An innovative way to market your new novel

Innovation in book marketing — does it exist?

There are many different ways to promote your work once it is ready. The more traditional methods of speaking to people and employing a PR agency are always present and have been matched (or even overtaken) by social media as a free way to connect with the masses. There is a saturation of people looking to publish and market their new book, though and you have to be careful to not look like you are spamming other with your marketing efforts. Your social media contacts can only take so much of you pushing your wares without actually offering them something in return. They say that only 1 in 10 of your social media posts should be selling. With all of this in mind, I have been looking for an innovative way to market your new novel that won’t push people over the edge.

The social media spammer

You come to expect this kind of behaviour on twitter, but I recently had to block someone on LinkedIn who just (badly) photo shopped the cover of his new book into ever-more ridiculous images and posted them for all to see. It became too painful to bear and I had to switch off this drivel. I’m sure the contents of the book were great, but I was never even tempted to buy because I felt like I was being harassed into it. I’m sure he is waiting, like the rest of us, for a day when someone comes up with an innovative way to market your new novel that can work.

It’s like the shopkeeper who follows you around making suggestions on what you should buy. In the end you just walk away with your cash still in your pocket because you want something a little more discrete, a little more, well English. I don’t like the constant barrage of ‘buy me’ as a tactic when I am on the buying end of the transaction, so I don’t see why anyone else should feel any different just because I am now selling. It is inelegant. There is a phrase in the North East, where I live that goes -

Shy bairns get nowt.

But there is a massive difference between being shy and grieving someone until they give in. In the rest of business, we ask politely and are able to take ‘no’ for an answer. It should be the same with selling our books.

An innovative way to market your new novel

I am trying something different. Instead of waiting until my new book is finished and published, I am trying to gain people that are interested while I am still writing it. This might be a difficult ask, I hear you say, but bear with me and find out what I propose. It still uses social media (Twitter to be precise) but in a more elegant way — at least I like to think so.

Augustine Boyle Twitter feed — https://twitter.com/augustineboyle5

I have set up a Twitter account. Not for me. Not for the book. But for the main character in the book. Augustine Boyle is a detective. He is fighting with so many other detectives for the attention of the kind of people who like to read this kind of fiction. It is already a crowded marketplace and I want this book to stand out among its peers. It is a different kind of story, with some literary devices not normally associated with crime fiction but that isn’t enough if I don’t get the book marketed in an effective way. Rather than spam people or add another book to the Twittersphere, I have decided that the main character can pull his own weight. He will be tweeting updates from his life to all and sundry. I hope that he will strike a chord with readers and have people champing at the bit to read the book once it is finished.

Most of this will come through the editing process. As I edit the book and finalise details, I will be able to tweet information that entices people to read without giving away too much plot. In effect it is the internal monologue of the main character operating away from the book — a kind of fourth wall.

I’d love to hear what you think about this idea, especially as it is very new to me. Augustine Boyle will be tweeting his thoughts as the book gets edited and becomes ready to be published. Perhaps you might have tried an innovative way to market your new novel that you want to share. I am open to ideas that don’t end up with me being another spammer.

Steven Thompson Author

Written by

Author of David’s Goliath and InitiAl. I am here to help you write your novel. I give ideas and confidence in the writing process so you can tell your story.

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