Marketing Your Novel, Part 1

March 9, 2007

With the publication date of THE SERPENT'S KISS hurtling toward me (JULY 1, 2007, feel free to pre-order :), my publishers and myself will love you for it), I've begun my marketing efforts. Although I'm not 100% comfortable doing this, I've decided to fill everybody in on my efforts as I go along, and more importantly, break down the dollar amounts and time put in. And when I'm done sometime in the fall (presumably), I'll total it.

I've decided to partake again of AUTHORBUZZ. We did this with THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK, although in that case I didn't pay for it. This time the money's out of my pocket (although it is tax deductible). AUTHORBUZZ is a series of e-newsletters focusing on your book, complete with cover and links, etc., and it's sent out to literally thousands of book buyers, booksellers and librarians. It also goes out on the e-newsletter SHELF AWARENESS, which if you haven't signed up for your free subscription, you should. AUTHORBUZZ is the brain child of bestselling author M.J. Rose and it seems to be taking off.

Does it work? Well, although one sometimes suspects that MJ is doing very well off this enterprise, I can only respond that on the days my entries came out my website traffic increased three to four times. So I've written my check and made my three entries and sent them off already. Part of my AUTHORBUZZ bit is a contest, but we'll talk more about that at a later date.

Cost: $895

Time: About 2 hours

Mailings. For THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK I put together a tri-fold brochure. A graphic artist friend of mine redesigned it for free. Then I had it professionally printed, which cost well over $1000. I spent even more, bribing my kids with video games to stuff the envelopes and slap the labels on it. The labels cost about $100--I bought a list off the Internet of independent bookstores. Unfortunately, as I found out, a third to about half of those indie bookstores had gone out of business or moved, so I got about 1000 back. I have also got a database of libraries, most here in Michigan, as well as people who have contacted me or signed my guest book at signings. I've spent the last couple weeks sorting through all those returns and re-organizing my indie bookstore database. I'm not doing a brochure this time, but I'm planning on doing postcards. Anybody know of a good company that does these? I'm looking at Vista Prints.

Anyway, to-date I've got a total of 2190 addresses, so I'll probably get 2500 postcards printed up. That looks to be relatively inexpensive, about $155. Postage is estimated at about $854, although I haven't checked yet for postcard mailing rates (assuming they don't go up before June/July), but it might be lower. I'm awaiting part of an advance check and some travel reimbursement from one of my clients so I can cut my business Visa bill about in half before I order these, but soon.

Do these work? I was thinking no, but when I recently interviewed David Morrell I mentioned I didn't think they were effective and he said, "How can you tell?" I hemmed and then I hawed, then conceded that I actually probably didn't know. So I decided to try it again. Will it result in direct sales? Maybe a few. Hopefully by combining AUTHORBUZZ with mailings and my publisher's catalogues and any reviews I get in the trade journals like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Library Journal, will result in some name and title recognition, reinforcing each other. You really have to think of marketing (for anything, not just books) as a CAMPAIGN, not just a single event.

Cost to-date: $0

Probable cost: $1000.

Time to-date: About 10 hours

Probably time: About 25 hours

Four months or so before publication is the time to start organizing formal book events like library talks and book signings. I'm not going this route, although if something comes up I'll do it. I know I'll be moderating a panel at the Kerrytown Book Festival in Ann Arbor in September. I was much happier doing informal drive-bys, so I'll be doing even more of those come July.

Anybody have suggestions, ideas or comments, let me know. I'm open-minded.

Best,

Mark Terry