The Power of Vulnerability in Marketing Fiction
How can the principles of character immersion, sharing, and vulnerability be used to market a book successfully?
In recent decades, the publishing industry has become increasingly homogenous. “In 2003…only five conglomerates published 80 percent of U.S. trade books…” Additionally, because debut authors cannot demonstrate past earnings, getting a publisher to pick up and distribute unknown work is a huge challenge. In regards to e-books, a relatively progressive arm of the traditional publishing industry, “63% of the Big-5 revenue comes from ‘Old’ authors with Kindle debuts 2009 or before.” Yet, reading is also shown not to be a dying pursuit, with Generation Y out reading their older peers. C.S. Lewis writes, “We read to know we are not alone.” The aim of this project is to ascertain whether a book can be commercially successful based entirely on its emotional connectivity to readers, especially without the financial and advertising resources of a large publishing house. That is to say, the project will reveal whether appealing personally to prospective readers can be as powerful as mass commercial outreach. Using and measuring response to authorial vulnerability (defined as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure), character immersion (helping readers to relate to larger themes and personalities in the book by introducing minuscule details of the character’s worlds), and sharing (using both of the afore-mentioned techniques to prompt readers to make themselves vulnerable using the book) will allow for this question to be answered.
During the writing process of the novel How to Fly With Rocks in Your Pocket, each character was accorded a file including a timeline of their life, emotional benchmarks, inspirational figures, symbolic role, physical description, and geographical and cultural influences. These details have been used approximately 2–3 times per week over the past six months on various social media platforms in order to measure the level of response by prospective readers to individual characters. Additionally, external readers, chosen for their diverse personal and professional backgrounds, provided early insight into how relatable the story is, and which characters they felt most drawn to. Thorough market research also allowed the author to assess target market segments, their patterns of consumption, and the way in which they process and relate to fictional narrative. These statements are reinforced by evidence present in the reflective journal for the project.
Further testing through a Kickstarter campaign to cover the start-up costs (printing, marketing) of self-publishing and marketing the book helped to determine commercial viability at a minimum level. With 153 backers, the campaign ended 103% funded. In addition to the fact that the project was a Staff Pick on Kickstarter, that people related positively to it can be shown through the 500+ times it was shared on Facebook, as well as the fact that, of 1000+ tweets sent about it, only one was met with negative feedback. Given that the Kickstarter campaign was based largely on authorial vulnerability with just a hint as to the content of the book, it seems that this is an effective method for engaging readers and predicting sales. With release of the book imminent, sales measures and marketing statistics present in the reflective journal will provide a more complete view of how these marketing efforts translate into financial success
Public release is slated for 1 December, but pre-release measures of potential success are promising. Nine external reviewers have been secured. Seventy e-books and forty paperbacks have been distributed. Up-to-date sales numbers can be found in the reflective diary.
