Buzz, Balls & Hype : Inside A Marketing Plan

Since this a predominately a marketing blog, I feel compelled to be my own guinea pig and describe what I’m doing for THE VENUS FIX this summer as well keep you posted on how well it goes in the hopes that it will be of help to everyone.

What’s happening?

The Traditional Effort

My wonderful publisher has sent out/given out about 1000 ARCs to date.

My publicist has done/is doing a lot to get reviews for THE VENUS FIX as well as off the book page press because the subject matter of this psychological suspsense novel - teenage boys addicted to internet porn and how it affects teenage girls - is so incendiary and important.

But you know how hard press is to get on or off the book page.

That’s where I come in with the question: What can I do for my book that my publisher or even an outside traditional publicist can’t?

The Non-traditional Effort

Once again I've hired the indomitable and creative Lauren Cerand to help and we’ve come up with a version of what we tried last year that was so successful.

Here are some new twists:

The Goal: to get 500 blogs to write about THE VENUS FIX and link to the Vidlit or an Interview with me about it. I’ll donate $5 to a charity that the bloggers themselves chose for each link.

All the rules are here at Myspace.

Pushing It Further

Once we had that set up, it occurred to me that J.A. Konrath and I – in our own very different ways - are doing something very similar this summer - he off line, me on line - and maybe there’s a second press angle that can get us both some off the book page press.

So here’s some of what my publicist will use in a press release that’s going out next week:

TWO ROADS DIVERGE

J.A. Konrath and M.J. Rose both have both taken to the highway to help their publishers market their books.

J.A. Konrath (RUSTY NAIL 7/1) is driving across the country on the concrete highway with the goal of hitting 500 bookstores by the end of the Aug.

M.J. Rose (THE VENUS FIX 7/1) driving across country on the virtual highway with the goal of reaching 500 blogs by the end of Aug.

Konrath has his car, toothbrush, deodorant, and a GPS device and is planning to stop in every bookstore he can find.

Rose has a fund raising effort, an information page up at myspace where bloggers can learn about the contest and four video clips inclding a Vidlit, Author Interview and BookGroup video discussion.

Rather than "may the better author win" – "may they both win."

(More info of the kind that belongs in press releases – including quotes, reviews etc)

I do honestly hope we both win and show that there is no one way to market books – and that the only truth is that that like it or not – with so many books published even the most successful authors need to be marketing partners with our publishers.

I learn from everyone I meet and every idea I hear.

Just one example is in the process of figuring all this out I read on J.A.’s blog how he’s traveling with a notebook and writes down the name of every single bookseller he meets so he can include then in the acknowledgement of his next novel.

Inspired by him, I’m not only donating $5 for every blog and bookseller who gets involved in my effort via the info at Myspace.com, but I'll also link back them on a special page at my website and mention them in my acks of my next book.

If you want to be counted be sure you read the instructions at MySpace.com and then send a permalink to [email protected]. Every blogger who participates will also be entered in a weekly drawing for a signed, personalized copy of THE VENUS FIX!

And if you live anywhere in the US go to J.A.'s blog, find out where he'll be and cheer him on.

Our goal is the same, to reach readers either through the internet or booksellers.

May we both - and you - find the effort worthwhile.

And now, back to writing my next novel. Which is still the most important part of this gig as far as I'm concerned.

Buzz, Balls & Hype

Because there are over 750,000 self-pubbed and 250,000 books published a year and they won't all get reviews in the NYTBR. Authored by M.J. Rose

July 08, 2006

Inside A Marketing Plan

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