It’s that time of the month again when Red Herrings, the CWA’s bulletin, drops through the letterbox. Our chair, Vaseem Khan, tells a hilarious story about an American writer’s use of TikTok. The writer shall remain nameless but apparently a member of his (I’m assuming a male writer) marketing team sent out an email to a list of female influencers encouraging them to film themselves in the nude with copies of his book covering vital parts of their anatomy, whilst describing the most taboo place they had had sex.
I too have heard a lot about the marketing power of TikTok, and its associated #BookTok. In fact I recently posted my first TikTok video. It’s only had twenty likes, so I don’t see it changing my fortunes just yet. Of course it was just me telling the story of my writing, and thankfully fully clothed. As Vaseem explains, short of holding a gun to readers’ heads there really isn’t much that the vast majority of authors can do to increase book sales dramatically.
I have heard several times that book sales really start to ramp up when an author has between five and seven books out, particularly in a series. So whilst I will continue to do whatever I can to market my books, fully clothed that is, I’m working on the principle that nothing sells your book as well as your next book. I continue to work on The Favourite Murder, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures and I’m around 33,000 words into it so far.
MilkTownWriters are organising an exhibition in our meeting place, Melksham Library. Perhaps I can make that the subject of another TikTok video. I’ll give it some thought. If you’re wondering about the MilkTownWriters name, Melksham is, I believe, Anglo-Saxon for Milk Town.