A sort-of fresh promotional idea

by Rick Blechta

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of chatter on Type M about launching books in our Pandemic Era. Yes, it is a tough and possibly demoralizing slog, very much hit and miss. 

But book promotion has been degenerating for many years now. Publishers, especially those with a number of mid-list authors, eagerly seized on the cost benefits of social media — to them, happily offloading that onto their authors’ shoulders.

So it’s time for a good idea. Just call me Candide, if you like.

I’ve always found that reading a good excerpt from a book is the quickest way to get me to buy it. Even more effective can be someone reading that excerpt. Trick is, they have to be good at it, and well, most of us ink-stained wretches aren’t. I’m sure we’ve all sat through more than our share of cringe-worthy reading performances. I’m certainly guilty of that faux pas myself — although, with a lot of practise I have improved my skills.

Anyway, here’s my idea: video yourself doing a carefully-chosen reading from your new work after first taking a few minutes to introduce your book in general terms. In other words, get readers’ attention by setting a few interesting hooks and then reel them in by a good reading experience.

Here’s the hard part: it has to look as professional as you can make it. Don’t sit in front of your computer in your studio and do it. Don’t read from a prepared text. Memorize it. Multiple takes will probably be in order too, especially if you’ve never done this kind of thing before. You could get someone more experienced to do it for you, but I believe the personal touch is best. That’s not to say you can’t get professional help to critique and help improve what you’re doing.

As for the reading portion — and I’ve said this before here on Type M — you don’t have to read everything in order. Do some editing as if you’re adapting your work for the screen. Keep description to a minimum. Include lots of dialogue if you can. Use different voices for different characters.

Now the next part is critical. Your video has to be as widely disseminated as possible. Have it on your website, your publisher’s website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Get it to bookstores. But most of all, make sure it’s on at least the back cover of your book, if not the cover.

This means that you have to prepare ahead of time, but then there’s a huge span of time as your book is in production in which to do your own production.

The cost/benefit ratio to this makes it well worth doing. Perhaps your publisher might even kick in some money to help get it done. Regardless, it shouldn’t cost much, and if you have enough experience, it doesn’t need to cost anymore than your time.

I’ve only given a rough sketch of the project, but I’m sure you have enough imagination to see why and how it could be done. Since it’s very difficult to promote traditional ways (the book tour, signings, appearances in general) we have to think untraditionally.

If there’s enough interest, I can expand on my thoughts in another post.