Creative Fiction Marketing

This weekend the latest issue of Publishers Weekly arrived (August 13th) and toward the front of the magazine, a two-page ad proclaimed, "Highly Flammable." It was for the new novel from Brock Clarke called An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. I read the title to my wife and she asked, "So it's about an arsonist who burns down writers' homes in New England?" It's what is sounds like to me but I have not read the book which is a September 4 release from Algonquin Books.

Then I went to the book website which was listed on the ad (and I have added an image of that site to this entry). Notice the different ways the reader is engaged in the content of the novel--besides a blog from the author--if you click the book of matches in the upper right-hand corner it will take you to a page which includes a Memoirizer. At this creative spot the reader can create the beginnings of their own memoir. I'm not sure about the complexity of the computer programming to pull off such a marketing idea. This Memoirizer provides a viral addition to the site which people can send to their friends, put on their own website or blog and many other uses--and each time it promotes the book. Apparently some of the choices for the memoir have limitations since when I did it some of the selections were maxed out.

Its been said, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. On several occasions I have heard Alex Mandossian encourage writers to always improve and never invent.

I'm unsure how you will apply this material to your own novel and the marketing for it. There are several aspects that I wanted to point out in this entry about The Writing Life. First, notice the provocative title for the book. Most readers will ask the same question my wife raised when she heard it. Then notice the creative marketing efforts with the author site. It is much more than simply a brochure about the contents of the book. It encourages interaction and viral marketing to pass along this site to others. I hope this stirs the novelists to pour more energy into their own marketing efforts. I hope for the sake of Brock Clarke, it pays off. Yes, even Brock Clarke's website is pointed to the book site.

I hope it stirs some ideas for you in this area of creative marketing.