Let's Talk With Smash & Kt (16)
Welcome to the Let’s Talk weekly discussion meme!
Originally hosted by Melissa from i swim for oceans, Smash & Kt took her original inspiration, and made it their own, expanding it to more than just books. Let’s get personal (but respectfully so) and learn more about one another! Each week, a different question will be posted along with a place to link up your posts and visit other people’s responses.This meme is definitely meant to bring out conversation and meet new people. So, Let's Talk!
We'd love to hear any ideas you have for questions. Submit them Here.
This week's question:
What are your thoughts on book merchandising/promotions? Do you think it’s an asset for authors? Does it interest you personally? What is the most creative way you’ve seen a book promoted in the stores, at a conference or on the web? (Thank you, Miki/Lecture toute une Aventure!)
Personally? I think while some of the promotions are neat, they don't really influence my book purchases. I make my new series/author buying decisions based off of the reviews/features from my favorite bloggers. Sure, I love to look at the different promotions/ads they come up with, and I especially enjoy the contests they host, but when it really comes down to it, I will always trust other bloggers over any hype/advertising.
That being said, I do think there is a need/importance for book merchandising/promotions/advertising as not everyone is so engrossed in the book blogging arena as I am. In fact, most people find their books through word of mouth and advertising or just simply browsing the store, which of course has advertising displays. That's why my job as a publicist involves much more than just promotion through blogging. While that is a great outlet, if we only focused on promoting via bloggers, we would be missing out on reaching a very large number of readers. So we are always looking for new, fun, and effective ways to get the word out about our books and reach our readers.
As far as the most creative, I was really impressed, at least at first with the faction quests Harper Teen had for the release of INSURGENT. It just was a really great idea in my opinion, although it did seem to fall apart there at the end, especially as some of the factions did not get the support they were supposed to and then the issue with the overtalked grand prize that wasn't as impressive as was told. I'm not trying to be critical as I realize it is a lot of work to try and bring something like that together. But since the original concept was great, I'd love to see some similar promotions that really bring the blogosphere together.
