14th
JUST A TASTE
People always ask me, “Whoa, bra! You wrote a book? That’s so awesome! How are you, like, gonna sell it and stuff?” Yes, most of these people are surfers and, of course, have taken up marketing as a hobby. That said, getting people to know about your book is one of the last untamed beasts of the promotion and publicity world—especially when that book is about a trend in pop culture that affects teenagers, not their grandparents who, let’s face it, are the ones running the publishing houses. Creating a dent in the literary world with Everybody Hurts was no small feat and when I came across this video, I shuddered when I remembered some of the initial conversations about marketing the thing. Ah, books. If they’re good enough for the California Raisins, they’re good enough for me!
[Someone in their mid- to late-thirties asked the following question of Trevor and me when we were on a panel at the 2007 Book Expo, and I’ll never forget it. The panel was about marketing books in the age of the interweb and how to take advantage of all the online opportunities out there. At the end of an hour discussion about webpages, blogs, online communities and the like, someone raised their hand and, with all seriousness, said, “So, this MySpace thing… Can anyone make a profile? And how much does it cost?” Ah, Gen X. Without their coffee and flannel to hide behind, they’re not that scary, huh?]
