Friday 13 January 2017

target marketing

You invite all the people you have ever emailed in your whole life to your book launch. Six of them actually show up to drink your booze and eat your canapes.  Two of them buy a book.  And that's a win. Until recently, this was my  experience of marketing. 

So what is going on? Last week I wrote a blog in which I said I didn't really want my aunt's car. Not a sale pitch, just a passing comment. And I have received no less than six offers to buy it.  (No more than six either. It was in fact six.)

Internet works on micro-rents.  600,000 people look at something, you make six cents. Is my blog regularly read by 600,000 people?  Don't think so.  6000? More likely but still seems high. 600?  60? 16?  Now we're getting close (16 of the coolest, most insightful, fun loving folks around, mind you!  And Stephanie too.)  In which case, almost half the people who read my blog made an unsolicited offer on my late aunt's car. Now that is target marketing.  


I wonder why I had so much more success with my aunt's car than my own books?



Oh.  That's why. 

Thing is, I am feeling different about the car after another week of ownership.  Sorry, y'all.  I'm getting used to the thing.  Couple days ago I visited a pal in Oakville at the last minute.  Only one teeny crisis when I tried to find 6th gear and found 2nd by mistake.  (I didn't know the tachometer went that high!)  I'm off to the gym in a bit, and the only way I figure I won't die of exposure is if I take the car.  (Of course I'm way more likely to die in an accident, but that's another story.) So the car is still there, but I am using it more and more.

Back to target marketing.  Let's test this.  Hey there, you wonderful sixteen (or 60 or 600,000). You guys are the best!  I mean it!  Give yourselves a hand!  You too, Stephanie.  Now, have you considered what might become of your loved ones if (God forbid!) something were to happen to you?  It's a cold winter, and there are crazies on the road (I know!) and, well, anything can happen.  Wouldn't you want to be prepared? I have some forms you might want to look at.  Just a suggestion....


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am nothing if not patient. I wrote to Richard Scrimger 8 years & 3 weeks ago, urging him to write more adult fiction. (Have you read MYSTICAL ROSE and/or CROSSTOWN? Both brilliant novels!)

We do not treat our more talented Canadian novelists very well. If I were Prime Minister, Scrimger would be well housed & well-paid to write adult fiction full time, along with Helen Humphreys, Nancy Huston (I don't care if she lives in France), Rohinton Mistry, Gail Bowen, Frances Itani, Richard Wagamese, Joan Barfoot, Barbara Gowdy, Kate Pullinger, Camilla Gibb, Esi Edugyan, Rawi Hage, Shani Mootoo, Lee Maracle.......... I'm sure I've missed some greats, & I have omitted the icons such as Margaret Atwood who are, I figure, self-sufficient- if not affluent- by now.

I'm 75 with no longevity shown on either side of the family. So, I'm running out of time & hope Mr.Scrimger will be able to produce another adult novel before I croak.

Scrimgerr said...

Well, heaven send you long life! I have a new 'adult' book that my publisher is worried about, since my 'brand' (the word she uses)is strongly associated with the YA market. We're still talking, and the book will come out in a form close to what I wrote, but the Scrimger name may need a mild re-branding ...