Book Promotion
In the world of the ever fracturing audience and the consolidation of media power, how do smaller, lesser known authors and books get known. Is it enough to rely on the efforts of the publisher? Unlikely.
A couple of recent examples of doing something different surfaced recently:
- John Shors makes himself available to book club discussions by putting a letter in the back of the book with his e-mail address and an invitation.
- The authors of the WorldChanging book attempted to push their book to the #1 bestseller spot (on some other book site) by asking all their customers to purchase the book at the same time. The thinking being that the exposure of being #1 (even for one day) would drive awareness and sales.
Do these efforts work? Maybe. The key here seems to be engaging the audience in some way. You’re not just buying a book, you’re hacking the publishing system. Draw the customers into the experience, let it become a conversation (literally).
Any other examples of unusal book promotion?
November 26th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Because of the unusual twin themes of my new book, ‘The Ancient Order of Moridura’ - science (gravitation!) and religion, I emailed universities engaged in gravitational research, every radio telescope site in the world, all the Bendictine monasteries in Britain and all the various Ancient Orders.
What they will make of it is anybody’s guess. Oh, and I also contacted a large number of women’s groups, since the book arguably contains the most unusual heroine in modern fiction!