Publisher's Weekly described how Gretchen McNeil is promoting her teen thriller, TEN. It's a clever approach to book marketing:
She set up a blog tour for herself and took part in a live Twitter chat hosted by a Young Adult fan site.
She also organized an online "party" to reveal the video trailer for the book.
Most interesting, she's leveraging the power of fans. They go online to enlist in her "Army of Ten." They start out as privates and are given the mission of Tweeting that they've joined the Army of Ten. Their "medal" for this is a bookmark and a promotion to Sargeant--with another assignment. They can keep going up the ranks until they reach the level of Major. To earn that they have to find a book store that doesn't stock the title and convince them to order it. If they suceed, they will be named in the acknowledgments page in her next book, which comes out in fall 2013.
At the time of the Publisher's Weekly article, before the publication date, she had 250 recruits. The campaign was prompted by the news that Barnes and Noble would not be stocking the book. With that important avenue closed, she decided to reach and engage her readers--and have them do some vital marketing for her.
I think it's a creative approach that many authors could emulate in a variety to ways.
(My book, YOUR WRITING COACH, has a chapter on traditional book marketing methods and one on guerrilla marketing ideas for writers. You can get it as a traditional book or as an ebook. The UK Kindle edition is on sale for a limited time for £2.86 via this LINK.)
