Book adverts

Baryonyx · May 21, 2011

I'm currently working on designing an advert for True Hero? (released on July 1st) that is going to appear in a magazine/show guide that will be available at a comic convention.

Anyway I've got the parametres but I was wondering how the good folks on this forum think a book ad would look.

Whether it should be a large image of the cover along with the release date or a smaller image of the cover with the blurb of the book, release date & website below?

I don't wanna get it wrong!

Thanks

Kindness · May 21, 2011

Man, I see book ads on billboards in Central London all the time, but for some reason they're pretty hard to find online. They look sort of like this though:

There's always an image of the book, and some kind of image or design on the back that sets the tone (blood spatters, a moonlit clearing, etc). Then there's a bit of text talking about the book. It's normally only a few lines long (I'm assuming this is because commuters are in a hurry). There also tends to be a bunch of quotes from positive reviews.

That's what I normally see, anyway. I'm not a marketing expert, though

I suppose you could adapt this into something smaller for [said magazine].

Baryonyx · May 21, 2011

Thanks!

That example is great, although that looks really difficult for me with my limited design/computer knowledge to pull off

I'll give it a shot at making something similar to that though.

CarrieAnn · May 21, 2011

I hope you'll show us, when you get it done. Let me know if you need any help.

dangerousbill · May 21, 2011

Zefiris said:
I'm currently working on designing an advert for True Hero? (released on July 1st) that is going to appear in a magazine/show guide that will be available at a comic convention.

If you want to make sure your money is well spent, check with people who advertised in previous years. When publishing my wife's local history book years ago, I put an advertisement in the Baker and Taylor catalog. On another occasion, I took out an ad to publicize a signing for the book.

Both ads were total (I mean complete) failures. There were about five sales through Baker and Taylor, and only three people showed up for the signing. This, from a printing of 3000 that eventually sold out.

My conclusion: print ads are a total waste of money. People look right through them.

Wordwrestler · May 21, 2011

I've been prompted to look for books based on radio ads many times. I don't think I have with print ads, though. But that could be because I'm not as exposed to them.

Based on my own experience as a reader, I have to believe ads are effective to some degree. So many times I've heard an ad for a book/ author writing on a topic or in a genre I love, and I'd never heard of them before that.

The frustrating thing about radio ads can be hearing the name or title wrong, or going through various spellings of the author's unusual name in order to find their books.

Erika_Lindsen · May 21, 2011

I have to agree to some degree with bill. But I think it's all in the design. The one shown above, honestly, I would skip over. For me, it's too bland. If you have some sort of pop to it, I would check it out. Make it fabulous!

gothicangel · May 21, 2011

dangerousbill said:
If you want to make sure your money is well spent, check with people who advertised in previous years. When publishing my wife's local history book years ago, I put an advertisement in the Baker and Taylor catalog. On another occasion, I took out an ad to publicize a signing for the book.

Both ads were total (I mean complete) failures. There were about five sales through Baker and Taylor, and only three people showed up for the signing. This, from a printing of 3000 that eventually sold out.

My conclusion: print ads are a total waste of money. People look right through them.

Yes, this exactly why big publishers rarely place advertisements in magazines or newspapers. I rarely buy a title off the back of an advert, I do buy them after watching/reading an author interview or recommendation [perfect example: I am currently reading I, Claudius after a recommendation in the Historicals sub-forum.]

Even in the digital age, word of mouth is still publisher's best friend.

Old Hack · May 21, 2011

Ads tend not to work on their own. For them to be truly effective at finding readers, they have to be part of a big promotional push involving interviews, media appearances and so on.

Having said that, the book trade usually uses ads in the trade press to get bookshop buyers to stock their titles. They are reasonably effective when used in this way, but only if there's a good distributor involved and a strong (and often expensive) marketing plan already in place.

Baryonyx · May 22, 2011

Thanks for the advice

Hmm, mixed thoughts on whether print ads are successful.

I'm pretty eager to promote True Hero? as much as possible, figured an advert could help so it's a bit surprising that printed ads don't really make much of a difference.

Plus I've been trying for the past hour to design something and keep failing. I'm awful at this sort of thing. Design isn't my strong suit.

I guess I'll see how it goes, if I get my design nailed by tomorrow (the deadline. I know I left it late but the idea only occured to me yesterday) I'll give it a try.

So I don't clutter up the board with posts, anyone got any other book promotion ideas they'd be willing to share?

I'm going to organise some blog interviews, send copies to reviewers (Once I've got an review copy available) and I've sent promotional bookmarks out to various comic book stores to hand out to customers (since superhero fiction I think would appeal to the same sort of crowd who buy comics, I hope)

My publisher is also doing some promotion too but I really don't feel right leaving it all to the publisher and not trying to promote the novel myself. Anyone got any more ideas???

JulieB · May 22, 2011

An ad in a con program book is a good thing, particularly if you'll be on programming at the convention or if your book is available in the dealer room.

If your publisher is already doing promotion, ask them if they might have something ready that would fit the format. They shouldn't mind providing you with promotional materials, particularly if you're paying for the ad. If they don't have anything that fits in the format, you can at least use their materials as a guide so your ad will fit in with the overall marketing strategy.

Book adverts

Baryonyx

Kindness

Back From My Self-Imposed Exile

Baryonyx

CarrieAnn

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

Wordwrestler

Erika_Lindsen

Writing, writing, writing

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Baryonyx

JulieB

I grow my own catnip