Clever book marketing based on a brilliant idea.
By Roland Hachmann in Ad News, Ideas, Marketing, Viral Marketing | 5 comments
Just yesterday (or this morning), I received a comment by somebody who added some thoughts on viral marketing by pitching his own book including a lot of links in his comment. I let that comment through, because it sounded interesting. The other day however, not long ago, I received an email by somebody pitching his book to me, including some videos I ended up never watching. Boring pitches for books…
But now I found a really cool idea of someone who thought of a very unusual way to sell his book. Here is the English translation of something I found on this German site (and couldn’t yet find in English anywhere - let me know if you do):
Because his debut novel wouldn’t sell and the publishers were reluctant to invest any money in advertising, author WS Maugham decided to take matters in to his on hands. He published classifieds in a few daily newspapers in London with the following copy: “Young millionaire, lover of sports, cultivated, with good taste of music and a patient and empathetic character wishes to marry any young and beautiful girl that resembles the heroine of W.S. Maughams new novel.
Six days later the complete print run of the first edition of the novel was sold out.
Fantastic idea! Good buzzmarketing, and this was in the 1800’s!
Related posts
email this | tag this | digg this | trackback | comment RSS feed
John Kremer | Jan 24, 2008 | Reply
Fantastic story. Thanks for finding it.
If you’d like to see more success stories of debut novelists, check out this page on my website: http://www.bookmarket.com/debutnovels.htm.
Obviously, I love such stories.
Roland Hachmann | Jan 24, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the link, John! Some interesting stories there, you’re right!
shane | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
I barely ever comment but that is too good! Thanks for sharing.