Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Book Promotion: Good Idea

It can be a vast, scary world out there for authors launching new books, desperately hoping their babies will receive a warm and tender welcome rather than falling unnoticed into the deep, dark void.

Apprentice Writer imagines that carrying the promotion ball (as authors apparently are increasingly expected to do) has caused untold numbers of tension headaches and ulcer flareups. But it has also unleashed some creative ideas.

Ann Aguire is an author Apprentice Writer knows, so far, only from the occasional blog post at various mutually visited sites. For the 26 February launch of her latest book, Grimspace, she came up with an attention grabber:

A fun quiz, and some seriously not-to-be-sneezed-at prizes.

As Apprentice Writer has a half-dozen tasks urgently requiring her attention during the 45 or so minutes junior apprentice writer #3 naps, she of course decided the best use of her time would be to take the quiz.

http://www.annaguirre.com/2008/01/28/the-grimspace-publicity-juggernaut/

"Your Result: Jumper
Grimspace navigator? Dude, you're like interstellar royalty. You're charismatic and possess a forceful personality. You're used to having power and you don't hesitate to use it. You also love to take risks. If it has danger attached, you're first in line, and no, you're not wearing a safety helmet. You live for the thrills, don't care about life expectancy, and expect to go out with a bang."

Is this an accurate assessment? Who knows. The point is, it cleverly gets the reader empathizing with that character and wondering what will happen to him/her even before the book is opened. Didn't hurt that the quiz was funny, either.

So, all in all, well played, Ms. Aguirre. Though Apprentice Writer has little sci-fi background, the creativity of this approach plus the promise of some humour in the story will definitely make her look for this book come launch day.

4 comments:

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I'll have to go check that out, m. I agree - stunningly creative!

Amy Ruttan said...

Very well done promo! Marketing is scary to say the least. But needs to be done to sell.

Writing the books is for the soul and everything else is unfortunately business (which this writer hates).

I just spent $80 on postcards that I can send out to different conferences and Nationals etc., *sigh*

Anonymous said...

I couldn't get to the quiz, but it sounds like a cool promotional idea!

M. said...

I think some of the other quiz results are doctor, mechanic, and pilot - all kind of cool

if the link doesn't work, you can probably just search for 'grimspace juggernaut'