by D.L. Snell
When promoting a small press book, an author must organize readings, signings, interviews, and talks. She must mail out media kits, press releases, review copies, and flyers. She has to create promotional materials--bookmarks, posters, a website, etc.--and must essentially become a publicist and a marketing department. Such an undertaking can exhaust a single person not blessed with six arms, three mouths, and a Swiss bank account. With a small press anthology, however, contributors can meld into such a multi-armed, multi-mouthed media monster, but only through collaboration, only through a synchronicity of moving arms and talking heads.
As author of two small-press novellas and as contributor to six small-press anthologies, I have engendered media monsters for two books: Monsters Ink and Cold Flesh, from Cyber-Pulp Books and Hellbound Books respectively. My monsters have landed ads in the Horror Writers Association newsletter, have obtained reviews in the renowned Hellnotes, and have wreaked havoc in many other areas.
So grab your bone saw, scalpel, electrodes, and jumper cables. It's time to spawn your own media monster.
STITCHING TOGETHER: CONNECTING WITH FELLOW CONTRIBUTORS
For the first step in creating your media monster, ask the editor of the anthology how to contact fellow contributors. Explain how you plan to use the information, and always ask your editor about your promotional ideas. Once you have the contacts and your editor's okay, introduce yourself to the other contributors. Let them know you plan to promote the book and that you would like help. Emphasize that if everyone lends a hand, the work will be minimal, the profit, worth it.
This is a good time to see if anyone has ideas or talents that would aid promotion. If you are lucky, you might have a few artists and magazine editors amongst you (the roster for Monsters Ink includes Editor of Cthulhu Sex Magazine, Michael Amorel). Always keep such contributors in mind; they will equip your media monster with bodybuilder arms.
To keep your monster parts sewn together, search the Internet for free message boards and set one up. A message board is a prime place to post updates and to track everyone's promotional endeavors, a place where contributors can interact, get to know one another, and bounce around ideas. In essence, the board will be your monster's brainstorm, the messages, neuron lightning.
BARK, ROAR, POUND YOUR CHEST: SPREADING WORD OF MOUTH
Tell a friend, who tells her friends, who tell their friends . . . this is a great way to spread word about a new book. Tell someone, tell everyone, and pretty soon complete strangers will hear about your publication. With an anthology, word of mouth works especially well; instead of one author bellowing, you have a whole chorus of authors: a shriek, a shout, and a grumble.
So encourage your fellow contributors to tell their friends and family. Ask them to notify their mailing lists and any forums or chat rooms they frequent. Do they have a water cooler at work? Great! Talk about the book over a Dixie cup of crystalline refreshment. Get everyone singing, and someone is bound to hear. And the more people who hear, the more mouths your media monster will possess.
PUT YOUR HEADS TOGETHER: ADVERTISING
Advertising in magazines and on websites generates invaluable exposure, but at a price. Professional magazines, the ones that have a large readership, can be especially spendy. But if you pool your resources, if everyone chips in, you might afford one of those coveted ad spaces.
First, you will need an ad. If your monster lacks an artist's arm, try lifting the paintbrush or mouse yourself. Using Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, nearly anyone can forge a simple advertisement and avoid paying a graphic designer. If you do have an artist on your side, remit the book cover and synopsis so that the artist can work media magic.
Once the ad is complete, but before you endorse the check, ask the magazine editors amongst you to place a free advertisement in the magazines they edit. If they have the power and space, most contributing editors will. For Monsters Ink, Michael Amorel placed a full-page ad in Cthulhu Sex, free of charge; our monster danced the Mash.
After reaping any freebies, purchase ad space in reputable zines (note that multi-month advertisements work best). Have each contributor send payment to the editor, who will place the advertisement. Or choose another method with which everyone feels comfortable. Your monster has several heads: put them together; talk amongst yourselves.
A STAPLER FOR EACH ARM: PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
Here again the artist's arm will come in handy. In Word or Photoshop, create a bookmark based on the anthology and send the file to each contributor. Ask them to print and distribute the bookmarks to friends, family, acquaintances, etc. Sometimes, if you give a bookstore a stack of bookmarks, the clerks will hand them out to customers. You may also convince the manager or owner to let you slip a few behind the covers of new releases and bestsellers similar to your publication.
Aside from bookmarks, you might also produce flyers, postcards, and posters. Send everyone editable files, so they can update when necessary and print anew. This is an ingenious way to get all your monster's arms stapling announcements to telephone poles without paying the entire printing cost, and without paying for all those staples.
Mammoth tip: Slip bookmarks or small notices into any form of correspondence. Paying a bill? Include a bookmark. Impending birthday? Send a card--and a bookmark. Mail no envelope without one.
WWW.YOURMEDIAMONSTER.COM: PROMOTION ON THE INTERNET
As an important marketing tool, the Internet offers several ways to promote your book. Personal websites definitely qualify, and every author should have one. Know that personal sites attract more traffic when they provide services or information. For example, on my site, Exit66.net, I not only showcase my writing achievements, I give free ad space to authors in my genre. My audience enjoys this, and it keeps them coming. I also offer free how-to articles on writing, as well as free short stories.
Ask your fellow contributors to post the anthology on their sites, and then do so yourself. You should also register with as many author communities as possible--communities such as Authors.com--and list the anthology in your member's profile. Have the other contributors do this as well.
While you're at it, research genre communities, such as Horrorfind.com (do a web search to find communities befitting your subject matter). These communities feature anything related to your genre and may have ad space for your web banner, which you or another contributor might have designed for a banner exchange. The communities may also offer free classifieds or book announcements. Use them. They are your monster's tattoos. They let people know what your creature is all about.
A COLOSSAL JOHN HANCOCK: BOOK SIGNINGS
Book signing tours can be the priciest venture of book promotion. Sometimes, mass-market publishers will finance tours, but small presses generally lack the resources. Unless a small press author has time and money, he must limit himself to local bookstores and to those within reach.
Conversely, contributors to a small press anthology have better fortune. Authors from out of state, and even from overseas, most likely mingle in the anthology. They can hold signings in places of which you have only dreamt. For instance, Cold Flesh contributor Richard Lee lives in Japan, a country the anthology might never have seen. Get the contributors to arrange at least one book signing apiece. If you live near another contributor, do a joint signing. People love those.
In any case, get everyone to do a signing. Steppingstones range across the globe: let your monster span continents, let it leap oceans.
Behemoth tip: Choose bookstores that report to local bestseller lists (newspapers publish the lists and usually cite participating stores). This way, your anthology has a chance of becoming a bestseller.
"MAMMOTH, GARGANTUAN, THE BIGGEST BOOK EVER": BOOK REVIEWS
Sending review copies can exceed budget, especially when reviewers refuse electronic versions. To keep the money equally distributed between all your monster's pockets, ask each contributor to purchase and mail two to three review copies. When you obtain reviews, send a duplicate to each contributor and to the editor, and suggest that they excerpt the review on their websites. You can also quote reviews on promotional materials and anywhere else the anthology appears.
To prevent double exposure, maintain a list of solicited reviewers on the anthology message board. Ask your editor to name the reviewers she has solicited as well. Reviewers receive enough books already. They are here to help. Do not force them to scream Godzilla and to zap your monster with power lines.
MONSTROUS DANDER: ARTICLES AND SHORT STORIES
An easy way to promote a book is to write about it. To publicize Monsters Ink and Cold Flesh (one featuring monsters, the other featuring zombies), I decided to write about the ritual of animating a media monster. From this article, readers will not only learn how to play Dr. Frankenstein, they will read about my latest work, a clever and effective promotional scheme.
In addition to nonfiction articles, promote the anthology through short stories. In your bio, simply mention the book and publisher (see my bio below for an example). For a more challenging but beneficial approach, reuse the setting or the characters from your anthology story. Readers enjoy continuums, and if they read in your bio that your story is an installment, they may pick up the anthology. Finally, persuade your minions to write articles and sequels, and--BLAM!--numerous mini ads will pop up in zines everywhere, almost as if your monster has shed Pringles-sized dander all over the magazine rack.
UNLEASH THE BEAST: AFTERMATH
Endowed with countless massive arms, a chorus of silver-tongued mouths, and two King Kong legs, your media monster is finally alive. Cut his chain, whip him, and shout, "Sic 'em, boy!" Earthquakes will ripple from his footsteps. Skyscrapers will tremble, oceans will churn. Countries away, people will hear his roar. They will run for cover at the nearest bookstore, and inside, they may see your bookmark. Or maybe they'll see one of your cohorts, signing books and grinning like a beast.
D.L. Snell first experimented with media monsters when promoting Cyber-Pulp's horror anthology, Monsters Ink, which contains his short story, "Beneath the Rug." His latest monster is hard at work, selling copy after copy of Hellbound Books' Cold Flesh, a zombie anthology featuring Snell's short story, "Limbless Bodies Swaying." For more information, such as free articles and free ad space for your own work, visit Snell's website, Exit66.net.
This article may be freely reprinted in any e-zine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as all links remain intact, as well as Snell’s byline and bio; also, the article must not be altered.