It began about a year ago. I was talking to the lady who would later
be dubbed my U. K. Marketing director, Sorcha, about how to promote my
new series of e-books. Of course, none was written at that point, but it
did not stop me from considering their promotion because I already had
it in mind to write them.
I was lamenting my past marketing efforts and telling her how futile I felt they had been and she was trying desperately to lift my spirits by coming up with various marketing ideas for me. They were all good enough ideas for someone who has either an established fan base or a lot of money to spend, but I had neither. So I was disappointedly shooting down all of her brilliant ideas.
Finally, I said something to the effect of, "Whatever idea we come up with has to draw a lot of public attention and use ONLY the resources we already have. We cannot spend ANY money on it." I considered my personal resources and thought of the most ridiculous one. Then I used it to exemplify my point.
Now it just so happens that my brother, being a well-meaning and helpful brother, had decided to help me out by saving his soda and beer cans for me to recycle for cash. (Note this was an unsolicited but very well appreciated donation effort.) So my most plentiful and least expensive resource turns out to be 12 ounce cans. In my mental search for a plentiful, free and ridiculous resource, that is the one that came to mind. So I blurted it out.
Words have power. Within short order after my conversation with Sorcha, the idea struck me like a ton of ...soda cans. My series is about the legend of a castle. I could build a castle out of soda cans and put it in my front yard, which just so happens to be right beside a truck route -- meaning my front yard has high visibility to OTR truckers. Could I ever get better free advertising than building a small cans-tle on a trucking route? My idea was PR genius!
So I drew up the plans and began saving my cans instead of recycling them. I let a few people know about my project and they started saving cans for me, too. I tried a couple of methods of sticking the cans to each other, but none worked. So I finally talked to the general manager of my local Ace Hardware store and got his recommendation (which seems to be working pretty well so far).
After almost a year, I now have enough cans and know-how to begin building the first part of my structure: the tower. The weather is also just warm enough to go out onto my front porch and start gluing.
I was lamenting my past marketing efforts and telling her how futile I felt they had been and she was trying desperately to lift my spirits by coming up with various marketing ideas for me. They were all good enough ideas for someone who has either an established fan base or a lot of money to spend, but I had neither. So I was disappointedly shooting down all of her brilliant ideas.
Finally, I said something to the effect of, "Whatever idea we come up with has to draw a lot of public attention and use ONLY the resources we already have. We cannot spend ANY money on it." I considered my personal resources and thought of the most ridiculous one. Then I used it to exemplify my point.
Now it just so happens that my brother, being a well-meaning and helpful brother, had decided to help me out by saving his soda and beer cans for me to recycle for cash. (Note this was an unsolicited but very well appreciated donation effort.) So my most plentiful and least expensive resource turns out to be 12 ounce cans. In my mental search for a plentiful, free and ridiculous resource, that is the one that came to mind. So I blurted it out.
Words have power. Within short order after my conversation with Sorcha, the idea struck me like a ton of ...soda cans. My series is about the legend of a castle. I could build a castle out of soda cans and put it in my front yard, which just so happens to be right beside a truck route -- meaning my front yard has high visibility to OTR truckers. Could I ever get better free advertising than building a small cans-tle on a trucking route? My idea was PR genius!
So I drew up the plans and began saving my cans instead of recycling them. I let a few people know about my project and they started saving cans for me, too. I tried a couple of methods of sticking the cans to each other, but none worked. So I finally talked to the general manager of my local Ace Hardware store and got his recommendation (which seems to be working pretty well so far).
After almost a year, I now have enough cans and know-how to begin building the first part of my structure: the tower. The weather is also just warm enough to go out onto my front porch and start gluing.
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