Now here’s a smart marketer. Stephen Meier, author of Katka, a novella.
This fellow has done everything right from a marketing standpoint. His book trailer is great–long book trailers aren’t effective, I’ve heard. (I don’t like them, so I believed that when I read it.) Meier’s trailer is short and provocative. I love the picture of Charles Bridge.
And then he also is giving away a free Kindle. Umm…that’s a great way to garner some attention.
Looking at his product, he’s done some things right. He’s got a great cover. His premise is also, I think, hugely interesting. He’s got the “look inside” thing going at Amazon so he can tempt you with the first few pages.
I read the first few pages at Amazon and I find I don’t like his writing style–spare and graphic. (How odd that you can have both at the same time.) But there again he contacts a young man to read and review the book. And young men are more likely to be able to handle spare and graphic than old women. And even I was ripping through the pages. They were pretty compelling.
The thing I think might kill him is the pages to price ratio. the paperback is $12.99. The book is 108 pages. I’m not sure if the first few pages are good enough to convince young men to plunk down $12.99 ($9.99 for the Kindle version). Time will tell.
What I do know is this, if you want to sell a book, it can’t hurt to give away a Kindle. A couple of hours ago, I had never heard of Stephen Meier or his book. Now I’ve seen an interview, read a review, watched the trailer, and read the first several pages on Amazon. Pretty effective.
Thanks to Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews, for turning me on to this contest.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Cathy C. Hall // Apr 13, 2009 at 5:16 pm
So, Sally, after checking your THREE stuffed-to-the-brim-with-info blogs, I’m just wondering, um, when do you write? I’m totally impressed with your energy and info!
Cathy C. Hall’s last blog post..Finding Something Friday on Bella Online
2 sally apokedak // Apr 13, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Yeah, well, I write slowly. I write one day a week. And I am in a crit group where I am required to put in one chapter a week. So that means in a year I can write and polish a decent sized book. It works for me because I need time to let my work stew a bit.
I also belong to Book in a week. You clear all your stuff ahead of time and do nothing but write one week a month. I get a lot of rough draft junk pumped out that way.
3 Stephen R. Meier // Apr 20, 2009 at 1:03 am
Sally,
Hello there, I just wanted to say thank you for picking up on this contest and for giving my book a look! It’s greatly appreciated, and I have taken your comment on pages to price ratio very seriously. I didn’t come up with that price, but would love to discuss this with the publisher.
Anyway, thank you for the write up and mention.
4 Parker P // Apr 25, 2009 at 11:37 pm
That is a serious marketing effort. Thanks for the tip!
Parker P’s last blog post..Stump the Bookseller