by Ellen Byron
Having two books on preorder is the definition of a high-class problem, but it’s a problem, nonetheless. How do you convince people to part with their hard-earned cash for something that feels ephemeral? I’m a tough sell myself on that score.
I shared cheery graphics encouraging preorders wherever I could, exhorting my readers to spread the word. Despite my enthusiastic self-cheerleading, I didn’t feel particularly optimistic that the campaign would produce results. Then an idea occurred to me.
How do you sell something ephemeral? Give buyers an option that’s not ephemeral.
For me, that translated into gift certificates.
I tapped into templates on Canva to create gift certificates for both books: Wined and Died in New Orleans, Vintage Cookbook #2 and Four Parties and a Funeral, a Catering Hall mystery.
By the way, see that caricature of me on the certificate? It’s courtesy of a caricaturist at a Bas Mitzvah ten years ago. You never know what will come in handy someday.
Once I created the certificates, the next hurdle to jump was distributing them. I mulled over a few completely unrealistic approaches before landing on the simplest option: a link on my website where gift givers print the certificates themselves once they preordered the book from their favorite book source.
I shared the gift-certificate news, images, and links via my newsletter and social media. I even made a video. There was a brief moment of panic when I realized I’d neglected to specify in some posts that readers need to buy the book before accessing the certificate. I envisioned a horde of people contacting me because they assumed downloading the certificate equaled a purchase. I was probably excessively paranoid and underestimating readers to an insulting degree, but I edited the posts.
I find it hard, if not impossible, to quantify the ROI (return on investment, for those of you like me who had no idea what the acronym means) for any promotional effort I undertake. All I know is that my gift-certificate campaign cost me nothing but time, and the last time I checked, 117 of my newsletter readers clicked on the link.
And that’s a gift to me.
Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha Award and multiple Best Humorous Mystery Lefty awards. She pens the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series, and writing as Maria DiRico, the Catering Hall Mysteries. Ellen is an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents, but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. She blogs at https://chicksonthecase.com.
