Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of some of my favorite science fiction books in the Dune Series, wrote an article (here) on the advantages of advertising to people who may not already know your product exists. Sound like a landmark idea? It is! He lists numerous examples of books he’s written for movie and tv shows that were only advertised in areas (book section) where only people knowing the book existed would go. He asked the booksellers why they didn’t put a stand out with the movie, book and soundtrack next to each other to promote cross-selling, and they said no because they were products in different departments. He even made progressive rock cd’s to go with a sea bound fantasy trilogy he wrote to advertise his book. His idea was that people who listen to this kind of music read, but may not be avid enough to go look in a bookstore for his book.

As a large community of multi-talented individuals, how can we work together to cross-promote our art? Can artists team up with writers to make coverart, or vice versa, having a writer write a story to sell with a painting or poster? How about our graphic designers making pictures of characters, scenery, or action in our books to sell as merchandise? What about musicians? Do you want practice making soundtrack type music? Make one in collaboration with an author and sell it as the book’s soundtrack. You could go small and just do a few tracks for a short story that are meant to be listened to while reading. I can’t count how many times I’ve sat down to read and wished I had music to listen to that would fit what I’m reading (i.e. no vocals).

What about advertising? Think about what is in your book, and where people spend their money who would like your book. For example, if you wrote a story about a monster catfish and some boys out fishing, you could advertise in a fishing store/magazine. Maybe you love snowboarding (I do!), and your last story had snowboarders in an avalanche. What could you do to get that story advertised in a snowboard shop or website?

I’ve got a few ideas. You could release your story as a podcast and have an advertisement for said website if they will agree to post a link to your story. You could give them an affiliate link that would give them a percentage of sales from their site. In your advertisement on the podcast, you could offer a coupon code to free shipping or something on their website. These ideas sort of require the ability to prove you will attract new customers through a track record of sales of your previous stories, or even this story in ebook form.

Another idea is to make a business card of your story that has links, graphic and story hook to place or hand out in areas where people interested in your subject congregate. Often, websites that sell business cards offer deals to have your graphic put on coffee mugs, t-shirts, calendars, etc which you could giveaway or simply use as form of advertising. Put these at work and you have conversation starters without being overly evangelistic.

Afraid your short story isn’t enough, look for other stories in the same style/subject matter and collaborate with them on an anthology. You’d pour all your audience into one place, plus offer greater sales to whomever you try and market with. Ask your soundtrack maker if he’d sell soundtracks to the other artists and then make a greatest hits version for the anthology. If your cover artist did a great job, they might even ask for his name to make one for them.

In this age of electronic media, independent artists are given greater opportunity to advertise their talents. I don’t have time to learn graphic design or producing ambient music, but the products I make provide new marketing avenues for those who have learned these skills. It’s our job to find these people and sell a partnership that is mutually beneficial.

Questions for Discussion:

What do you think? Do you have a talent that could help someone else here? Is there a way you can team up to help each other?

If you already have a product to sell, what areas can you branch out to reach people that wouldn't already know or be looking for your product?

I agree, the promotion of writing offers a lot of opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships. If I commission a graphic designer to make a cover, a website, or other promotional material, I get the benefit of the graphics and the designer gets the benefit of pay and credits. As I promote my book, the designer's work is promoted. If the designer uses my graphics as examples of his work, my book gets promoted. And so on.

When I have design needs that are out of my expertise, my first thought is to go to my talented friends. I love working with my peers, instead of supporting a random professional off of the internet. It helps us both, as indie artists getting started. For example, I'd like to do book trailers sometime, and I immediately thought of several filmmaker and composer friends that I want to work with.

I have a friend that loves to do concept art for me, and I plan on using these as illustrations in the self-published books. I hope to be able to pay her soon, but in the meantime, she was very delighted to find the images credited with her name on the inside of the book. I also hope that being able to say "embellished with x-number original illustrations" will give my book an edge in marketing.

All of that aside, however, you're making me think outside the box in partnerships I could form. What about audio books with appropriate sound effects and music? I wonder if my filmmaking/podcast friends would be able to help me with that...

I've added some bookmarks and subscribed to podcasts for sound effects, and am learning as much as I can about audio editing. Start a thread if you have a specific question. Treskillard knows a good deal as well, so our collective input should help.

One area of need would be an organized thread that people can go to to see where people have skills, such as graphic design, audio editing, ect. I started a Personal Introductions thread kind of for that purpose, but only one person has replied. I wonder if that is too broad of a task to list all of your talents in a post -- even if it just relates to social media.

I brought up the subject of audio books on my filmmakers' forum and got excited responses from two friends. I have a talented girlfriend, who did an amazing audio book for her sci-fi story, interested in narrating my novella, and another guy on hold for my next book. My novella needs a female narrator, so my girlfriend got the job, but, Lord willing, my next book will need a male narrator. God is good, and it's quite exciting! (Plus, it's good motivation for me to finish/revise the books!)