Are You Missing Out On A Publicity Goldmine?

The power of a simple reading should never be underestimated. Hearing the dulcet voice of another verbally caressing your prose seems to add another dimension somehow. As much as we try to deny it, some little part of our inner child is still fascinated with the daring escapades of talking shoes or pink elephants rendered vividly to life by a story teller’s fairly dodgy accents and high-pitched voices. The simple act of giving voice to something that is normally just in our head - particularly comedy which always reaches its true potential when performed – deepens our attachment as voices and sounds are added to the pictures of our imagination. And creating a clever video round your e-book could see it sky rocket to the most talked about digital file (or stapled pieces of paper) of the year.

In one of the best pieces of book marketing I have seen this year, Text Publishing, released a video of one of Australia’s most iconic children’s show hosts reading an adult picture book called ‘Go The F*** To Sleep’. Text appear to have followed every bit of advice I have given to you in this blog to the letter. They launched their book via the video below, a simple reading of a very comic adult book. The book is funny by itself, but synopsis and traditional marketing can only go so far and the book more than likely would have had a slow build. But Text went and found further comic fuel to add to the fire. They hired Noni Hazlehurst, the host of the iconic Australian children’s show, Playschool. This wonderful host who gently led children through cheerful songs, and squeaky clean picture books for well over two decades, is reading the book as though to an audience of children, making innocent side comments as she swears at the end of every page.

Just a quick warning, if you have sensitive ears, this video contains some swearing...


Go the Fuck to Sleep - read by Noni Hazlehurst from sswam on Vimeo.

Not only is it comedy gold, but a publicity goldmine. All they did was advertise it to their mailing list, and promote it on their social media. In almost 6 hours it got posted 66,258 times on Facebook before it got removed by YouTube for ‘harmful content’. But from there it didn’t matter, as soon as they placed their video on other video sharing sites (Such as Viddler or Vimeo) fans of the reading quickly passed on the link to the new video. Though Text would have hired Noni you will notice that this major publishing company chose to use all free avenues in placing their video online, and promoting through email and social media. This is because these avenues really work, and if you are still ignoring them as an indie author you may as well go the f*** to sleep.

While this book has already seen great success in the US through Samuel L. Jackson’s reading of the book, it’s worthwhile noting that different approaches and personalities will work better for some countries then others. Noni is a perfect choice for the Australian version of the book, however the majority of the US and UK wouldn’t even know who she was. As a traditional publisher, Text only publishes in one country, Australia, so it works for them. However, as an indie author if you want to reach several countries at once it is worth while playing on common comedic elements and topical subjects.

One of the best examples of an author using videos to reach their audience is John Greene, a YA author who posts little, fast talking and hilarious videos on YouTube every week with his brother Hank, to reach out to his audience of readers. You can check out his videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers. They talk about subjects important to their readers (self confessed 'nerds'...), and to themselves and more importantly, they have fun doing it!! The statistics for each video speak for themselves. Not only do these videos sell John's current books without him ever referring directly to them, but when his next book comes out, all he has to do is mention it once and it reaches hundreds of thousands of watchers, and is shared by hundreds of thousands of watchers.



The above reading is how it’s done my good writers; this is how you promote an e-book successfully. So time to add some life to your book. Go forth! Discover your goldmine.