Wil,

Will we be able to order it off of Amazon.com?

Ray

>> "I am terrible at marketing and promotion."

I can see that, because you didn't even link to information on your new book in this posting, which I didn't even know you were writing, which I'm interested in as a matter of fact. (I haven't been to your site in a while.)

>> "I'm planning on buying some non-obtrusive ads (like the text ads on K5) to promote my new book."

So start with a link and your half-way there to being a better marketer. :)

Wil:

Just a thought. There are an inordinate amount of Star Trek clubs, Yahoo newsgroups, etc. that are certainly available to post information and a link back to an ordering page. My suspicion would be that they would be thrilled (maybe not thrilled, maybe just darn happy) to be asked to post the link. Free advertisement and a ready and willing audience. You might also think about having a dealer's table (even manned by someone else) at convention's other than those you attend. There are several very large fan run cons around the country - lots of people with money to spend.

Just a thought.

Darla

I've missed you Unca Willie!

Here's what I would do. I think that word of mouth is a very powerful tool and there's no bigger mouth than the internet, specifically blogs. I would ask your readers to link to your site or Amazon, whereever, from their site. Normally you would have to send the product for endorsement but considering most have been reading your site for a while, you wouldn't have to.

As for me, I'd definately have no problem doing this for you. You've given me many, many days of enjoyable reading, it's really the least I could do.

Thanks, you guys.

Ray, it's not on Amazon right now. For the time being, it's available only through http://www.monolithpress.com

I may list it at Amazon sometime in the Mysterious Future.

Yay, you put the comments back on! Well I can say for myself and the many soapboxers that we are a in anticipation of your book!

I can't wait!

You should consider advertising on Penny arcade.. i dont know how much there advertising is but i know it always produces great results.. (as i tend to look at 6 outta 10 ads i see there).. assuming there are no rivalries beetween you it seemd like a good place to announce you presence to thousands of people who like to at least read comics (its a start)

Firstly, since Amazon are one of the few companies I trust to hold my credit card number on an Internet-connected computer, I don't buy books from anyone else. So if you want to sell your book to paranoid peeps like me, you gotta be on Amazon. Plus it's just plain good marketing to have a presence there.

Secondly, kuro5hin ads are cheap, so you can try a bunch of different ads and see which one gets the best click-thru rate.

Finally, I found the tips on Google's AdWords site to be useful, ie:

https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html

and

https://adwords.google.com/select/tips.html

Look at http://www.thisistrue.com/ads.html. The guy who runs This Is True (and True Stella Awards) has been around the netpreneur block a few times and might be a useful resource for you. Rates are reasonable too.

May be the Small Business Administration would be a good place to start.
http://www.sba.gov/

When I was selling my house last year I bought some keywords on Google. I got about 2000 impressions of the ad in a couple of weeks, which led to about 80 people clicking on the ad. It didn't sell the house, but I had an agent so I wasn't really needing it to. It was mostly just an experiment. It cost me less than $20. If you bought your name, Star Trek , Enterprise, etc etc it could be effective.

Also - create a small graphic that your readers can use to link back to the book page, whether you sell it directly, Amazon, whatever. A lot of us would be happy to help you advertise, I for one won't even charge you :)

Wil, i've worked in advertising for about a decade now...and webdesign for about 4 years...
my first and only advice it you is to listen to Darla and Patty.
between the two of em, they've pretty much got the answer.
get linkdup from here to eternity by all the regulars, and ask to have a link posted at every single Trek site known to man..
i'm fairly certain the vast majority will only be too happy to help out...
also, unless it's a cost thing, i'd definitely get the book up on amazon asap...
send out a press release to any media outlets you can think of..
local newspapers
local radio etc.

contact your local libraries to see if they'd be interested in having you come read a few passages from it...

do a small book tour,
have the regulars link up or tell you about genre bookstores around the country and canada too..
fr instance Bakka Books in Toronto, is the sci-fi capital of the city, and would want you in a heartbeat... :)

anyhow..just a few g'rilla marketing techniques for ya...

also, get about 400 of the new obey wheaton style posters done up on the cheap, and have them posted all over L.A.
have a link printed on the poster to go to a page directly selling the book...

make this a whole ani-difranco style campaign...
all word of mouth, all underground, friends helping friends type thing...

anyhow, anyone of these should help out i hope..

cheers wil....

Tyson

Behold the power of FARK, baby.

Woohoooooo! Comments! Yeah.

Later.

Internet advertising DOES NOT WORK. You know it. Deep down inside. No one pays attention to those stupid things. Buy an ad in Poets & Writers instead.

I'm an internet marketing consulting. Here are my thoughts.

Use pay-per-click search engines.
Google Adwords
Overture
FindWhat
Sprinks
Ah-Ha

Basically, you set a monthly budget for your account, write some ads, and your marketing is off and running in a couple days at the most.

The most important thing is choosing the right keywords for your marketing campaign. You want to choose the most relevant keywords...for instance, 'star trek' might be a popular keyword, but you are going to get people looking for star trek movies, star trek clubs, star trek role playing games, etc. A better keyword choice might therefore be 'star trek author.' You have to experiment to see what works for you. And since you only get charged when someone clicks on your ad, it's worth trying out hundreds of terms.

You can do all this yourself...but I'd recommend hiring someone like me to do it really well. Just depends on your budget. Take care!

-brian
310-699-2456

gotta disagree with you Brian.

I bought 'you are being lied to' from disinfo, and that was directly because i saw it linked here on Wil's site..
also bought the book 'Jennifer Government' the same way...

so it looks to me that it does, indeed work...

however, i have to say, i hate most banner ads..
the stuff that wils got going on the side of his site here is much better...its like looking at someones coffee table to see what they're reading..

anyhow, lots of thanks to Wil, i totally injoyed the disinfo books...

Ok, this might get a bit long.

Website rating. This is the key to any successful web site with sales. Utilizing different techniques can soon have effects on your direct traffic. Some techniques are simple and straight forward, others are from my own experience.

First the Search engine. Google is the leading search engine of today, over 10,000 servers in 8 datacenters. It is the backbone of many of the other search engine sites. Getting a good ranking here is essential to web success.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/ Start reading up on how to place your site within Google.

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2003/may/2.html The Google Dance happens ten times a year to re-index site listings.

One of the things search engines look for is a robot.txt file. This file tells the search engine where to go or not to go when indexing your site.

http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html

MetaTags these are now coming under controversy of their effectiveness in search engine listing. I feel that it is essential to have proper listing and to use an informative Title and description on each page that you want listed.

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167931

Now a few other tips learned along the way.

Search engines also like relative links to other sites of the same interest. This also includes linking on other pages within your own site. When purchasing advertisement make sure that it is targeting you specific audience.

Effective interlinking. We like alt tags and images. If you link your item by image make sure you have “alt” tags, Google reads text not pictures. Surround the item with effective descriptions keeping key words in mind at all times.

Pages : Google reads text, the more you mention your item with description and if image with alt tags, it will pick out the key words from particular phrases within your content.

If you have product pages FOCUS on the product. Minimalise all other items on that page. No other words or comments except if it is concerning the product. Have the key words located toward the top of each page. Title of item, brief description, image and then full details, then comments.

Trick: Create more than one static page for your product. Do not duplicate the page, but recreate all the descriptions and wording in a different way. Google will index all the pages.

Update regularly, if can every day. Change it around a bit, change the wording, comments etc. This page will be compared to the existing cache, if it is different it will be updated. Google doesn’t like pages that are forgotten.

Commissions: There are scripts that will enable you to have your own affiliate base. You can set your own commission rates, etc. Most of these type of scripts can be found on any of the major script resources. You may also have the choice to approve websites who want to sell your items.

Any questions you can catch me on the box.
=)

in your surfing, look for links on peoples blogs and so on for text ads. lots of grass-roots community sites are using them now. they're very low-key and not flashy, oh and did I mention cheap...

You should advertise on http://www.blinktag.org. They gets ones of traffic.

Your first priority is to make the book easy to buy; without an easy way to buy it, no advertising will help sell it. One-stop shopping from a reputable online shop (whether that's Amazon or whatever) as well as a painless option for folks reluctant to share their credit card information online is critical.

Your second priority is probably to use whatever free advertising you can... your loyal readers are used to the idea of viral online marketing, so use us! :-) Your Posse is ready and waiting (not all that patiently, actually!) to spread the word about your books.
If you really want to pay for marketing, there are already some great ideas in these comments, but really, I'm thinking you may not need to spend any money on this.

You know your audience. Make sure reviewers on various cool sites have access to the book. Online chats or interviews are nifty, and will not only be neat publicity for the books but will bring traffic to the sites you're willing to chat on or talk to the maintainers of. Book signings are always way cool...

Whatever you decide, I'm sure it'll work out just fine. Rock on, Wil!

I think you should make a permanent link on the front page regarding the book. If someone hears about the book or stumbles across the website, the information is right there for anyone to see. As it is set up right now, you have to dig through blog entries to find information. You want the info right there in bright lights - Blinking! Flashing! Making noise! ...er...well, not really, because that's rather obnoxious - but I think you get my meaning.

I mean, just by the idea that people who read your blog were unaware that you were writing a book is a big clue to me. Get a permanent link up there with general information about the book - update it when you get a chance - and I think you'll be heading in the right direction.

The effectiveness of internet advertising is much like the effectiveness of any type of advertising. It basically works on a pyramid. On the fat end of the pyramid is broadcasting your message to tons of people (i.e. TV ads, some banner ads on big sites) and on the other end is person-to-person marketing (word of mouth). For niche products (like *Dancing Barefoot*) the tip of the Pyramid is where the more effective marketing is, but you have to build to that. However, it doesn't make sense to start way down at the bottom because it's hugely expensive and won't yield a return.

In other words, paid ads on sites with proven WWDN interest would be good (FARK, The Onion, etc.); press releases with possible supplementary advertising to potential market-openers is a good idea (Salon, newspapers with big book or tech sections). Try to get booked for "online chats" or radio interviews. Wouldn't "This American Life" like to do something on your story? Etc.

On the other hand, you could just give away a free package of lick'm'aid with each copy. Mmmm... Sugar...

One of my favorite sites, Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com), has some really good ad rates and the people that go to the site and the forums are generally really receptive to pop culturey stuff. Plus, they get a ton of traffice in their forums.

You also might try checking with the person who recaps Enterprise. I bet she would be willing to interview you and pimp your book if you dished a little Trek dirt. ;)

Honestly, I don't work for them! I just love their site and yours, so I figured you would go well together.

I've worked as a mailing list coordinator before and I've seen how little the ROI rate can be for marketing. My best suggestions are to try advertising in the places you normally look for ads. This could be your friends websites, pay per ad websites that you frequent, regular wbsites you are in good with the webmaster, or word of mouth if you're looking for solutions outside of web advertising. Perhaps you could even email your friends/ Soapboxers to spread the word, but I don't know if this is the way to go. I also suggest the local Starbucks or Borders bookstore, hell even the grocery store might be a place to try and advertise or give a reading to market your book (well maybe not the grocery store, but you know what I mean).

The opportunities are endless. I know I could locate a few more if you don't find anything that fits the bill.

I have to agree with Tyson on Darla and Patty's posts. Having books listed on the side of your blog as you do, Wil, makes me feel as though a friend has recommended it to me and makes me much more likely to find and read it. As a poor graduate student, this generally means I'll look for a copy at my local library (or convince them to buy it, which generally isn't hard), but I'm sure plenty of people will pull out their wallets too. I definitely have Jennifer Government on my list as a result of seeing it on your site, and some of your recommendations are encouraging me to expand my musical taste. I definitely think having other bloggers and Trek sites put it up a link of some kind (icons are fun!) is the best way to go. I'm sure a number of them would do it at no charge whatsoever. I think it might be good to try this method and then if you don't feel your book is selling well you could try other suggestions.

I also agree with Adam about Amazon. I think a large number of people would feel more comfortable ordering from a company with which they are familiar and feel secure.

cheers Iyyak...
totally agree with you too...
there's a wealth of good tips on this thread so far, and if Wil only does a few of them, he'll still make out like a bandit :)
going with Amazon is fairly up there..
i don't have any real issues ordering from another firm, but i know a lot of folks that do...
they've allready set up accounts with amazon, and will just stick with them...

hey wil...have you thought about dropping a line to harry knowles at aint it cool news?...

jez kiddin... ;)
he's to busy selling his own book..(which actually was a pretty solid read too)

anyhow, break a leg on this will...
i can't stress enough how excited we are to get this and the geek book too...

Wil,

I suggest you have a chat to Dr Stephen Dann (http://stephendann.com/), author of the book, Strategic Internet Marketing for some tips. Steve is open to chatting with people and giving advice.

Plus I'd also suggest that a viral marketing campaign of getting blog sites to discuss your book will probably be a useful strategy anyway.

Regards,
Joanne Jacobs (lecturer in Internet Marketing at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Australia).

Fark ads. They WORK. 10 bux gets u a fark listing. More for banner ads.. but DEFINATELY do the FARK thing. I plan on doing it when my project is completed.

12.215.143.5

Wow!

Thank you all so much! I have printed out this entire page, and I'm covering post-its and the white-board with ideas and information.

I am extremely grateful to you all for you help. :D

Wil,

Just to underscore some of the points made with my own experience. The 'guerilla' marketing, particularly for somebody with some name recognition to begin with, is usually the most effective. Word of mouth for something like a book is certainly going to get you pretty far, as long as you pursue it with appropriate links, etc.

I'd suggest holding off on the for-pay web advertising for a 'second wave', after the book is out and you've got some (one hopes positive) reviews you can link to at Amazon, etc. You can get a better idea about the revenue model you want and the actual audience for the book. At that point, you'll be able to better gauge the actual effect of the advertising at reaching beyond the core audience who would buy your book anyway.

As with everything, you don't have to be an MBA but use your spreadsheet, make some projections about what kind of revenue you'd like to see from each advertising insertion, and stick to the ads that appear effective. Don't sign up for any gigantic commitment for any one source until you have proof positive it's generating more revenue than the cost of the ad.

Just me two cents.

- Matt

PS where's my shirt, dude? Sent in my PayPal weeks ago. That's what they call chain-marketing effects. See, I make an impulse buy for the cool shirt, if I'm wearing it when the book comes out, I'll feel inclined to buy the book, but if I'm sitting here going, 'where the hell is that shirt, anyway, and maybe I was on the wrong end of my Wesley-defending arguments with my wife all these years AFTER all' then maybe I'm not going to buy the book unless there's a lurid cover.

PS -- you say "non-obtrusive ads" because I'm guessing that you, like many of us, find the whole idea of advertising vaguely distasteful. But the idea is to have OBTRUSIVE ads because by defintion they'll get noticed more. I'm not saying it's got to be an Orbitz pop-up, but definitely some schtick with some visual oomph is a good idea. Like:

"WWWD?" with a picture of you, fading in to
"What would Wesley Do?" with Wesley getting crunched up by, say, a Gigantic Alien foot and being replaced by WIL. Gives a preview of the theme of the book (I'm guessing from your description) and would play on your notoriety.

Or another suggestion:

"Ever get a leech stuck...DOWN THERE?"

With a similar kind of fade in to the book link.

I know this may be causing you unpleasant flashbacks, me, I read this site because it's a good Blog first and because you're a Geocacher, but my impression from reading through it is these are the two points of notoriety for you...so PLAY them, OBTRUSIVELY in your face. that's what will get the initial click-thru.

- matt

Just PLEASE DON'T make the online ads blink or anything like that, I don't even look at that kind.

Comments? Whoo-hoo!!!

Missed postin' comments here, Wil. I've been reduced to watching old TNG reruns on TNT -- just saw the "SHUT UP WESLEY" episode ['Datalore']... You sure were a cute little tike.

Anyhow, I can't offer much by way of advise with advertising, but since I did want to post something, I decided to share this thought for the day with you and everyone -- specifically for the Wayne's of the world [freakin' killjoy...]:

"I don't know the key to success, but the key
to failure is trying to please everybody."
- Bill Cosby

Great luck with the book, Wil! I don't always agree with some/most of your views -- but you've had my respect for years and I have [I must admit] studied issues a might bit closer here and there after reading things you've had to say here. Education is true power -- yes?

Anyway, welcome back! [albeit for a while]

Take care,
-sammy

If you make (or have someone make) banner ads, I bet tons of people would post 'em on their site. Hell, I know I would, and I'll probably be buying the book, too! :)

Disclaimer: that "blink" comment was not from me, from somebody else using my name.

Duh, sorry, that was MJ's comment, me being dumb. Time to go back to work.

Wil,
I suggest not using annoying popups.. but also talk to an editor/publisher they should be able to help you "start the buzz". Meanwhile I'm sure WWDN users will start a buzz! I know I will!

Good luck

Peace

Katie Tierney

Wil,

You *know* that as soon as you announce the availability of the book (actually, books!!!), that this will get notice on Slashdot (becauase I can write the review myself!). The word-of-mouth effect from there will spill over into the Trek community fairly quickly I would think. In short, don't worry. :-)

mark

It's never easy to market anything on the web. I've been in the business for about a decade now, as both a freelancer and the head of operations for Ad firms, a video production company and a multimedia studio. I think the key thing is not to avoid things but to embrace ideas.

Well, that's only partly true. As you've shown through your own web design and implementation, you already know that glitz (Flash, Shockwave, fancy JavaScripts, etc...) are only icing on a cake that has to be fulfilling on its own merits if it's to work. That, I suppose, is the cornerstone to effective web marketing: the web is -and can only be, with the relatively small percentage of the world populace connected to it- limited. Any web presence must support an infrastructure of existing marketing methods.

If it's good, it'll help augment your sales. If it's bad it'll just have sucked up time and money. Therefore, try to keep any web presence technically simple but content-rich. Succinct and to-the-point are the obvious traits I can think of when pondering successful sites I've designed. Heck, you never know but some sites actually take on a life of their own (much like WWdN already has) and start selling themselves. Now, this last instance is very rare and tends to peter out with unexpected suddenness but -well- just keep an eye on your prospects, come up with measurable goals for your advertising and take frequent samples. It's nit-picky work but if you make lists, come up with actual tests for your ad's success then you'll be able to adjust it here and there as all good marketing endeavors need.

I would suggest starting by getting the word-of-mouth engine going but only after you have a simple, direct and artistically interesting website available to back it up. You already do the convention circuits, so perhaps using that to your advantage: get the geeks going and talking about it by highlighting passages of interest to that group.

Fliers, radio ads and appearances on Internet audio broadcasts may all be inexpensive ways to get the word-of-mouth flowing. Then, if you have a decent enough site advertising your book, it'll be there when it pays off and -hopefully- keep the momentum growing and going.

Anyway, that's just a few thoughts in regards to your question about how to market your book.

Trust me, though; I'll be buying a copy...

Yours,
David J Rust
Webmaster and Web Designer

Hey Wil,

since all the good ideas are already up there, here is my offer:
Germany is the second biggest market for Trek items in Europe. I happen to live in Germany. We have several Trek magazines that have tons of readers and we have several big sci-fi/fantasy stores in my hometown that make shitloads of money.
I'd gladly send them a nice letter, suggesting to write an article about your new book. If they refuse, I could also call them (and make them). Also I happen to know some of the owners of those stores personally, so I could probably talk them into hanging up posters for your book.

The book would have to be on something like amazon though, otherwise we can't order it over here.
And you would need to come up with some sort of design for a poster I could print and copy for the stores.

You should also write a little article or summary on the book so your posse can show it around and interest people in advertising for you.

It would be little work for me, but I'm sure it would help you sell your book big time, so let me know what you think about it.

P.S. Wayne, posts like yours are the reason the comments are gone. Think about it.

Another shout-out for a place that's offering text ads at really reasonable rates - a discussion forum I frequent - http://www.threewayaction.com/textads

Also, stay awhile and chat, as they are a bunch of Fun People.

One more thought: if you can get even 30 seconds of notice on NPR, that will expand your word-of-mouth network beyond the NET.

Good luck!

Having recently published and marketed my own book, Reel Shame: Bad Movies and the Hollywood Stars Who Made Them, I gotta say that the return-on-investment for small publishing is minimal at best. Wil has enough name recognition that he could easily get better publicity for "free" than he could ever buy.

I had a long thing typed up that I was going to post here, but I think I'll just e-mail it to Wil instead. But I agree with much of the above, except for the folks who actually advocate buying ads. I just don't think it's a good idea for small scale sales.

hey again,

I also work at an all-English videostore, and we have lots of ST fans. So come up with a poster already!! =)
And before you worry about the language; a lot of people prefer reading books in the language they were written in and almost everybody speaks English.

Come on, use the power of your posse!!!

I agree with Midknight.
An ad on Penny Arcade would be great. Their ads always get good repsonses, mainly because they don't allow irritating flashy animations and such.
And the page is frequented primarily by 'gaming geeks' who'd probbaly like Wil Wheaton too. It's such a cool site!
:)

Oh, hey, by the way, about the FARK ads --

I think there a lot of media types in this world (DJs, nightly comedy sketch writers, talk show producers) that use FARK as a starting point for weird news bits on their shows. You just might get noticed, dude.

College radio might be a kicker, too. College stations are knocked out by the chance you might do an interview -- and they'll totally dig it if you do a station ID promo.

Sorry I didn't think of these things sooner.

Drake

Try google adwords... Then when anyone did a search on star trek and wil wheaton, you'd pop up :)

My suggestion is simple. Requires a minimal amount of work on your part (only two actual ads)...

Get an article posted about it on slashdot and then a link on Fark.com

I'm a marketing manager and I HATE advertising... how did I get here?

Again, I have to offer my sincere thanks to you all. I'm getting great ideas from you all.

Chris posted about his book, and you should check it out.

It looks really cool: http://www.stomptokyo.com/books/reelshame/

Hi Wil,

I am a webmaster and run a site called StartButton.net. It is a scifi/fantasy magazine with reviews on music, movies, online comic...tutorials and more. I found that sticking to the genre interested in what you have to offer brings the best results.

If you will contact me..I can give you some links to different places where you can buy some low priced and reasonable banner ads for scifi/fantasy specific avenues. YOu can get very good advertising by using contacts you already have...like the people at Fark...without having to shell out any money at all. And if you'll send me a banner...I will be glad to include it on the site.

editor@startbutton.net

Tammie

Sell an e-Book off your site as well. It's short and folks can read it on their Palms and Pocket Pc's. Create a PDF verson to download at half the cost. Just a thought. That's how I put things up for folks to download/buy when I do.

Wil,

You know... Startrek.com frequently posts the what's happenings of Trek family on their website. Draw up a press release or something and send it to them. Certainly Rick or Brannon would know who specifically to send the info to.

Brad

I know this is off the subject, but it's pretty cool...for us geeks anyway. Sorry if this is something you may have already seen, but it's still pretty amazing...to me.

http://onlinetonight.net/images/hhonda-ad-300k.swf

I have a huge long email that went with it, but who wants to read about how this took 607 takes, but when it did, it was one clean take...

Hey Wil,
I didn't read all the comments so someone may have already suggested this, but you might consider getting the book its own domain, and then pointing it at a page or pages on your website that is devoted to the book and/or additional info about it.
One book that I bought based on the strength of its website and the community that grew up around it is http://www.fourthturning.com for example.

You can do that in combination with the search engine keywords so that you can pimp the book more fully.

I also agree with some of the other posters about targeted marketing -- figure out who would be most likely to buy it and aim at getting word of mouth out there.

And of course, list the from which it can be bought here so your die-hard fans and loyal readers can snap up copies as fast as they can type their credit card numbers into the form;)

Good luck!

wil-
metafilter also runs text ads. might want to look into it. i think its like ten bucks or something. reasonable, well employed on the site itself, and it's going to support a good site.
http://www.metafilter.com/textads.mefi
good luck!

I agree with everyone else about Amazon - I interviewed the president of a regional ISP for a NPR radio feature I produced, and one of his comments was "If you want to buy books online, you automatically go to Amazon.com". FYI, this was eight years ago. I am currently working on my masters' degree in marketing, and have developed a fascination with non-traditional & guerilla marketing - check out Purple Cow by Seth Godin, & do a search for "viral marketing" on Infotrac, Lexis-Nexis or Harvard Business Review (all probably available for free at your local library). Best of all, most guerilla marketing methods are cheap or free. Finally, after getting laid off recently, I learned one important lesson during my job search: the idea of "networking" always sounded cheesy to me, but it is real and IT WORKS. Call every single celebrity/ radio DJ/ TV show host/ convention promoter/ writer/ webmaster/ artist/ etc. you know, and start calling in favors.

try buying ad space on site that already have sponsers, and who are aware of your site, even if most of the readers may not be. for example, I'm sure the onion would be glad to advertise for you, and I bet the folks at somethingawful.com would salivate at the thought of an ad banner that reads "Space-nerd Wil Wheaton writes book!"

speaking of the onion, see if your agent can get you an interview with their AV club.

and finally, three words: spam, spam, spam ;)

Are you planning on selling the book in Canada? If so, put the book on the www.chapters.ca website. I live in Edmonton, and thats the store where all my books come from.

Some of the people above are correct...it's hard to get people to click ads. Your best bet is to find a site with a similar audience to trade links with you and things like that.... I don't normally click on ads, but when I read your little reviews of several books- I ended up buying The Illuminatus Trilogy AND You Are Being Lied To....simply based on the fact that I dig your taste!

Loved them by the way.

~April

63.230.29.190

Only use text ads in a pertinent situation -- in venues that have audiences that would be interested in your book. Most obviously: people searching for Star Trek related info on Google, or browsing Star Trek-related web sites.

Wil,
Talk to some of your celeb friends that have websites. If you can get ahold of them, ask them if they could put up a link or something. Go to some of the popular sites like Fark and see if they'd put up a link. I'm sure that Drew wouldn't mind helping you out. Print up some flyers and stick 'em on telephone poles. Talk to your friends at TechTV and they might be able to get a plug or two in for ya. Also, I'm sure that many of the dedicated WWDN readers would even be willing to put links on their sites, and maybe even stick up some flyers themselves :} Definately check out Amazon too.

1. Make sure there's a link at http://us.imdb.com, if you can.

2. Visit The Screen Savers as soon as you can after the book's release.

Make it available as a free eBook. It seems to be working for Cory Doctorow and his brilliant book, _Down and Out in the Magic Kindgom_. You can go buy it at Amazon, but you can also download it for free from his website. Let me quote him a sec:

"Why am I doing this thing? Well, it's a long story, but to shorten it up: first-time novelists have a tough row to hoe. Our publishers don't have a lot of promotional budget to throw at unknown factors like us. Mostly, we rise and fall based on word-of-mouth. I'm not bad at word-of-mouth. I have a blog, Boing Boing, where I do a lot of word-of-mouthing. I compulsively tell friends and strangers about things that I like."

It's a cool idea, I think. Check him out at http://www.craphound.com/down/

Since I got mentioned, I may as well roll in with my suggestions here.

1. Don't worry about promoting the book until you've got the book somewhere for sale. Seriously, you want to be able to get people to go "wow, I want *click* Cool, now I can buy" not, "I want, oh, I'll get back to that in two weeks when it's for sale"

2. You're possibly going to want to hurt me for this...but...personal selling. You've got one thing that most authors don't - Star Trek conventions. Heck, go on a roadshow with book.

3. Forget banner ads, go with the Blogs. You've got a syndicated blog, and people will blog news of your news, and the whole blogdex/metafilter thing will be more use to your book than banner ads. Friend of a friend referals beat banner ads.

4. The sledgehammer. Get it Slashdotted once it's for sale online somewhere that can handle a pounding on the servers (or for sale several places).

Just a few suggestions, and seriously, as Jo Jacobs said before, drop me a line if you want to talk shop on online marketing. It's what I wrote my first book about, so I'll be up for ideas.

Dr Stephen Dann

Quick comments:

Online advertising does *not* work very well at all. If you're grabbing even close to a 10% click-through rate, you're off-the-charts.

If you're getting greating than 1% on your purchases, you're pretty much up there, too.*

*This info comes from working in a slightly different industry and is slightly dated, so I don't want to get too accountable; bottom line is that they're not worth it.

Tons of good ideas up there, too.

I'd love to know how many pre-orders you could get online or how many more you could sell "in person" if you were, say, selling them at a convention or a book store and book-signing and stuff.

It would be interesting to see what the reaction is; obviously everyone here who's regular is really, really interested--and that's what a posse is for, but that's still a limited target audience.

When can we pre-order them online, anyway? ;-)

I have to agree with Tyson (way back up towards the top). Especially the bit about a small book tour. I know Bruce Campbell (don't call him Ash) did that with his book a few months back and when he stopped by our local locally owned bookstore (and promoted the visit on the local NPR station & other radion stations) there were folks lined up around the block way into the late hours.
Plus libraries are always looking for authors who will come and give book talks that doesn't cost the library an arm and a leg...in fact a few well placed messages & queries to library discussion groups/listserv/blogs could get you a good start.
Good Luck!

Yay! Comments are back!

Please don't do pop-up ads or send spam mail. While sometimes effective, they annoy the hell out of most people. Oh, and Amazon-yes. ASAP.
I suggest going on a contemporary/pop music radio station tour. In some demographics, morning shows have a better percentage of listeners than prime time tv viewers. But also, make your agent do some work & get on some talk shows. Have a whole pile of funny ready & be polite to the asshats. :) Do the book tour, sign book covers at Barnes & Noble, that kind of thing. But you probably know all this.
I wish I will like your new book. Can't wait to plunk down my credit card.

Wil....you could get some of the larger local bookstores in some towns across the US to do adverts for you.

A prime place would be someplace like BoulderBookStore.com here in Boulder.

If you need any help with them, email me. I'd be glad to help.

Glad you're back, by the way.

I would suggest doing at least one interview. WGN Radio (Chicago)is the highest rated local radio station in the country.

The station does tend to be mildly conservative (politically speaking) but they did have Vice President Al Gore, as a guest.

The mid-day host, Steve Cochran, is a television geek. He has a biting sarcastic humor. He would be the perfect person for your book interview.

The second choice would be John Williams. John is very personable but is more comfortable interviewing Al Gore or a non-TV celebrity author.

One interview on WGN Radio, which is heard over 2/3rds of the country (after the sun sets) will give you access to an incredible audience. The demographics of the audience is diverse.

I've listened to WGN while driving north of Atlanta, Nashville & Toronto and the station is live on-line at www.wgnradio.com

Check out their website to see some of the past celebrity book sellers, or making the rounds promoting a movie (George Forman, Al Gore, Sigourney Weaver, Jerry Mathers, Barbara Feldon, etc)

Hi Wil.
This is my very first comment.
Go me!
Glad to see it up.

Take this as more of an encouragement than advice, since I don't know much about marketing or promotion, other than that I'm a consumer. BUT, I think that this online community of yours is one of the best things going for you. (I'm sure you're well aware of it) You have who knows HOW many solid supporters who know you as a friend and fellow struggling human, rather than just some star on some show. It takes some work to keep it running smoothly, but the benefits are that you have a tremendous network of people all around the world, who'll gladly spread the word.
Go YOU.

I'm also in Canada (Toronto)...I'm looking forward to when your book trickles up to us. :)

That comment (Waaaaaay up there) about WWWD cracked me up. I always think of "WWJD (what would Jesus Do)" when I see "WWdN" *double-takes*.
Yeesh...it gives a new meaning to "spreading the word".

See ya around, I gotta go keep my puppy from raiding my garbage or some such silliness. (She's waaaaay too quiet).
EllyLoo.

Hi, Cool we can make comments...sweeeeeeeet!

Hi, Wil!

Well, I still don't have any geek cred, so I can't offer you any e-marketing advice. Having bought one of the fresh-from-the-printer copies of "Dancing Barefoot" at the Grand Slam in March, however--and having read it on the bus to/from work the next Monday--what I can offer is a glowing review!

Your writing style is warm and familiar but never stoops to condescension. You bring the reader into your world with refreshing honesty, tenderness, and depth. Not to mention humor--particularly in the saga of SpongeBob VegasPants, so much humor I was laughing out loud (and getting funny looks from the other passengers, but that's their problem--let 'em get their own copy!).

I am so desperately waiting for "Just a Geek"...

Way to go, Unca Willie--keep up the terrific work, and the best to you and yours.

Syd

Guess what two books I'm planning on buying next are?

Go on... guess... ;)

And I'll be the first to admit, I don't think I've actually bought a book (other than college required) in a few years.

Wil, I really think you're in for a phenomenal success here no matter what marketing decisions you go with, but even in the event that you aren't, you'll certainly succeed in thoroughly entertaining countless monkeys! ;)

Hi, Wil! Glad you turned the comments back on for this topic. It's been a real education.

As been mentioned before, the Trek conventions are a good place to sell your book. I've seen Bob Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Andrew Robinson and JG Hertzler all sell their books at cons. JG was even in the same room as you at the Pasadena convention. He was selling his new DS9 book, which I bought, by the way. JG was at his table all day. Bob and Ethan also signed their books, but they did a scheduled signing, separate from their regular autographing session.

You can also make up flyers advertising your book. These can be left at the freebie table most conventions have. I know at last year's Pasadena con I saw a flyer advertising a book signing by Bob Picardo at the Barnes and Noble at the Grove at Farmer's Market. I bet if you contact the convention organizers, they would be more than happy to put your flyers on their freebie table. And if not, I'm sure one of us can volunteer to put out the flyers for you. There are probably Wil blog readers at every con in the country, and beyond.

BTW, in case you didn't see my comments in the soapbox, I really liked "Dancing Barefoot." I can't wait for "Just a Geek."

I know it's too late, but do you think you narrowed your market with the title "Just A Geek"? Or is that book just the geek stuff? "Dancing Barefoot" was a wonderful title and while I loved the SpongeBob story (somebody explain that title in the soapbox, please! how I miss the blog title explanations), I think you do your best writing when you write about your family and friends. And I don't consider that writing "geek" writing. Don't get me wrong, I personally love the title. I'm just thinking of the marketing.

Hi Wil!
The last book I bought was Jennifer Government, and it was because of the fabulous website & game Max Barry created for it. :) But others have already covered that. :D
Have you thought about sending out an electronic press release? Basically you just email the webmasters of various sites that you think might have interest in reviewing your book, or would mention a blurb about it in an article. :) It's cheap and not too time consuming. :) Just a thought. :D Good luck with the promotion! :)

Megan

Er, excuse me. I clicked on Wil's www.monolithpress.com link and all I get is a page with a non-clickable logo, and an email address. What does that mean?

Wil

Try this site http://www.marketbanker.com/. You can pick which site that you want your ad shown on.

Brian

Yeah, add my voice to the "pop-ups and spam bad, Amazon good" crowd. And fer gods' sakes, make ad banners that anybody can link to. I'd love to pimp your book from my own humble site, as I'm sure everyone else here would. ;)

If you're looking for ways "to let non-WWdN readers know about my book" it might be worth looking away from the Net as well and sending review copies to some of the SF magazines -- SFX, Dreamwatch, TV Zone, Starlog...

Hawk it on The Screen Savers.

Then give 50 books to The Screen Savers as give aways to callers.

Wow Wil, just wow -

Can you believe all this?? Talk about your support and good kharma? It would seem that all the time you "invested" here is paying you back in spades and then some! Good for you - hopefully a lesson to all of us.

Since I have absolutely no experience in this area, and this thread is obviously filled with great ideas from people who do, I wouldn't even think of wasting anyone's time w/any of my amateur thoughts - just wanted to say - "Wow!!!"

Although ... I wouldn't mind seeing you on some late night show, w/the book, and maybe a little clip from your improv group ...

Good luck!

Wil, it's a little thing, but I'd be happy to place a link on my site as well. I'm linked to from a number of sci-fi fansites as a costumer. I don't know how many hits you'd get, but it won't cost you a thing :)

Personally, I'm fond of Cory Doctorow's advertising campain for Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom .... give your book away for free on-line in PDF form to get exposure for it and yourself as an author.

It seems to have worked for him ...

C....C....Comments?

Is that...you?

My God!!!!

*Hallmark moment*

I'm afraid I know very little about online advertising and as such have nothing to contribute.

I just needed my hit.

**********
Er, excuse me. I clicked on Wil's www.monolithpress.com link and all I get is a page with a non-clickable logo, and an email address. What does that mean?

Posted by loretta652 at May 3, 2003 12:08 AM
**********

I'd guess it means that the site's not complete yet?

Re: The Amazon thing
Let's not forget that Amazon's a nice tool, albeit an expensive and costly one, and it's not like they offer much more than a purchasing service; they don't "feature" items without some sort of an associated cost, etc.

Just saying.

1) A dollar of advertizing is worth 7 cents of publicity.
2) I understand some of why you will reject the folowing advice.
- Get a distributor. If you have trouble getting a distributor, get a publisher. If you have trouble getting a publisher, get an agent (a literary agent, as opposed to the guy who got you python, etc.)
3)online marketing can work if it directly ties compensation to sales. site a generates x sales, gets y dollars. doesn't matter how many people saw the as or clicked on it - all that matters is how many units sold.
4) restating 3 above, what you want to do is franchise yourself. all your loyal monkeys, or anybody else, can become a wheatonproduct distributor.
5) in order to grok how that could change your life, i suggest you have somebody present to you the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan. It presents a model of peer-to-peer marketing that is an alternative to the big box approach.
Speaking of big boxes, i suppose i could give walmart a call. is there a discount if i buy a truckload at a time? arbi aka gtbear

The only experience I've had with internet advertising is when my friend at Uni began advertising about sick and moronic her ex-boyfriend was. Blasted it all over the internet she did!. But I tell you shoe got alot of responses back regarding her article so I think the chances of you advertising your book on the 'net is a very promising, intelligent idea.

Love Annie

1) A dollar of advertizing is worth 7 cents of publicity.

That's not taking account for the unpaid man-hours that goes into making anything happen. When you factor in those additional variables, the value lowers dramatically.

2) I understand some of why you will reject the folowing advice.
- Get a distributor. If you have trouble getting a distributor, get a publisher. If you have trouble getting a publisher, get an agent (a literary agent, as opposed to the guy who got you python, etc.)

I think that Wil's going independent for now; he's front the costs--at least that's what I'm reading. I'll agree to get distributors, etc. but that's a lot easier said than done. There's a lot of chicken & egg that occurs and then negotiations and legal fees, etc. that dramatically reduce either revenue or ROI (return on investment). While this notion is a good one, it's a lot easier, I think, to suggest it, than it is to implement it.

3)online marketing can work if it directly ties compensation to sales. site a generates x sales, gets y dollars. doesn't matter how many people saw the as or clicked on it - all that matters is how many units sold.

Refer back to my man-hours issue. There's also costs associated with that, including creating the program, tracking the program properly and efficiently/effectively. No matter what, it's still going to cost some money to get a program off the ground.

4) restating 3 above, what you want to do is franchise yourself. all your loyal monkeys, or anybody else, can become a wheatonproduct distributor.

More man-hours, but a solid, solid idea. IMHO, most monkeys would promote this book without trying to better themselves, but moreover to support his Wheaton-ness. When that happens, I think it works tremendously.

5) in order to grok how that could change your life, i suggest you have somebody present to you the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan. It presents a model of peer-to-peer marketing that is an alternative to the big box approach.

And there went any hopes of validity for your previous claims... ;-)

There are so many awesome ideas that are coming up--and I'm not trying to pick on you. Your ideas, IMHO are strong and forward-thinking. I'm devil's advocating, because I'd hope to see some better solutions based upon the challenges that I see, but mind you, I'm not Wil; I'm just speaking as a "regular guy" with a little bit of experience in some of this area.

Good stuff.

I know you've been focusing on internet ads, but here's an idea I didn't see listed while skimming responses. There's a whole world of gamers and retail stores that specialize in gaming supplies that just might be a good market for you. Diamond comics is a bid distributor in that arena (www.diamondcomics.com) and Aldo at Impressions advertising could get you into the gaming market http://www.impressionsadv.net/ Good luck with your books!

Don't forget to put a few signed copies of the book up on ebay. This could bring it to the attention of some Wheatonists who might not be aware of it. Oh yeah, it won't cost you anything either, in fact it will *make* you money. Good luck.

A huge thank you, and my deepest gratitude to everyone who commented and e-mailed. Your advice and discussion has been priceless.

I have lots of work to do over the weekend, so I'd better get on it!

I'm going to close off the comments, now. Thank you again, everyone. It really means a lot to me that there are almost 100 comments, and only 2 flaming jackasses.

Heh. Now I can say, "98% of people who read WWdN are teh c00l!"

Har.