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September 2006
Guerilla Marketing 101: Confessions of a Guerilla Marketing Wanna-be
Susan Hamilton lives southwest of Boston, MA with her husband and two cats. Her first novel, Darkstar Rising, appeared in 2003. She's currently working on a second manuscript. Visit her website to find out more about Darkstar and what readers have to say.
When the Broadsheet editors asked me to write something for the Guerrilla Marketing 101 column, I laughed, and thought, I am probably the biggest guerrilla marketing wanna-be that exists. My track record for marketing my book is . . . limited and spotty at best would probably be the most accurate way to describe it. But to give you my advice about guerrilla marketing, I need to begin, well, at the beginning . . . What a long, strange trip After a painfully long period starting in college and culminating a few years ago, I managed to complete my first novel and set out to get it published. I quickly became acquainted with the perils, pitfalls, and agonizing frustration of the slush pile. I considered self-publishing from time to time but the cost turned me off. When I discovered print-on-demand publishing, however, that opened some new doors and I began to look at that option more seriously. Some people encouraged me; some sneered at the idea. Finally, for better or worse, and with the support of my husband, I decided to self-publish with a POD vendor (I used Xlibris). Not too long after that, I found myself holding my novel — all 611 pages of it — in my hands. I was beside myself, thrilled beyond measure. Then I had my moment... the same moment I think a lot of new mothers have the first day they bring their new baby home... The moment where each says some version of: "What the hell do I do NOW?" For me, the simple answer was: sell it. (The book, not a baby.) Sell it. That simple solution begged the next, inevitable question... How? Getting down to business My first thought was set up some book signings. Sounds easy enough and there are plenty of bookstores. I was fortunate that a small shop near me with an extensive new age book section and a small selection of fiction let me do my first one. I had a little interest and a few sales, but all in all I was content. Other book signings proved more challenging. I discovered that bookstores were — for the most part — less than interested in a self-published author. I found it very frustrating. After several calls and conversations, I was finally invited to participate in an author panel at a local Barnes & Noble. The panel was made up of several local authors with a variety of genres. I had a few sales from that, but after, it didn't seem as if pursuing book signings were really worth it. Not so much bang for the buck so to speak. My next attempt was something a little different. The company I work for holds an associate craft fair each year. The two requirements are that the participants must be company employees, and they have to make their product themselves. I checked in, and the organizers said that I could participate since I wrote the book and I'd be selling it myself. I was a little worried how a book would do at a craft fair, but I was thrilled at the end of the day when I sold 30 copies of Darkstar Rising. Since then, I have participated in two more company craft fairs. Sales have gone down each time, but I expected that. It is a closed audience and the majority of people have seen me there before. So if they were going to buy a copy of my book, they've probably already done it. The other interesting place I've gone is the Arisia sci-fi con held each year in Boston. In addition to the regular vendor room, Arisia has a bazaar (or bizarre as I've heard it referred to affectionately). These tables are more reasonably priced and designed for clubs, organizations, and people like me. Sales at Arisia have also been very good, but I've experienced the same issue there that I have with the fair. The con has many, many regular attendees, so after three years, I'm not such a novelty. A second book on my table, however, would probably boost interest again. Trial and error Getting some exposure at the craft fair and the cons helped me figure out my sales pitch. I learned pretty quickly what I wanted to use as a synopsis to answer the inevitable question: "What's your book about?" I guess most people would say I do the "hard sell." I don't see it as that hard; it's just talking to people. Believe me, if someone shows an interest, I'll talk to them. At a convention, I'll say hello to just about anyone and try to entice them to stop at my table. I have my pitch down and I'm pretty happy with it. I know not everyone is as comfortable as I am just babbling on to complete strangers. My advice if you're trying to improve your hard sell technique? Just this: if you make eye contact with someone and they don't respond, don't take it personally. Move on to the next person. There are plenty of other people who might be interested; don't dwell on the ones who walk by. You may be wondering how well my sales pitch has done. I'm content with my results but not thrilled. Darkstar Rising came out in 2003. So in three years, I've managed to sell 130 copies. And those three years translate into two book signings, three craft fairs and four sci-fi cons. All in all, I've been reasonably happy with those results, but it makes me realize that there is the potential to sell a lot more. What's holding me back? Nothing more complicated than time and money. Easy problems to solve, right? You can all stop laughing now. They say that all you really need is love. Wrong. Love is overrated. All I really need is more time in the day. I think the biggest challenge I face as a self-published writer is finding time in the day to publicize and sell my book. I have all wonderful intentions; I tell myself I'm going to spend some time. No problem. I'll get right on that. Right after I finish my 50+ hour a week job, clean my house, weed the garden, fix the hole in the ceiling where the yellow jackets ate through the drywall, do the laundry, work on my new manuscript, repair the eight foot long and five foot deep cave-in out in my back yard where the groundhog's burrow collapsed, try to pick up a few tips from my writers group, and — oh, yes — say hello to my husband every now and again. Hi! Remember me? I'm the one standing next to you in all those photos. Yeah, the one in the white dress. That's me. The other big challenge is money. Darkstar Rising is a fantasy novel, so sci-fi fantasy conventions are a great place for me to sell. These events bring a huge segment of my target audience under one roof. But going to conventions costs money... Even local ones I can drive to usually require that I stay overnight. Other ones require that I fly there. The cost of airfare is prohibitive enough, but then being a vendor at a con isn't a cheap prospect either. Most vendor rooms require that you rent a table for at least a day if not the full weekend (the real exception to this that I've found so far is Arisia). That's usually too expensive for my wallet as well — but aside from that, I'm by myself. I have no one to watch my table if I need to step out to the ladies' room or to grab something to eat. I usually have decent sales when I can get to a con, but I don't make nearly enough to cover the cost of a full vendor table, hotel, admission to the con, and airfare. And that means I need to get creative with my marketing. So now we reach the point in the article where I hang my head in shame. I haven't availed myself of the resources available to me nearly as well as I should have. There are some really brilliant guerrilla marketing ideas out there... you just need to go look. I just need to go look. Haven't we been here before? Funny how it all comes back to time. If you're starting out as a writer, whether you've done self-publishing or if you're with a publishing house but find you need to do some of the promotion yourself, don't do what I did. Don't get sucked into the black hole of "yea yea, I'll get to it." Get to it. Get to it NOW. Read writers' magazines and newsletters for tips. Network with other writers and share best practices. Take some risks. Go places where your key audience will be. Engage in some shameless self-promotion. So that's it. I've offered my advice for what it is worth and now, here I sit, a guerrilla marketing wanna-be with a "to do" list that seems to go on and on and on... To infinity and beyond if I can borrow liberally from the movie... Time to abandon ship? Maybe. But it isn't time to give up. Nah, but I do think it is time to turn myself into a guerrilla marketing pirate and go find myself some good ideas that will get my name out there a little more. It is definitely time to don that olive drab army jacket, roll up my sleeves, and slash my way through the guerrilla marketing jungle. Heck, my husband might even think I look cute in combat boots. On the horizon So would I do it all again? Would I self-publish my new book once I'm finished with it knowing the frustrations I've gone through and the time challenges? Maybe. I really enjoyed my self-publishing experience, even with all of the frustrations. I think I've learned a great deal about myself and about my writing, so it was definitely worth it. I'd like to accomplish it the more traditional way, but at least I know what the self-publishing experience is like. |
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