Spread The Word
Just as Hillary Clinton says that it takes a village to raise a child, I think it takes readers to make a successful mystery series.
I can write book after book, take Denton and Monty through amazing and heart rending adventures, but if there isn’t a reader on the other end of the equation, then it seems to take a bit of the heart out of it.
It’s like the zen koan about a tree falling in a forest, and the sound it might or might not make if there is no one to hear it.
Many of you have written and asked how you can help and even made suggestions, and I thought it would make a great addition to the website.
Let’s discuss how you can become an Evangelist in the Gospel of Denton and Monty, shall we?
- Write a review. Maybe you have a website with high traffic. Maybe you write for the local free weekly paper. Maybe you are a freelancer looking for extra income. The possibilties are endless, and I am willing to send you a free review copy of the book or books of your choice to help refine and pull those possibilities into focus. Just drop me and email and we can discuss.
- Ask your local library to purchase them. Trust me when I say that this ain’t all about the money. It’s about getting the word out about what I believe to be a great and different type of mystery series. I would love for local libraries to have copies of the series so that they would be available to readers all over the country. Some folks can’t afford the $20 or so for the books, and I understand that. But we can still get them into readers hands by making a simple phone call to your local library.
- Sell it on your website. I’m sure that you and everyone, including your Grandmother, have heard of amazon.com. It’s the 300 Pound Gorilla of online book sales. And they will pay you to sell my book. Go to Amazon Associates and join the program and they will provide you with links, graphics, fancy webpages and all sorts of tools to put on your website. You can sell my books, other books - hell you can sell anything on your website that amazon carries. And make money doing it.
- Make a Fan Trailer. While I will never, ever, ever authorize, condone or turn a blind eye to Denton and Monty fanfic, I do actually like another form of fan creativity called book trailers or music videos. It’s a cutting edge combination of graphics, photos, text and music that tells readers about the book. The emotional impact of these are great and the amount of variety and creativty is amazing. Here are some examples on YouTube. If you make one for Everlasting Life or Resurrection Angel, upload it to YouTube and then send me the link and I’ll feature it here on the website. Get creative!
- Order it from your local bookseller. While you might get it cheaper from amazon, I believe that you get more goodwill and more great karma by ordering my books from your local bookseller or mystery bookstore. Give them the title, the ISBN and my name. This is all that is needed to get the ball rolling. You get the books, the bookseller gets exposed to a series that they might not know exists and might order more copies for the store.
- Send free copies to all your friends. Okay, I’m not asking you to skirt the edge of financial ruin, just in case you were worried. You already know that I offer free 30 page previews for each book that you can download to your computer. The next time someone you know is asking for book recommendations, why not email them the first chapters of Resurrection Angel or Everlasting Life?
- Readers Groups or Book Clubs. The only thing better than reading Denton and Monty in the privacy of your own home is going out and discussing it in public with your friends and strangers. Go here for free, downloadable Book Club guides to use. As an extra bonus, I will call your group or come visit (if you’re local) and we can have a Question and Answer period and discuss the series together.
I hope that these few ideas got your creative and promotional and marketing juices flowing.
If you have a suggestion to add to this list, drop me a line, I would love to hear from you.
As always, thank you for your support, your encouragement and your kind words.
They mean the world to me.
- Bill
