A Marketing Blueprint

I know a lot of writers, especially those self-publishing, are trying to figure out how to market their books. I came across an article in The Wall Street Journal that might give you a sort of blueprint to follow, even though it’s not about a self-published author.

The book is The Expats, the author is Chris Pavone and the publisher is Crown Publishers, an imprint of Random House. He’s already getting rave pre-publication reviews and the title has been sold to 11 countries.

But … the article noted that mystery/thriller titles are more popular with e-book readers than the broader market and “digital books accounted from 35% to 40% of its mystery/thriller sales last year, roughly double e-books' proportion of total consumer book sales….” So…they’re turning to the virtual world to promote the book, in addition to a traditional book tour.

Crown is already backing the novel with a social-media advertising campaign on Facebook and Goodreads.com … The Facebook fan page arranged by the publisher contains blurbs from writers like Mr. Grisham and Patricia Cornwell. There is also an ongoing Twitter promotion via the publisher's Twitter feed and others. A selection of the book has also been posted on Scribd Inc., a social publishing site.

They plan to continue this campaign after the book is published. They’re even thinking outside the box:

Crown thinks the female protagonist in "The Expats" is so well-drawn that the publisher intends to market the book on sites aimed at readers of women's fiction as well as on sites targeting thriller readers.

If the big guys, who have balked at conceding to the digital movement that independent authors have embraced, can turn to digital marketing, you can bet that the independent authors, who’ve been doing e-marketing all along, can do it better.

Are you already targeting all these marketing sites? Do you have any other ideas to share?