Emdashery Blog

Audio Spotlight: Hearing voices (of advertisers) in your head--

"Pssst...hey you...yeah you...the one sitting at your computer reading Emdashery...have I got a book for you!..."

Maybe someday you'll hear a voice like that marketing a new book. Marketers are starting to use an innovative speaker system that sends sound in a narrow beam directly to the ears of individual consumers. You might be shopping the aisles of your favorite store and a voice just for you will say, "Pssst..."

The audio spotlight device, created by Watertown firm Holosonic Research Labs Inc., has been used to hawk everything from cereals in supermarket aisles to glasses at doctor's offices. The messages are often quick and targeted -- and a little creepy to the uninitiated.

Court TV recently installed the audio spotlight in ceilings of bookstores to promote the network's new murder-mystery show. A voice, whispering, "Hey, you, can you hear me? Do you ever think about murder?" was beamed toward customers as they browsed the mystery section in several independent bookstores in New York.

Creepy? Uh, yeah. This might be a good idea for the mystery section, but the mental health section? Not so sure.

Here's the full Boston Globe article...

Harlan Coben's little walking billboards--

There are always new and creative ways to promote a book. Author Harlan Coben sponsors five teams--the "Harlan Coben's Thrillers"--in his hometown of Ridgewood, N.J. Hopefully, the teams are using their wood to drive in runs, as well as sales of Coben's new book, The Woods.

(from Shelf Awareness)

Harry Potter and the Messaged Text--

When buying a book online is just too inconvenient, a company called ShopText is developing a way for customers to place impulse orders by text message. The equivalent of candy bars at the check-out counter, a NY Times articles explains that...

...ShopText has introduced a system that lets people buy products instantly using text messages, a process that eliminates the need to go to a store or even visit a Web site. For instance, a woman seeing an ad for a pocketbook in a magazine can order it on the spot simply by sending the text code found beside the item through her cellphone.

Consumers can already use text messages to buy some products. Ads for the new CD by singer Tim McGraw carry a texting code, as do magazine writeups for the new Harry Potter novel coming this summer...

“You’re sitting in Central Park reading a magazine, and you have your phone with you, and you want information on a product or you want to purchase the product,” he said. “The ability is right there.”

Most magazine and newspaper ads for books seem to be more about exposure and name recognition than making direct sales. However, the magazine/text messaging concept would be the equivalent of a blog-to-Amazon link.

If we're going to encourage impulse buying and consumer debt, books might as well get in on the action!

Read the whole article here...

Getting creative with book promotion and dry erase boards--

Not all Web sites for books have to cost $5,000 and employ glitzy technology to get an author's point across or to have a little fun. Take this one for example, which is a Web site for a collection of stories by Miranda July. It appears that Ms. July spent more time erasing her "dry erase board" than actually creating the site, but it's still creative and funny.

Unfortunately, my refrigerator and stove are black, so that wouldn't work for me...

HT: John Kremer at Book Marketing Bestsellers

Getting someone else to do the trailer--

Radio personality and blogger, Hugh Hewitt has written a book about presidential prospect, Mitt Romney. The book is titled, A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney. Hewitt is big fan of the potential of YouTube and recognizes the value of book trailers. But with name recognition and a loyal following working in his favor, he doesn't need to produce his own book trailer. Recalling that Doritos used an ad contest to allow amateur ad producers to make commercials for the superbowl, Hewitt is offering $1,000 to the person who can produce the best  trailer for his book.

Not a bad deal if it works. That's less than most book trailers cost, and he might get several good ones to boot. 

Turning the pages online--

This is a cool innovation. Novelist Dale Moses is providing his horror novel, He Still Watches, online for free as he writes it. But it's not just any old e-book in Word or Adobe format, it's an actual book with flipping pages and bookmarks. And he's not going broke because he's giving away the book for free. He has sponsors who advertise at the bottom of each page.

Here's more:

This is a free online horror novel in progress, being created one page per day and posted once a week online in order to bring readers back repeatedly, and offering graphic advertising spots on each and every one of those pages. This gains wonderful exposure for the advertisers, and a free reading experience for the horror reading public worldwide. This is your chance to follow a novel being created! It's a revolution in self-publishing that is sure to change the way you view novels.

Check it out here...

Playing games with book promotion--

Brian Haig, novelist and author of Man in the Middle, has an online game where you can test your knowledge of recent military controversies. In the game, you decide whether the different events are part of a Haig novel or an actual event.

You wouldn't want it to be your sole source of information on our honorable military, but the game is creative, has cool music, only takes a few minutes.

Check it out here:

Yeah, but does the book burp when you open the cover?--

What if an author went out and introduced her novel through a series of houseparties-- a cross between a literary salon and a Tupperware Party?

What if the author devised a fun format and starting with her own friends, got together in little gatherings to talk about books, writing, creativity and whatever else friends talk about?

Those questions were posted by author Patry Francis who did just that. She noted that bookstore readings are well and good, but most people are too busy to get out of their homes, and when they do, there isn't much chance for them to talk with the author. So instead of readers going to the author, what if the author went to the readers through private parties?

She brought the idea to her publisher, and they loved it and offered to help start a party tour. The publisher's response showed:

Once again, it demonstrated that the more an author does for him or herself, the more their publisher will do for them.

Read more here...

Stephen King: From books to comic books--

Last year, Stephen King came out with the 7th and last book in The Dark Tower series. Now, to continue to spread interest in the book, and to utilize other avenues to spread the stories themselves, Marvel comics is coming out with comic books based on the series. They will go on sale next Wednesday and stores across the country will make them available at midnight. There's more here from the NY Times and from Marvel.

How to go on book tour without leaving your home--

Check out the Vitual Book Tour site of Gulp! author, Gabriella Goddard. Gulp! is a self-help book recently published by Penguin UK.

On her site, Godard has links to interviews with various bloggers, podcasts of radio interviews, Skype chat sessions, writers forums, and of course (the soon to be obligatory) YouTube video.

Is it cliche to say that book promo is changing? Yes, it's cliche.

Check it out...