The Secrets To Marketing Fiction
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- June 9th, 2009 |
- Comments
When my first book (The Cliffhanger) was published nearly VII years ago, I had high hopes of its achiever. I mean I am, after all, a PR person &ndash so how hard could it be to market fiction? Granted, up soil that point I hadn’t appropriated on a lot of fiction &ndash advantageously, to be honest I hadn’t appropriated any fiction. Fiction is bad and everyone knows it. But now I was going to get my chance, and what better artifact to start than on my own book? When The Cliffhanger hit the #1 attack on Amazon it was no accident, it was a creative push that got it to #1 and ironically, the pitch that prompted this Amazon fly had nothing to do with the book. Curious? So read on.
When I was first pushing The Cliffhanger I did all the things a good fiction author is questionable to do. I conveyed out review copies, created a arresting press release, regular book events. All of these things were great, but they didn’t give it the momentum the book really needed to follow. The book signings were good, but a tad boring, the press was interested, but not enough to feature me more than once. I knew I needed to do something, but let’s face it, when you’re writing romance it’s bad to find a pitch that has the stickiness thereto to, advantageously, adhere. When you’re action a fiction book to market you need to have more to hang your character on than a groovy account &ndash you need something the media can sink their set into, you need grit. That ‘grit’ is the reality piece of your account.
The actuality is thither’s always a cord of reality that weaves finished each piece of fiction. Find your reality and own it, if need be, craft your pitch around it. Let’s have you wrote a book about a Black overcoming domestic abuse. You’ve done your research, you know the stats, in fact, you might even be considered an expert. Why not so activity a portion of your campaign into a domestic aggression pitch? The same can be said for just about anything. They key here is to find that grain of reality and accompany if it’s interesting enough to create a new peg. Once you’ve found your hook, own it. What I mean is become the expert on that hook and familiarize yourself with ever datum, every contemplate and every new trend.
When The Cliffhanger was released I presently realized that marketing romantic fiction was only going to accept me so, but marketing the method of printing was more single. Why? Advantageously, The Cliffhanger was one of the first books in the San Diego area to be published via print-on-demand. Hence, that became my account. Until the Presidential race of 2000. Now that was an entirely different account.
No doubt many of you will remember the counts, recounts, chads, and hanging chads, right? Advantageously, one morning I woke capable find our local paper with the following headline: “Cliffhanger.” I knew right so that if I couldn’t find a hook to hang my character on that angle, I might as advantageously hang up my marketing hat forever. It was at 3 a.m. that I woke up with an idea so arresting, I knew it had to activity. I raced out to the office distribute fund the minute it opened to pick up various packs of clear labels. I got out the postcards I had printed with the book cover on them and cragfast on labels with the following catchword:
Getting disgusted the Presidential cliffhanger?
Attempt this one.
The Cliffhanger, a novel.
No politics involved.
I mailed 500 postcards out that day piece praying the election wouldn’t get called. I mailed these postcards to everyone in the media I’d ever contacted. Ever!
Days after my mass-mailing, I was walking finished my living room, when short I patterned my book cover on the check. I was stupefied. The local TV anchor was expression, “This has got to be the best abstraction I’ve ever seen. This lady wants you to go buy her book. I have everyone should rush out and buy it.” And everyone did. That afternoon my book attempt capable the #1 attack on Amazon, where it stayed for III months. It even beat out Harry Potter (which was #4 at that time), yet Harry got the movie. Go figure.
The point is that finding an “anchor” will help you push your campaign. This works for book events, also. If you’ve written a crime book, why not “theme” your event with DO NOT CROSS Police line enter (if you can get your hands on it) or another prop? The key is to be single, carry your theme end-to-end your marketing and hang your character on single distance to promote your book.
But the 2nd piece of this, the piece that’s become all the rage recently, is the appearance of your book. Now I’m not talking about the cover, I’m talking about the movie. Yes, you read right. Your book, a movie. Now I’m not talking about a full-blown cardinal hour motion picture. I’m talking about a movie trailer. Most recently various major publishers have started exploitation book trailers to promote the fiction books they publish. Why? Because we are a real visible elite, and if you’re trying to distill the core of your book into a one-thirty-second elevator pitch, why not distill that same information into a trailer? Studies have shown that book trailers can increase book sales in excess of 30%. This is why most of the major publishers are jumping on the book trailer bandwagon. Allay not convinced? Check out this book trailer of Candlewood Lake and accompany if it doesn’t entice you to buy the book:
.authors-online.com/billboards/drivein/candlewood/index.html
Now here’s a shortlist of tricks we’ve old to promote fiction:
* For a broadcast of detective novels we worked with, we told the author that instead of pitching the book, we were going to pitch any of the intriguing unresolved mysteries. He became the unresolved mystery expert and when he did a book event, that’s what he talked about. People were enthralled, and it also got him quite a bit of radio, also!
* For a chick lit book last year the author had one of her recipes (for Orgasmic cookies) come to life when she partnered with a local cookie company. The result? We had people writing us for copies of the book just so they could attempt this fabulous cookie.
* And what better place for a romance reading than a romantic distillery? If you live near any wineries, don’t hesitate to act by thither and ask if they’d like to invite you in for a reading.
Have you ever considered partnering with another author who has a similar appellation? Last year, I consulted with cardinal authors who’d written books about Paris. I decided they might deprivation to meet and partner up for events. They did, and the result was magnifique! Everyone loved the “evening in Paris” they’d created, and needless to have, they got lots of bookings!
The device is, with all the fiction out thither, you have to find a artifact to be different. Selling the account isn’t always going to sell your book, but entertaining the reader or selling how the account affects the reader or how it can benefit them will. Find your anchor, hook, or account &ndash and you’ve found an audience.
Becoming a marketing story-teller isn’t as hard as any people make it out to be, and whoever said fiction can’t be marketed just didn’t know how to tell a great account.