Marketing weak

This week has been all about sorting out a marketing plan for Blood Psi, before it appears in Previews. Just typing the words "marketing plan" makes me laugh as it seems to infer I have a couple of million to splash around like I'm the head of EMI or something.

In reality, I've got enough to cover a half-page, black and white ad in Previews, a direct postcard mail-out to a couple of hundred retailers and a dedicated website featuring a ten-page preview of the book. I might be able to stretch to some banner ads on comic news sites but when I did this for Hero Killers (with CBR) it wasn't very successful.

Beyond that, it's going to be all about getting actual coverage in as many places as possible. We've already had a nice preview up at SBC's All The Rage (you can see it here: www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/rage/index1.htm) and I'm working on getting similar column inches elsewhere.

I'm also about to mail out a pile of pre-print "dummy" copies of the book to comics journalists in the hope they'll give it a positive review and maybe provide me with a suitably gushing quote I can use in press releases and other publicity.

* I realised the other day that the Bristol Comics Expo is barely a month and a half away. I'm not sure how it's going to go this year as I have nothing new to sell at all (the new version of Blood Psi won't be printed until June when I've got advance order numbers from Diamond). I was tempted to cancel the two tables I'd booked and go down as a punter rather than an exhibitor, but decided that would be a waste of a golden opportunity to publicise the books I have coming out later in the year.

I thought about printing a special Moonface Press Sampler featuring pages from Hero Killers, Blood Psi and Septic Isle but decided the 500 quid it would cost me might be better spent on printing the books themselves, especially as Septic Isle is going to cost a few quid (it's going to be a 52-page, perfect bound graphic novella).

Also, Bristol's always a good place to meet and recruit new artists (it's where I first met the likes of Declan Shalvey, Keith Burns, Mick Trimble and Duane Leslie), so I'm planning on doing a fair amount of that too.