Promote Your Books as if They’re Fad Diets

My latest murder mystery Murder...A Way to Lose Weight is about dieting. So I‘ve thought a lot

about fad diets in the last year. Many fad diets were first promulgated in the 1950’s. Countless nutritionists have denounced them but they keep  reappearing. What gives them such tenacity? Why are they so popular? Do fad diets provide insights into publicizing books?

What are fad diets?

I’m defining fad diets as those that basically allow you to eat all you want of one special food but restrict your intake of other foods. Famous people have endorsed these diets, but I’m leaving their names off to avoid controversy. Examples of fad diets are: the Banana Diet, the Hollywood Diet (sometime called the Grapefruit Diet), and the Baby Food Diet.

Many users of these diets have reported weight loss. Why? The dieters developed an aversion (Perhaps that’s an overstatement, but I doubt it.) to bananas, grapefruit, and baby food and ate much less. Accordingly they lost weight.

So what did you learn?

Basic science holds true. If you consume less calories and exercise more, you lose weight. Fad diets add a little advertising pizazz to the bland basic advice. In some cases, this pizazz caused people stick to their intentions long enough to lose weight.

How does this relate to promoting books?

Strong writing is like your basic balanced 1200-calorie diet with plenty of exercise. It works and produces the desired results – a good, maybe even great novel. However, it usually takes a well-known name, a dynamic platform (which mean lots of hard work doing promotional activities), and/or catchy advertising gimmicks to turn it into a best seller. 

Have you found the fad diet (advertising gimmick) to sell your books? I’d like to hear about it. I’m sure other writers would too. Leave a comment.

In Murder...A Wayto Lose Weight, two ambitious diet doctors are testing a new way to lose weight. The two, eager to become rich and famous diet gurus, take “short cuts” and endanger their patients’ lives. One doctor is killed after she develops a conscious and admits their “short cuts.” As the police turn up clues, the readers learn a bit about weird poisons and the social mores of a medical school. 

Publicizing Your Books: Using Psychology

Are these activities advertisements? Blogs and websites, reviews of others’ books, and talks on book-related topics.

According to Michael Turney, advertising and publicity are two very different communication tools, even though both employ the mass media as a vehicle for reaching large audiences… Advertising buys its way into the media… Publicity is presented by the media because it's "newsworthy." (Online Readings in Public Relations at www.nku.edu/ ~turney/prclass/readings/ads.html).

So the activities listed at the start of this blog are not advertisements, but if done right and you’re lucky, they increase sales.

Can I use advertising tools to my advantage?

I thought if I understood the psychology of advertising, I might do a better job at publicizing my novels. I’m guessing (if you’re still reading), you might think so, too.

Emotional & bright visual

Experts agree #emotions sell products. About three-quarters of the time, researchers found surrounding a product with other things shoppers liked, sold products better than advertising the desirable traits of the product (Dempsey & Mitchell, Journal of Consumer Research [Dec 4, 2010] Vol. 37). I understand the concept as it applies to shoes and beer, but what about books?

Perhaps, it means as authors we should emphasize the humor, romance, and thrills in our novels. That’s why I named on medical mystery Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight rather than Death of a Diet Doctor. I thought the former title was more humorous and consumers like the words “lose weight” better than “diet.”

Humorous title

Experts think #ads should appeal to as many senses as possible. This makes sense to authors. We know book covers and websites (visual cues) are important. That's why I chose a brightly colored image for the cover of Ignore the Pain. I thought it would arouse emotion (shock) and was easy to remember, but I'm not sure readers found the photo as interesting as I did.

I think it is less clear how to provide sound, smell, and taste clues for novels. I’m wondering if I should serve brownies at my next book signing. They appeal to the sense of smell and taste and arouse favorable emotions in most of us. What do you think? Do you think any bookstore owner would allow it?

Don’t be discouraged if all your promotions don’t work. Experts estimate as much as seventy-five per cent of all advertisements aren’t effective (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1904/01/the-psychology-of-advertising/303465).  My interpretation of this information is: Try. Try again.

Nest week I’ll have more ideas gleaned from experts on the psychology of advertising.