Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers
Last time, the Ad Man brought you Part One of our interview with author Toby Barlow, who created a kick-ass website for his debut novel from HarperCollins, “Sharp Teeth.”
What’s unique about his site is that Toby himself is barely mentioned. Since he’s is the Executive Creative Director at J.Walter Thompson (Detroit) he knows the advertising business inside and out. So what was he thinking? The Ad Man asked.
Toby, as someone who's successfully branded clients like Ford, Kleenex, and Welch’s, how do you reconcile not branding "Toby Barlow the author"? Someone like Michael Crichton has fans that'll pick up his next book, regardless of the topic. But if your intention is to avoid the traditional author homepage, and only use the web to bring new dimensions to future books, are you running a risk of readers not being as familiar with your name, and not knowing about your other titles?
I'm not that interested in marketing myself. I probably should be, but right now it's the ideas that I'm working on that interest me more than anything. In a paradoxical sense, while the cult of personality ultimately sells a lot of books, it probably adds to the decline of literature because if you're famous you just don't have to try as hard. Michael Crichton is a brilliant guy and each of his books would probably be just that much better if he had to prove himself from scratch every time.
Who shot the "Is Your Dog A Werewolf" video? I notice it's on YouTube and Amazon. How else did you disseminate it virally?
I wrote and shot the "Is Your Dog a Werewolf" video driving around to friends houses who have big dogs. I asked a local editorial company called Kinetic to chop it together. They were the ones who really made something of it. We posted it on werewolf groups on Facebook and on MySpace. I think they've probably been viewed a thousand times or so.
Can you share any website traffic statistics that would support an argument that it was worth the expense and effort?
I don't have the numbers, but I am guessing it's been pretty successful as a site. There has been good buzz about it on the web.
How much traditional advertising did you do to support your book launch?
Not a lot. I made some postcards and some business cards that I sent far and wide. Every time I go to a restaurant I am really nice to the staff and I leave a big tip along with one of my Sharp Teeth cards. It's all kind of fun while being simultaneously pathetic. I'm not sure what good print would do. I think you could be pretty foolish with marketing money in this business, the whole industry is just so fractured. Then again, it seems like the publishing business doesn't quite know how to market itself properly. Incredibly enough, it's simultaneously one of the world's oldest businesses and a wild new frontier.
You also did a series of blog ads with Authorbuzz. Did you find those generated awareness and traffic to your website?
Hard to say. HarperCollins controls the website and I haven't seen the numbers, but the click through rates from the blog ads were strong and sales have been surprisingly good for an epic poem about dogs, so I have to say that every bit helped. Someone once said that 50% of advertising budgets are wasted, you just don't know which 50%. But I'm pretty sure this was a good idea, I certainly don't regret the investment.
Are you and your publisher happy with the book sales thus far? And if so, how much credit do you attribute to your website?
I am happy with the sales. I think my publisher would prefer a big bestseller, but I think they're pretty happy too. For a debut novel of free verse featuring werewolves to wind up getting as much mainstream attention as this has gotten is, to me, nice and incredible. I don't know how much the site helped, I just tried to make it worthwhile and have fun with it (which is sort of the same thing I did when I was writing the book). In the end, I think the site did what it was supposed to do.
Do you still get free grape juice?
Nope. In my experience, you don't get a lot of free stuff working on accounts. And while I loved working on Welch's, we parted company a little while back. They're good people. I have been really lucky in my career, I love having the chance to work with these amazing brands. Each one is a novel in and of itself.
Thanks again to Toby for being so generous with his time and not unleashing his werewolves on MJ’s pampered dog.
And now a final question for you readers… which author has your favorite website? Leave your nominations in the comments below.
Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.
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