With the industry debate on the value of e-books, online marketing, free versus paid and the like I thought this would be a great time to rave about an example of how it can all be done well.
One of my prime time, never erase DVR picks of last year (and this) is the ABC show Castle. Crime novelist Richard Castle shadows NYPD Detective Kate Beckett- crime solving, snarky one liners and the requisite sexual tension ensues. Completely enjoyable. In a BRILLIANT move, it was announced that an actual Richard Castle novel would be released this fall from Hyperion (a company not so coincidentally part of the Disney-ABC Television Group).
Not only have the people at ABC and Hyperion taken advantage of an easy tie-in most networks have thus far overlooked or been on the other side of, they have also been doing a fantastic job of marketing the entire collaboration by releasing one chapter a week on the ABC site, and leaving the previous weeks chapters up (to which I want to give a hearty thank you!) I don’t know how many people are visiting the site and reading the excerpts besides myself, some reviewers I found online, and all my friends who watch the show- but I do know that where I don’t usually jump in line to buy a new release hardcover (however modestly priced at $19.95, ahem Dan Brown ahem), I will be swinging by my local indie bookstore of choice to pick this one up. Why? Because it’s good. And there my friends is the key. If you have a bad product, no amount of give away is going to make it good. In giving us all a taste of a Richard Castle mystery, Hyperion has, I guarantee, increased their sales dramatically, which is ultimately the goal.
In this week’s season premier of Castle they included scenes of of the fictional author gearing up to promote his no longer fictional book, due out September 29. I am hoping to see a few Richard Castle book signings (with actor Nathan Fillion of course) in my area soon… can Hyperion and ABC please work on that next?
And as I am plugging a book I sadly did not work on, but appreciate it when others say kind things about my titles:
You can buy Heat Wave by Richard Castle HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE.
– Erin