Tom Levenson has another post up in his ongoing series about the writing and publishing process of his new book, this one about generating publicity. At this point, he's gone past what I've experienced so far, but this is fortuitously timed, as I got a note from my editor yesterday saying that the bound galleys are in. Woo-hoo!
There will be pictures and so on when I get my copies (probably next week). This seems kind of early-- the book itself won't be out for another six months-- but I assume that the folks at Scribner know what they're doing. Anyway, I eagerly await Tom's next installment, on the getting of cover blurbs, because I've been generating a list of names of people who ought to get advance copies in hopes of producing good cover quotes.
At any rate, Tom's got some good thoughts on publicity things, some of which I'm already doing (blogging), and others that are in the works. There's dogphysics.com, Emmy has her own Facebook profile, and a Facebook page for the book is on my list of things to do (right after "submit my NSF grant report"). I'll probably investigate Twitter, as well, though I'm not sure how well I can make the time scale thing work. The "Schrödinger's Dog" movie clip pretty well exhausts my multimedia skills, though I'm looking into finding somebody to help with more.
I'm open to other suggestions of things I ought to be doing. Tom suggests publishing articles and essays as a way to build an audience, which is an interesting idea, though I'm not sure how to go about that (and I don't know if I have the free time...). If you know of, or better yet run, a publication that would like pieces about the sort of thing I write about here, leave a comment or send me email. And I'm sure there are other outlets I'm not even aware of that I could be using to promote the book, so if there's something I should know of, leave me a comment.
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Wow, my book has gone from ms to proofs in three months, and is due for publication in another two. I am starting to feel like a sausage.
I know you've laid out your reasons for not getting on Twitter before, but I do think that you could benefit from it, especially in the context of book promotion.
For one thing, they changed their settings so that you only see @ replies when the conversations are between two people that you follow, so now you don't see half-conversations.
And another thing is that you don't really HAVE to participate in conversations. I use it as mindcasting (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/03/on-twitter-mind.html),
and try to follow people who do the same, but don't often get into back-and-forth conversations with them.
You could use Twitter to broadcast Emmy's deep thoughts of the day, but put up the excuse that she won't be responding to @replies because she has to do more important things, like chase bunnies.
Get it on coffee tables as an adornment, even as a joke. Move 100K copies and the reason for such beomes irrelevant. Volunteer it as a prop for The Big Bang Theory as Bathsheba got her 3D printing on Numb3rs,
http://www.bathsheba.com/
"Though the equations are oh so decorative and the theme is certain to amuse, the meat is on the cover. You cannot invite guests this summer unless How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is on (subtle) display."
Can you have a sleazebag White girl be caught sleazing while carrying your book? (Kinda like somebody from Hunter carrying Kierkegaard with her glitter eyeliner - and never wondering why the "ø" is crossed out.)
Primary for humor value: http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2009/06/this_is_not_funny.php (embeds a YouTube video titled "Book Launch 2.0")
Pick Scalzi's brain? A Big Idea post?
Best book promotion ever: Fred Pohl helped a guy who had a warehouse filled with a seriously oversized art book. Fred, for a fee, placed this newspaper ad, in its entirety (no title, price and shipping figure omitted because I don't remember). "Do you want a really really BIG book?" Money flowed into the P.O. Box. The warehouse was emptied before the ad run (3 consective weeks?) ended. Learn from the Grandmasters, I say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCrtCHRYEdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCrtCHRYEdA
see:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Self-Publishing-Self-Publishing/dp…
the Ross's have more great ideas on pre-publishing activities than you can find time to complete. My favorite: make a list of 200 book reviewers to whom you should send review copies, or a subset of this list who should receive review books and other worthies who get a notice of publication, notice of published reviews (of your book), etc.
I would single out reviewers of your genre who publish to library trade magazines and make sure they get review copies. Follow up is key, second effort is even more key.
I don't know how much "actual marketing" publishers are doing now, aside from placing ads in certain publications but otherwise not spending money. I think they expect authors today to really actively, whole-heartedly sell the book with book signings, tours and seminars and lectures and booster speeches to the Rotary Club. At your expense, generally. What does your contract call for, precisely?
I'd scout out advocates of Science Olympiad and science fairs and get reviews and a semi-personal note or card out to them if appropriate. You need to think of micro-niche interest group segments and focus on a few, 2 or 3 key nodes of a wider network and get these key intersections to transmit the excitement your book offers. Good luck!
see:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Self-Publishing-Self-Publishing/dp…
the Ross's have more great ideas on pre-publishing activities than you can find time to complete. My favorite: make a list of 200 book reviewers to whom you should send review copies, or a subset of this list who should receive review books and other worthies who get a notice of publication, notice of published reviews (of your book), etc.
I would single out reviewers of your genre who publish to library trade magazines and make sure they get review copies. Follow up is key, second effort is even more key.
I don't know how much "actual marketing" publishers are doing now, aside from placing ads in certain publications but otherwise not spending money. I think they expect authors today to really actively, whole-heartedly sell the book with book signings, tours and seminars and lectures and booster speeches to the Rotary Club. At your expense, generally. What does your contract call for, precisely?
I'd scout out advocates of Science Olympiad and science fairs and get reviews and a semi-personal note or card out to them if appropriate. You need to think of micro-niche interest group segments and focus on a few, 2 or 3 key nodes of a wider network and get these key intersections to transmit the excitement your book offers. Good luck!