by Stephanie Morrill
I haven’t talked a ton about marketing on Go Teen Writers for a few reasons:
- Writing is much more fun to talk about.
- It’s not applicable to many of you
- I’m hardly an expert.
In The Hunger Games, one of my favorite scenes is when Katniss and Peeta are on the rooftop the night before the games begin. Peeta says he doesn’t want them to change him, that if he’s gonna die – which he assumes he is – he wants to be himself. Katniss says, “I just can’t afford to think that way.” And she can’t. She has her mother and Prim to take care of, whereas Peeta doesn’t. He has only himself to consider.
Here I am at my first book signing. Totally terrified and trying to smile my way through it! |
This includes but is not limited to:
- Going into bookstores and asking about doing a signing. Then doing everything in your power – sending out postcards, offerning bribes – to get people into the store.
- Buying ads on Facebook or Google
- Blogging … but in a way that makes people want to buy your books. (The Pioneer Woman is an amazing example of this. She’s posted more recipes on her site than I could cook in a year … but I still own both her cookbooks.)
- Blog tours.
- Giving away books to people who will influence others to buy them.
- Coming up with curriculum you can teach in schools or libraries or writers conferences. Also, letting your area schools know that you’re available for Career Days.
- Something shareable on-line. There’s surely an industry term for this, but again – I’m not a marketing expert. When Jill Williamson’s Replication was coming out, they released a “What’s your expiration date?” widget thingamajig where you typed in your birthday and it told you when you would “expire.” This creates curiosity and buzz about the books.
- Book trailers. Which are like movie trailers, only for books.
- Activity on Facebook or Twitter.
I sat on a panel with Jeff Gerke, the publisher of Marcher Lord Press, at a conference, and he was asked if he thought marketing mattered. He shared that Jill Williamson (that’s our Jill) is his author who promotes and markets the most, and that she’s also his top selling author. He said his next bestselling author is also the author who promotes/markets the second most.
When I was first published, my instinct was to bury my head in the sand and pray that the ugly marketing requirements would just go away. Eventually I learned to find marketing things that I enjoy, like blogging and school visits. And I learned to accept that being a professional writer required seasons of marketing.
I hope this is helpful to those of you who are looking down the road at what’s required of today’s novelist. If you have questions, I’ll do my best to answer.