The Promotion of Matlock the Hare
Published: 24 Mar 2015 - updated: 28 Jul 2015
Author Phil Lovesey talks book promotion, social media, and other useful 'griffles'...
Matlock, as the majickal-hare from Winchett Dale, can do a surprising amount of things. Read The Riddle of Trefflepugga Path and The Puzzle of the Tillian Wand and you’ll see why.
However, when it comes to promotion, Jacqui and I have to lend him a 'helping paw’. Time-consuming and sometimes exhausting, it nonetheless provides a necessary platform for your work, which if done effectively, can yield 'saztaculous’ results.
We started with Twitter. Neither Jacqui or I are Facebook fans, and found the shorter 'tweet’ format which allows attached pictures and links far easier (we’re both over 50, so the whole 'online’ experience has to be easily understandable!). We now have over 4000 followers, growing daily, and have found amongst them some wonderfully loyal 'Matlockers’ which persuaded us to crowdfund the second novel in the trilogy The Puzzle of the Tillian Wand - again a process that can prove trickier than first appears, but if you’ve done your groundwork, your pitch is good and your potential 'sponsors’ are aware of the bid then funding is possible...
You can see our pitch here.
The next step was to write and illustrate the book, whilst also marketing ourselves and Matlock locally through as many independent bookshops and art galleries as possible, alongside moving further afield to Derbyshire and Matlock itself. We began visiting local schools and spreading the Matlock 'griffles’. Some contacts we got from Twitter, others came from our website which we also had to totally re-design. It’s a kit-format site, but fortunately Jacqui’s daughter was able to make it truly 'majickal’, overseeing its construction and filling it full of moving gifs to compliment the sales side of our Matlock art, prints and cards in the site-shop.
Take a look here - we’re very proud of it! Any folk who now ask us 'Who’s Matlock the Hare?’ can go straight to the website...
So, with the publication of The Puzzle of the Tillian Wand we wanted to make a promotional book-trailer for both books in the trilogy so far. It seemed like a big ask. We’d only just submitted the finished manuscript to SilverWood (who made a 'crumlush' job of the book, as always!) - and were knee-deep in Christmas, promoting Trefflepugga Path and a 'grillion’ other things besides. However, because Jacqui, myself and the growing number of Matlock fans believe in the green-robed majickal chap so much, we decided to press ahead with a full widescreen animation of a trip through Winchett Dale, fully orchestrated, with the latest up-to-the 'blinksnap’ effects...if possible...
Three months later and here’s what we finally managed to achieve, a two minute promo using hundreds of specially painted images by Jacqui, local computer and musical talent, and too many other things to mention.
We did a 'live-launch’ on a Sunday evening on Twitter and at the time of writing (three days later) we’ve already had over 950 views.
Marketing, promotion, online networking - call it what you will - for self-published authors an effective 'campaign’ can make all the difference. And despite the headaches, you do it because you care about your book, your readers, your characters, your stories and the worlds you create...
I suppose it’s what makes us all 'clottabussed’ enough to write in the first place!
Connect with Phil, Jacqui and Matlock on Twitter @MatlockHare
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