I get lots of books mailed to me because people want me to write about them, but I usually don’t because I suck at time-management, and so I end up with piles of books around my desk which I plan to read one day when deadlines don’t exist anymore. I sort them into piles labeled “This looks awesome”, “Is this some sort of joke?” and “Now I’m just confused”. Most recently on my “confused” pile was a package that included a book about dad-oriented crafts, together with a well-used copy of my own book, which is a very nice gift, but also weird because I already own my own book.
But after a few days I noticed that the cats kept knocking down (and pawing manically at) my “I’m just confused” pile and that’s when I realized that the author of the craft book had, in fact, modified my book:
Then Victor came up behind me and was like, “What the shit? Who sent you a mummified bat in your book?” And it was a fair question, but I think a better one would have been “Why does this dead bat have an erection?” But instead Victor was all, “Why are you even concerned about his penis? YOU ARE MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES” but really I was just missing the dead bat for his bafflingly pointy penis and that’s not really a good metaphor at all.
I sort of forgot what I was writing here because wine, but the point is that I usually suck at giving shout-outs, but this kind of marketing? This deserves recognition. This is how you do marketing, people. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. And give them a surprise mummified bat penis (attached to an ethically-taxidermied bat) to wonder over because that’s probably going to get you a free link to your book.
PS. I should probably clarify that the actual craft here is “build-your-own-secret-compartment-book-to-hide-treasures-in.” It’s not “mummify-the-dead-bat-you-found-and-then-mail-it-to-perfect-strangers.”
Honestly, that would be a weird craft, even for me.