, followed by a larger proof drop - 33 bookshops across the UK) in August with a supporting article in The Bookseller

• It was made available to pre-order on Amazon and other retailers from the 29th June 2023

• The cover was revealed in December 2022, with a trailer made by Sam Habib (recent winner of Futurebook Freelancer of the Year 2024) and shared via Borough Press, HarperFiction and Waterstones, with the Waterstones cover reveal reaching over 24k reviews on Twitter

• The author also shared the cover via her Instagram, TikTok and Substack:

  revealing YELLOWFACE

• After the cover reveal, the Amazon chart position jumped from 342,000 in the HB charts to 10,500 and doesn’t appear to have dropped below the 20,000 chart position until the release of the paperback in 2024