When I put together my collection of short stories, I knew I had a problem: traditionally, short story collections don’t sell. I think that’s changing. With e-readers, we’re turning away from ever bigger Stephen King-size tomes. Digital brings the short form (or at least shorter forms) back because page counts don’t count. I looked at the themes of the collection and added chapters that were inspirational and thought-provoking. I thought about how it was director Kevin Smith who inspired me to write full-time. What emerged was a bathroom book of stories: Self-help for Stoners, Stuff to Read When You’re High. It’s suspenseful, yet full of parables. Yep, it’s an odd book.
Today is 4/20. I’m hoping that, because of the tie-in to a niche, my book will find readers who would otherwise have passed it by. Every day I say you don’t have to be a stoner to love it and that’s true. However, I wanted to have a hook with an identifiable market because, sadly, a book that’s for everyone is for no one.
When you choose your next title, what event or group could you tie it to? For instance, if you can legitimately come up with a book that has “Christmas” in the title, it might sell much better than a title that sounds too much like a bunch of other titles.
Filed under: publishing, 420, book promotion, Robert Chazz Chute, self-help for stoners, Stoners
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Excellent post. Joleene Naylor did a similar post a few weeks ago about her book Shades of Gray which saw an increase of sales when another book by the same name became popular.
You see similar results on YouTube. When a video goes viral, other videos with similar names also see a boost sometimes.