Fred Van Lente has been a professional writer for eleven years, and his comics and graphic novels have earned him #1 spots on the New York Times bestseller lists, numerous awards, and have been the basis for feature films. This July, Quirk Books is releasing Van Lente’s debut novel,
Ten Dead Comedians
, which early Goodreads reviews have described as “an entertaining homage to Agatha Christie...but with a cutting edge and a lot of hilarious happenings.”
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Before his publicity campaign hits overdrive, he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his marketing campaign on Goodreads.
What has been your favorite thing to explore on Goodreads?
I really like being able to organize my books into different shelves so my readers have more of an insight into the writing process. I write a lot of non-fiction too, so hopefully it's interesting for readers to see things like the works that went into Ryan Dunlavey's and my upcoming Action Presidents OGN series from HarperCollins.
Your Ask the Author answers are hilarious. What’s your approach to responding to questions, and how do you generate new ones?
Ha! Thanks. They are a lot of fun. I did a few self-generated by Goodreads, and that I think encouraged other users to ask. The rest are all from Goodreads users themselves. I just try to be short and to the point and as funny as possible... kind of like my regular writing style, I guess!
What has been the most effective marketing strategy for getting the word out about your book?
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The bulk of marketing, really, is just telling people the product exists—it's informative in nature. Too many writers, it seems to me, think of marketing as "getting people to want to buy", and in my experience that's the wrong concentration. The marketer isn't in the desire-creation business, the author is. You need to create books people want to read, and, you know, that comes in the what-book-should-I-write stage and a lot of your battle's already won or lost before the book actually comes out. The book's either something that people want at that particular historical moment, or it isn't. It's an uphill battle to generate interest out of thin air. So the best marketing materials, I've found, are the work itself—advance copies and ARCs. Goodreads obviously has a couple of programs that are great for that.
That said, for my debut novel, Ten Dead Comedians, the marketing team at Quirk Books has had all sorts of amazing ideas, including running a Clue-like competition at signings and events like Book Con, and as a promotional giveaway-slash-leave-behind, they created great coasters promoting the book. Ten Dead Comedians, is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery involving stand-up comics, so the coasters are meant to invoke a comedy club with a two-drink minimum. So they have both that informative aspect—here is the book, here is what it's about—but they also convey a spirit of fun and excitement around the novel, hopefully encouraging that interest to buy. So it's the best of both worlds, marketing-wise! Can't wait to start handing these out in a couple of weeks.
How has your activity on Goodreads changed since becoming an author vs. using it as a reader?
I am lucky enough to have been a professional writer for eleven years, mostly in the comics and graphic novel field, so I was already a pro by the time I started using Goodreads. But for years I used it just as a fan of books myself. Now that the debut novel is coming out I decided to really upgrade my author profile on the site. I have a Goodreads blog now that updates via RSS feed both to my own web site and my Amazon author's page, so it's been very useful to me as I embark on this new and pretty awesome stage of my career.
You share how you format a comics script. How has writing and publishing a novel been a different experience?
Comics are a weekly rush to the printer on every level—for the writer, for the artist, for the production team, for the sales force. It's a grind that chews out a lot of people and spits them out. So I am very happy, with a novel, to take nearly a year on a single work, and then work with the team at Quirk Books to bring the book to market over a period of months. It's the difference between crash-landing a jumbo jet and steering a cruise ship out of port. One is much less stressful! But then, I've pretty much been doing comics exclusively for almost a decade, so I guess I am probably biased... (laughs)
Have questions for the author? Leave them in the comments below! Fred Van Lente will be responding to questions from authors on Tuesday, April 18.
Missed your chance to ask him a question? Ask him on his profile page and be sure to follow him to see all his activity!
Next: Five Things Writers Need to Know Before Publishing Their First Book
You might also like: Marketing Advice from Author Gail Carriger
Goodreads Authors can subscribe to the Monthly Author Newsletter by editing their account settings.
posted by Cynthia on April, 10
Before his publicity campaign hits overdrive, he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his marketing campaign on Goodreads.
What has been your favorite thing to explore on Goodreads?
I really like being able to organize my books into different shelves so my readers have more of an insight into the writing process. I write a lot of non-fiction too, so hopefully it's interesting for readers to see things like the works that went into Ryan Dunlavey's and my upcoming Action Presidents OGN series from HarperCollins.
Your Ask the Author answers are hilarious. What’s your approach to responding to questions, and how do you generate new ones?
Ha! Thanks. They are a lot of fun. I did a few self-generated by Goodreads, and that I think encouraged other users to ask. The rest are all from Goodreads users themselves. I just try to be short and to the point and as funny as possible... kind of like my regular writing style, I guess!
What has been the most effective marketing strategy for getting the word out about your book?
The bulk of marketing, really, is just telling people the product exists—it's informative in nature. Too many writers, it seems to me, think of marketing as "getting people to want to buy", and in my experience that's the wrong concentration. The marketer isn't in the desire-creation business, the author is. You need to create books people want to read, and, you know, that comes in the what-book-should-I-write stage and a lot of your battle's already won or lost before the book actually comes out. The book's either something that people want at that particular historical moment, or it isn't. It's an uphill battle to generate interest out of thin air. So the best marketing materials, I've found, are the work itself—advance copies and ARCs. Goodreads obviously has a couple of programs that are great for that.
That said, for my debut novel, Ten Dead Comedians, the marketing team at Quirk Books has had all sorts of amazing ideas, including running a Clue-like competition at signings and events like Book Con, and as a promotional giveaway-slash-leave-behind, they created great coasters promoting the book. Ten Dead Comedians, is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery involving stand-up comics, so the coasters are meant to invoke a comedy club with a two-drink minimum. So they have both that informative aspect—here is the book, here is what it's about—but they also convey a spirit of fun and excitement around the novel, hopefully encouraging that interest to buy. So it's the best of both worlds, marketing-wise! Can't wait to start handing these out in a couple of weeks.
How has your activity on Goodreads changed since becoming an author vs. using it as a reader?
I am lucky enough to have been a professional writer for eleven years, mostly in the comics and graphic novel field, so I was already a pro by the time I started using Goodreads. But for years I used it just as a fan of books myself. Now that the debut novel is coming out I decided to really upgrade my author profile on the site. I have a Goodreads blog now that updates via RSS feed both to my own web site and my Amazon author's page, so it's been very useful to me as I embark on this new and pretty awesome stage of my career.
You share how you format a comics script. How has writing and publishing a novel been a different experience?
Comics are a weekly rush to the printer on every level—for the writer, for the artist, for the production team, for the sales force. It's a grind that chews out a lot of people and spits them out. So I am very happy, with a novel, to take nearly a year on a single work, and then work with the team at Quirk Books to bring the book to market over a period of months. It's the difference between crash-landing a jumbo jet and steering a cruise ship out of port. One is much less stressful! But then, I've pretty much been doing comics exclusively for almost a decade, so I guess I am probably biased... (laughs)
Have questions for the author? Leave them in the comments below! Fred Van Lente will be responding to questions from authors on Tuesday, April 18.
Missed your chance to ask him a question? Ask him on his profile page and be sure to follow him to see all his activity!
Next: Five Things Writers Need to Know Before Publishing Their First Book
You might also like: Marketing Advice from Author Gail Carriger
Goodreads Authors can subscribe to the Monthly Author Newsletter by editing their account settings.
posted by Cynthia on April, 10