Episode 25 – 10 Ways of Thinking Outside the Ad with Book Marketing Ideas

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In this solo episode, Mark shares 10 Ways of Thinking Outside the Ad: Book Marketing ideas that appeal to your target audience.

Before getting to the main content, Mark gives a bit of an update on how his Kobo Writing Life FREE first book in series is going two weeks out.

You can find a slightly more detailed report here

Patrons can find a detailed 50 slide progress report here

Mark then launches into the Tongue Twister segment, performing “ I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit” suggested to him by Pete — does he sh*t the bed/sheet on this one?

(If you want to suggest a tongue twister or even a voice for Mark to do it in, leave it in the comments for the podcast or email them to mark via mark (at) markleslie (dot) ca.)

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The Terrible Tongue Twister segment (AKA “Twisting by the Fool”) is sponsored by Findaway Voices, who provide all the tools that an independent author or small publisher needs in order to get into the digital audiobook market.

 

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Mark then talks through 10 Ways of Thinking Outside the Ad which are outlined below:

1) FOOD & DRINK & BOOKS

Mark shares a few thoughts about Julie Strauss with her “Chef in Love” romance books – in particular the amazing Prosecco Heart novel and how that could so brilliantly be tied in to delightful pairings. Food and drink and reading.

This would be the ideal book to give to a wine lover and romance reader. Or maybe package a CD, a book and a bottle of wine with it – it wouldn’t have to be a Prosecco although that does nicely tie-in with the title, placed on an author table as a suggestion for how it could be part of an excellent creative gift package.

2) ATTENTION MARKETING PROMO INFO & SWAG

Mark talks about a few examples from:

• The Jewels of Historical Romance – their combined group marketing power that includes creating a catalog of new titles and how they sent a special little engraved treasure to the retailers that they would fill with chocolate kisses “Kisses From The Jewels” with their semi-regular catalog of new titles from the group. Puts them above and beyond.
• Chris Mandeville and the hand-out for her book Seeds affixed to a packet of actual seeds. (Read an article Mark wrote about this, which includes images) on the KWL blog last spring
• Deborah Cooke‘s Book Charms for readers (read Deborah’s complete article about how she makes them, complete with step-by-step images)
• Glynnis Campbell‘s Bookish Swag – Lords with Swords letter opener. Here’s an article Mark wrote when at Kobo about some of the swag (yes, with more images)

3) ATTENTION MARKETING PACKAGING

Based on a few packages mailed to Mark when he was at Kobo from Publishers Group Canada, Mark shares how the inventive packaging for the following books created a memorable and sharable entity:

• Peter James LOVE YOU DEAD package, complete with evidence tag. (See full article and images here)
• Anne Cleaves COLD EARTH package, with fake newspaper (not the kind Trump talks about) articles related to the book (See full article and images here)

4) UNIQUE & BOOK-SPECIFIC SWAG

How Madison Avery created an inscribed penny based on the “Luck be a Penny” story from her erotic romance collection CAPTURING THE MUSE (all the stories involve female writers and erotic entanglements with her muse, who often takes the form of a sexy man)

Mark’s own idea for using t-shirts to advertise local bookstores and libraries where he had scheduled book events that included an “I love to haunt [LOCATION] motif advertising the bookstore or library, complete with a logo for the bookstore and that location’s URL.

 

5) PROPS

Mark talks about his full life skeleton Barnaby as a prop that he uses as a way to draw in the ideal target readers for his books (as well as to keep away those who are not interested in the macabre), as well as the way that a visual prop specifically related to the book content, can be an easily identifiable differentiator.

Link to an article (yes, with pictures) showing a bit of Barnaby’s Spring 2016 Ottawa travel.

6) HIGHWAY BILLBOARDS

Though it’s not an easy or common thing to do, Mark has witnessed how effective a series of highway billboard ads can be. He shares the huge success that author Brian Horeck saw with his books Minnow Trap and Frozen Beneath.

This is a demonstration of strategic marketing to a target audience (Northern Ontario readers) and aggressive and intelligent salesmanship to ensure the book was available at various non-traditional stores on that northern highway.

7) VEHICLE ADVERTISEMENTS

Similar to highway signs is the concept of advertising using your own vehicle. Mark was inspired by T S Paul and his car wrap concept. Mark invested in a much more cost-effective car magnet purchase for his own vehicle.

Since Mark’s skeleton Barnaby is already sitting in the car all the time, why not put something on the side of the car that explains why the skeleton is there?

 

8) COMIC CONS

Mark took advantage of a specific target audience to start buying tables to sell print books (which still represent 70 to 80% of the book industry overall market) to the core group of fans most likely to enjoy his books.

He also talks a bit about Armand Rosamilia and the Beers N Fears Tour and how this unique merger of local interest with craft beer worked extremely well.

9) LOCATION BASED APPS & SHARING

Mark talks about sharing content and quotes from his books on Foursquare (Swarm) as well as using apps like Squirl to introduce locations from where books are set.

Mark also shares the Spirits Untapped Google map that he and Liz created and as well as the Macabre Montreal map as a no cost (except for time) way of increasing SEO for content based on locations from books.

10) LIVE VIDEOS & SMALL FISH

Mark shares his experiences experimenting with live videos via his #FreeFridayFrights. He shares a bit about the explosion that happened with a video he recorded just this past Friday while up in my home town of Levack Ontario

His Facebook Live video about a ghost on Level 2650 of Levack Mine reached well over 3500 views and continues to get re-shared. Compared with the standard dozen to two dozen views most of his videos have received, this is a blockbuster.

It speaks to something Mark learned from his friend Robert J. Sawyer years ago – and that is the importance of defining yourself as a big fish in a small pool. Mark shares how that “big fish in small pool” has elevated sales of one particular book. He wrote a blog post about it a few days earlier where he shares some of that love and support that a small community can offer.

Links of Interest:

• Other Episodes Mentioned
  • TS Paul (Going Your Own Way)
  • Robert J. Sawyer (Optimizing Your Author Brand)
• Mark’s Free Friday Frights Tracking
• Patreon Page Posts for Stark Reflections
• Mark’s Nocturnal Screams Series (Kindle)
• Nocturnal Screams Books at Kobo
• Night Cries (Nocturnal Screams Volume 1) (Universal Book Link)
• Findaway Voices

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Mark really likes to talk. Sometimes you can’t get him to shut up at all, especially when he gets excited talking about books, about marketing books, and about writing and publishing and all that stuff. This is one of the semi-regular solo episodes where Mark attempts to gather and share info he feels might be interesting or useful for listeners.

 

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The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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