Ellen Byron

The “Throw Spaghetti at the Wall and Hope Something Sticks” Approach to Marketing

Through the years since my first mystery was published in 2015, I’ve developed a finely honed approach to marketing my books, something we are all tasked with these days. Let me bullet-point my approach for you:

  • Do a bunch of stuff and pray something works.

Yup. That’s it. One poor, lonely bullet point.

Like all authors, I’ve blogged, guested on podcasts, and done in-person and virtual appearances at bookstores. My overall goal is to try one new marketing idea per book release, so I’ve also done Bookstagram tours, bought ads, and augmented my own graphics with ones done by a professional.

In addition to these marketing channels, I do have a couple of go-to’s that I’ve become somewhat known for in the mystery community. First, the insane amount of swag I buy and give out. To wit, this sample:

    Second, I have some fame – or more likely, infamy – for my Shameless Shilling campaigns. This is where I create cheesy graphics that basically send the message “I know I have to do this, you know I have to do this, so let’s at least have some fun with it, (I hope, I hope.)”

    Here are examples from the current campaign for my upcoming release, A Very Woodsy Murder. Since this book launches a new series, I went all out with the campaign, to the extent of calling it #ESS: Extreme Shameless Shilling. I bought animal ornaments on sale a year ago to create silly dioramas and ordered a backdrop usually used for photographing small objects. I even utilized the finger puppets I held onto from my daughter’s childhood…

    People often ask if my efforts lead to increased sales, and my answer is always the same.

    “Ya got me.”

    Because here’s the sad truth. I have no idea how to quantify anything I do. There are people who are equally talented at writing and analyzing algorithms – looking at you, Diane Vallere! – and then there’s me, hurling marketing spaghetti at the wall and praying a strand or two sticks and moves the sales needle.

    There are those who would say, “Hey, instead of doing a million things, why not do one, analyze its ROI – Return on Investment – and proceed accordingly?” To which I’d reply, “How much would it cost to have YOU do that? Because it ain’t how my brain works.”

    I credit the fact I can actually think of new ways to sell my books to my late advertising industry creative director dad. His career was spent doing exactly what I’m constantly trying to do – come up with ways to sell things to people. I often wish Dad was still with me so I could brainstorm with him. Then again, he once did a commercial with Judd Hirsch for toilet paper that involved a bunch of babies and when I met Mr. Hirsch and brought up the commercial, he said, “There was a big problem with that ad. People remembered the babies and not the product.” I never shared this critique with Dad, who would have been devastated. Because if there’s one dictum that’s tantamount in advertising, it’s that people remember the product.

    Despite my inability to evaluate the scientific results of my efforts, I keep this advertising dictum in my head with every marketing campaign. For A Very Woodsy Murder, my new idea was to hire Madeline Rathle, formerly a marketing maven of Crooked Lane, to help me promote my oeuvre. Together we created and ran a big giveaway featuring 16 mysteries – including mine – all set in California. What an incredible lineup of authors, including Chicks’ very own Leslie Karst and Jennifer J. Chow!

    The giveaway ended last night, and we got a boatload of entries from excited readers. Yay!!! Fantastic!! Whoo hoo!

    Will it move the sales needle?

    Ya got me.

    Readers, what kind of promotion appeals to you and what turns you off? Authors, what’s worked for you and what hasn’t?

    40 thoughts on “The “Throw Spaghetti at the Wall and Hope Something Sticks” Approach to Marketing”

    1. By far, my best marketing tool is Amazon ads. I’m running about 160 ads a month. The lifetime impressions for those ads for about the last two years (that is, the number of people who’ve seen an ad) is over 15 million (that’s right, million with an M). Best part is, I pay per click, not per view. I more than double my money on ad costs every month.

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        1. I like them short and sweet. You don’t use images in Amazon ads, just a tagline a short description. Here are some of my taglines for Shooters!, the latest Nataline McMasters Mystery:

          Hate. It’s a force of nature.

          When someone you love does the unthinkable…

          And my fave:

          A naked beauty pageant. The first prize? A million dollars in cash! What could possibly go wrong?

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    2. I love your Very Woodsy ads, Ellen. They’re so fun! The only thing I know that worked for me in the 11 years and 16 books I’ve had published over 2 genres is a discounted price with a BookBub and. Kensington paid for an ad for my first Allie Cobb mystery. It hit #1 on a bunch of platforms and generated sales numbers I’ve never come close to matching.

      I don’t have the budget to pay for one of those ads out of my own pocket. If I did, I’d definitely try to get one again.

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      1. Bless those BookBub discounted price ads. I know I owe a lot to them. I’d try one myself but my publisher would have to agree to a reduced price. And also… they’re pricey!

        And so glad you like my Woodsy campaign!

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    3. I love your marketing ideas — always clever, always fun! So glad to have sat next to you at Bouchercon 2015. It’s led to a long admiration of you and your books!

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    4. Ellen! Great post. You’ve always been my marketing idol. I am always amazed and delighted at the incredibly imaginative and fun ways you handle each campaign!

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    5. My takeaway, Ellen, is that you have fun with it. Since I believe having fun is contagious, this may be the central point for your success. Love the animal dioramas the mostest ( ;

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      1. Awww. Thank you! I was his little Sally Draper, lol. I remember visiting him at many Mad Ave offices. I remember once making an Empire State Building out of his art director’s plasticine clay (the kind that doesn’t harden). The poor man sat on it – I must have been making it on a chair! – and was so apologetic. I graciously forgave him.

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    8. Ellen, your enthusiasm and creativity shine through in all these projects. Looks like you had fun doing them, which casts the idea of fun reading over your books. Though it may not be a quantifiable justification for the time and energy spent, It’s bound to help.

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    9. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: You are my marketing and promotion hero, Ellen. And your campaign for “A Very Woodsy Murder” is just delightful! I try, too, but it’s so true what you say about whether any of it ever works or makes any difference in sales. Good thing we all like spaghetti.

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    10. Of course, to truly know how one park of marketing works, you have to try doing nothing for a book. Somehow, I don’t see that happening….

      I’ve been loving the Woodsy pictures. But you know me and puns.

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      1. LOL, I really do have to try nothing as a strategy sometime. But you’re right. I think I’d have to be on a desert island without any WiFi for that to happen.

        And I think of you with every pun I come up with. “Mark would be so proud of me!”

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        1. Especially since I am bad at coming up with puns. I love them, and I love stealing them to share. But I’m not that good at coming up with them on my own.

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    11. I’ve tried ads, blog tours, interviews, pitching to media…what’s worked? Ya got me. 🙂 I think the blog tour I did with Partners in Crime last summer had an effect. The purpose was to promote backlist and I have seen more sales of backlist Laurel Highlands titles since.

      What hasn’t worked? Group giveaways. Oh sure, the giveaway gets a ton of entries but it is usually “giveaway junkies” who really want the thing that’s being given away and don’t have any interest in, you know, books.

      At this point, I feel like my strategy is “cross my fingers and hope people like it.”

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        1. The funny (not really) and frustrating thing is that I went to the Pennwriters conference this spring determined to up my marketing game. What I learned is that I’m already doing most of what’s recommended. And the two things I’m not are things I don’t have control over (pricing and Amazon keywords/categories). My publisher does.

          Sigh.

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    12. You are an absolute marketing maven, Ellen!

      We call the spaghetti approach “spray and pray.” <y old creative director used to say, “It’s not one thing, it’s everything”–meaning everything works together to make the difference. Looking at your amazing campaigns, I’d say he’s right! I LOVE it all!

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      1. Oh, love that, Kathy! Although “spray and pray” has a negative connotation at our house. It also applies to sending out job applications, which is a nightmare for my poor kid right now.

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    13. It sounds like you’ve made promotion FUN, Ellen, and congratulations on A VERY WOODSY MURDER. I find promo a chore. Once I created moody photos to “illustrate” scenes from one of my books, it was very time consuming and didn’t seem to have an impact. I’ll leave reading algorithms to someone else.

      And thanks, Tom, for your advice!

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    15. Dan Blank of the Creative Shift blog, which I’ve followed for years, says no one knows WHAT works, but we DO know that doing stuff works, so figure out where your audience is and what you enjoy, and go from there. Sounds like exactly what you’re doing!

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    17. What I love–and envy a bit, Ellen–is that you do, from writing the books to marketing them. Your spirit of fun shows and is infectious and inspiring. Here’s to lots more spaghetti on the wall as opposed to traditional display ads! From one who sometimes seems stuck on “That’s how I’ve always done it!”

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