At the tender age of fifteen, Charon McKay disappeared from the small coastal town of Innsmouth. When she turns up, nine month later, she is incoherent and raving; and slightly more surprising…pregnant. No one knows who the father is and even Charon is unable to remember what happened to her. The only thing people know for sure is that she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Rebecca Sue McKay and that both her and her mother are decidedly strange. In fact, most people stay away from them entirely. But Charon and Becka have more immediate worries. Strange creatures have appeared in Innsmouth and awaken dark and terrifying powers within the girls. Only the Shadowgirls can stand against this ancient threat…if the power doesn’t consume them first.

The story uses as its springboard H. P. Lovecraft’s town of Innsmouth, and the Deep Ones part of the Cthulhu Mythos. The art and the storyline are both fantastic, and I’ve been an avid reader since I discovered it.

They have already developed a loyal fan base who chatter in the comments section of each page, debate on what each page means, talk about what they think is going to happen, and interact with both the artist and the writer. There is also an active forum. However, the Daves have taken it a step further by creating a sister site, the Innsmouth Insider, where one of the characters, Fides, blogs about the conspiracies that are going on in Innsmouth, and what it means in terms of what is going currently in the storyline. Fides has also interacted with one of the main characters of the comic, with promises of help.

The entire sister site is written in character, with multitudes of comments from other fictional characters on the posts. In addition, readers of the comic are also able to post responses to Fides’s posts, playing along in across between role-playing and make-believe. As the Innsmouth Insider is new, and readers are still adapting to the part it plays, (readers have to click the vote incentives to find out the user name and password for the Insider), I am watching it closely to see exactly how well this form of roleplaying will work with the comic. (As a side note, the Daves are planing on creating RPG guides to go along with the comic, the first of which will be in the spring of ’08.)

The site is well done, the comic is quality, and the Innsmouth Insider is an intreging way of enticing and incorporating the reader. It is a site I will be watching closely to see how well it does in the long run.

It is a gamble for authors to give out content online as well. As a blog writer, you also have to be a savvy marketer. You have to figure out what people will like, and make sure that the content you post is of a quality that will not only keep a reader’s attention, but also make them remember what you wrote about. The window of opportunity to grab people’s attention is very small, and if a piece of writing is of low quality they aren’t going to read further, come back or – perhaps most importantly – recommend it to anyone else. There goes your word of mouth. And word of mouth is one of the most important tools of all.

Giving away any type of free content is a gamble that requires hard work, but done correctly the payoff can be worth it. For Duotrope, they receive the funds they need to stay running, and great word of mouth. The payoff for a writer isn’t necessarily going to be in cash, as while you are marketing books you aren’t going to be soliciting donations. The payoff in word of mouth however can be better than any paid advertising.

Now as an alternative, publishing excerpts and extra content to whet readers’ appetites can do very well at drawing new readers. From the NYT article above, the authors of the graphic novel The Shooting War posted just eleven chapters on a webzine Smithmag.net, and then reworked and expanded the material for the print version. The Church of the Customer Blog says that “Try-before-you-buy is tried-and-true. It’s high-value. It’s some of the best marketing available to you,” and that authors should be happy Amazon.com allows readers to get a taste of a books via their site as that gives the reader their “try.” Amazing graphic novelist Eric Drooker offers slideshows of parts of his graphic novels on his site. HarperCollins is offering readers the chance to read certain books for free for a month on their website, however, there are some strict controls that limit what can be done with the book; it can’t be read on a portable reader, it can’t be printed, and it has to be read on the site. With this method, I can see how it would tempt a reader to purchase the book, as sitting at a computer and reading a whole book from a website isn’t that appealing.

On my own site as far as publishing book content, I plan on offering extra information and short stories about my characters, places, and events as well as resources I used for background research. I link to my short stories that have been published, and might possibly reprint pieces that have been published in print but are not available online. I am also considering creating podcasts of my published work. Will I publish the whole book? No. First chapters? Probably. Everything is a juggling game, but just like going into a bookstore and reading parts of a book to “test-drive” it, catching a reader’s eye and then their interest can be the deciding factor as to whether a book will succeed.

The first point is the whole concept of showing, not telling. There were two posts in particular about this topic, one regarding the demoing of road construction machinery in China by Caterpillar. As they point out, this is a brilliant move on Caterpillar’s part because these machines are not well known in China, and all of the print advertising in the world isn’t going to give a clear image of what their product can do to their target audience. But show their consumers exactly what their product can do, and viola – clear and direct marketing of a product that will now spread via word of mouth. The other example mentioned was how Charmin toilet paper provides free toilets in Times Square, NYC. As there is a serious lack of toilets that aren’t “for customers only” in Times Square, they provide a needed service connected to a recognizable name that consumers will recognize when they go shopping for TP. (As long as they are clean toilets!) What does this have to do with blogging? Well, if one of the reasons for a blog is to talk about a product or service, such as a book, there is a lot to be gained by showing your audience what you are talking about, whether it be background information, research that has been done to authenticate the writing, samples of the book, or extra content. The goal is to give the reader an understanding of the book, make then curious about the whole product, as well as increase word of mouth.

Another couple of posts talk about how a blog fan base is built with a diagram of “The Cycle of a Fan,” and “The 4 types of community.” Both are excellent ways of putting the information into a visual format that clarifies how a blog’s readership grows.

And finally, 10 things about writing your first business book and Lessons from a 40-date book tour. While both are regarding the publication and promotion of business books, there is a lot of information that can be applied to other subjects, as well as my genre, fiction. The biggest lesson from the latter article is “Plan at least 6 months out from the first event. If you’re an author, that may mean planning starts before the manuscript is finished.” This also includes giving yourself a long window of time for planning a book tour and building publicity – Jackie says that they should have allocated 3-4 months to building up their book tour for the coming year, rather than the 2.5 they did, as “associations with chapter meetings often have their new-year programs finalized by September or October”. The former link had several pieces of valuable information, including:

• * First, spend 1-2 years building an audience.
• * Book royalties won’t buy a BMW.
• * Invest heavily in your writing.
• * Follow the six-month rule (The six months before publication are the most important marketing months for your book.)
• * Invest heavily in your marketing. (“Rick Barrera, who wrote the Wall Street Journal bestseller “Overpromise and Overdeliver,” equates books to Doritos. It’s easy to share Doritos, and easy to make more, so give away a lot of books so more people will consume them. A book is the best business card imaginable to your business knowledge, so put that Dorito it into eager, outstretched hands. They’ll reward the favor.”)

Good stuff.

I’m going to state that I have no connection at all to the Church of the Customer site or its authors. I will never accept an offer for a paid post for any reason. I will however, share links as I find them helpful, so that authors (and other interested parties) can take advantage of them as well. While the thought did occur to me to keep my plans to myself, (muhahaha!) sharing the information won’t take away anything from my marketing plans, and it could help others out. So here you are!