Book marketing for fun and (I hope!) profit

I launched a marketing strategy this weekend. I have no idea if it will have any results–I guess we’ll see.

I started by developing two data bases: the first is a list of 97 independent bookstores in the six New England states. The second is a list of 225 weekly newspapers in the six New England states. I decided to target weekly newspapers because they aren’t pulling as much material off the wire services and often run small filler items and articles of local interest. I used to work for Beacon Communications in Acton, which published eleven of these weeklies, and there is a similar group of papers serving my current home town. Collecting all these papers was quite a job, but somewhat alleviated by the fact that so many of the papers have been bought up by large media companies. I knew Beacon Communications had folded years ago but the newspapers were still published. I found who bought the newspapers–and about 70 others in Eastern Massachusetts. Woof! That was the biggest “mother lode” of weeklies, though, and there are, amazingly, a few hold-outs that belong to no one but themselves, true “independent” papers. They’re mostly in Vermont.

I targeted independent bookstores because I hoped they would be more open to books from small and independent publishers, and also because many of them make a point of supporting local authors. This whole strategy focused on the New England region because my series is oriented on New England, its ambience and history.

I designed a one-page flyer for the book, which I thought turned out very nicely. It includes glowing quotes from three reviews, the book cover, book description, and so on–for a model, I studied some of the one-sheets that come with my various book club packets and based my flyer layout on those. I made up a sell sheet, just in case any of the bookstores want to order from me directly (I’m offering signed copies, if they do). I didn’t get to the NEIBA trade show this weekend (New England Independent Booksellers Association), but I figured with my timing, there were two possibilities. Either booksellers would be coming back from NEIBA loaded down with book ideas and preparing to put in orders, and my flier would arrive just in time to be included in those orders; or, my book would get lost in the shuffle of all the new stuff the booksellers picked up at NEIBA. The second scenario, however, would be equally true if the booksellers saw my book at NEIBA, so I guess I’ll find out which it is.

The bookstore mailings were all done up with first class stamps and my company mailing labels, which are pretty if nothing else. It doesn’t look like a bulk mailing. And, based on an idea I noticed in John Kremer’s book, I think, I put sticky notes with personalized comments on many of the flyers, saying something about the store or its website or its program–just to make it look less like a mass mailing that had just been stuffed into envelopes from an anonymous list.

I wanted to send out a media release immediately, in the hope that at the same time booksellers were getting my flier, potential customers might see something in their weekly paper mentioning the book’s title. I puzzled and pondered over what to use for a “hook”–always a problem with fiction–and then I was reminded that this week is Banned Books Week. Most of the weeklies are published on Wednesday or Thursday and their news deadline is Monday. If I got the media release out this weekend, I’d be in time for an item to be in the paper during Banned Books Week. I counted feature word-lengths in my local paper to see what length to aim for, and came up with 350-600 words, the shorter the better. I wrote a media release tying my book and company to Banned Books Week (talk about six degrees of separation! You can see how I did it here, if you’re curious), and then I sent it out by e-mail. I did all individual e-mails, with the release in the body of the e-mail and as an RTF file attachment, in hopes of avoiding getting bounced as spam. If the newspaper’s website gave an e-mail address specifically for press releases, I used that, but most of them weren’t that precise in their contact information. I also put the media release out on 1888PressRelease.com, which is the free service I’ve used before, and on the BLUM website.

But I’m not done yet. The next stage of this strategy is follow-up calls to the bookstores–probably not every last one of them. But I will certainly be calling the stores closest to me, and stores that make a point of showcasing local authors and sponsoring events. I’ll ask them if they saw the flier, and I’ll offer to do a talk or presentation, with a signing afterwards–I’ll ask them what would appeal to their customers. We’ll see what evolves out of that.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting to see if World Fantasy Convention is going to put me on a panel or assign me a reading time, since apparently I get one or the other. I better reserve a hotel room, too, or I’ll be sleeping in a tent!

So that’s been my weekend, how was yours? 🙂