Pre-Release Marketing My Novel

If you visit here regularly you already know that my next novel, PYRAMID DECEPTION will be released November first. If you’re wondering why I’d be talking about it now, you might be missing out on an important part of getting your books noticed. Promotion for your novel needs to start long before anyone can buy it.

Most of this pre-pub promotion is fun for me. The one part that is not is the very first step. Major reviewers want their Advance Reader Copies 120 days before the release date. That means that review copies went into the mail before July 1. Luckily I have a small press behind me so someone else does the really hard work – build a list, address envelopes, haul books to the post office – but it will be well worth it when the guys at Publisher’s Weekly finally wise up and review one of my novels. So far my biggest successes in this arena have been Library Journal and the local papers.  But I remain optimistic.

Everything else is getting the attention of actual readers and building anticipation. That starts 3 months out. I kick it all off with a cover reveal on Facebook and my web site. Then I leak the story ideas and synopsis. I’m purposely stingy with details because, just like when they’re reading a mystery novel, fans enjoy the suspense.

In September I’ll get help from the characters. I’ll post interviews of Hannibal and his supporting cast. I might let the characters give some more hints as to what the book is all about. All this time I’m also chatting with book stores about staging events around the November release. I’m also bugging bloggers about visiting their pages at release time. Guest blogs are pretty easy – the cover, synopsis, a sample chapter and/or one of the interviews I’ve already created will generally do the job.

I wait until the month before release to start sharing sample chapters. I post these on my web site and leave links on Twitter and Facebook to draw people in. I also plant those links on LinkedIn in the writer and reader groups I’ve joined. Asking other writers’ opinion of your samples can be exciting or humbling, but either way it does get engagement.

If pre-publication marketing interests you, stay tuned. In December Intrigue Publishing will release its first anthology and, trust me, promoting a book when you don’t have an author’s brand as your basis is a whole ‘nother thing. But it might turn out to be even more fun!  

Poster Boy for Marketing

Recently I've been trying to respond to some of the most frequently asked questions, on the theory that if one new author asked, a dozen more want to know the same thing. Not all the questions I get are deep or heavy. Consider this inquiry for straightforward marketing detail.

“When you send stores those 11x17 posters for book signing publicity, are they laminated, dry mounted, or anything other than a sheet of legal-sized paper? Do you make them up at work, home, or a printer's?”


First you should understand the importance I put on those posters. I learned quite quickly that many booksellers make no effort whatsoever to attract attention to the fact that they have an author signing books in their store until he or she arrives (and often not even then.) It’s a special event to them, so they carry on, business as usual. Then when no one shows up they say, “See? Book signings are pointless.”

Once I figured out that store managers couldn’t be bothered to even put a sign up in their windows I started supplying a couple of signs myself. They feature my face, my book cover and some words like “Meet The Author!” with the name of the store, the day, date and time of my appearance. I send the posters 2 weeks in advance and beg the manager to put them in prominent places. If nothing else it lets the staff know something is happening.

Managers soon figure out that it really does impact how many books move if you act like it’s a special treat to have an author in the house. I combine this with a stack of brochures or bookmarks which I tell them to hand out or use as bag stuffers BEFORE the day. And I ask them to set up the table and stacks of books before I arrive – it builds a little anticipation.

The point is that most people don’t know who a celebrity is or what a special event is. We have to tell them, in both overt and subtle ways. The bottom line is, it sells books.

And to answer the actual question: I get simple, color posters, 11” by 17” not laminated, dry mounted, or anything special. Kinko’s makes them up for about two dollars a piece. It costs more to mail them to the stores. It’s a small investment in making my appearance look a little like a big deal.

Brad Meltzer, Super Genius

Yes, I know I said I’d keep you posted on my personal progress here and so I will briefly mention that we have arranged for print ads in Crimespree Magazine and Mystery Scene to announce the release of Russian Roulette in June. I’ll also admit that my internet provider has had some serious issues preventing me from updating my web site for a couple weeks. We’ll have that fixed by next week and at that time I’ll announce the big book giveaway.

But what I really want to talk about today is my hero, Brad Meltzer. Brad has written some serious best sellers. Before that, he wrote some of the best comics in history, including the “Identity Crisis” storyline in Justice League of America. I also learned at the Virginia Festival of the Book’s Crime Wave Luncheon that Brad is the best keynote speaker I’ve ever heard. But beyond all that, Brad is my hero because he’s at the cutting edge of book promotion.

Ten years ago Brad had what some say was the very first professional author web site. He set that up for his first published novel, Tenth Justice. He posted a lot of the things I’ve tried to emulate, like sample chapters and character interviews. It wasn’t super high tech at the time, but since no one else was doing it, it was pretty spectacular.

Over the years he has stayed at the leading edge of book promotion. He made not one, not two but three videos for his latest thriller, The Book of Lies. One of them has Christopher Hitchens and Joss Whedon in the cast (yes, the guy who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) The video itself is a fine piece of writing, about a theoretical missing book of the Bible.

Of course my book trailer for Russian Roulette will be produced by Circle of Seven Productions, the company that invented the things back in 2002, and I’ll be debuting it soon. It won’t be nearly as impressive as any of Brad’s but I’m starting small like he did and following in the great man’s footsteps. It’s good to have such a great and successful example to follow.