A teaser promo, a food festival and a moneyback offer if disappointed. Nope, these aren't ads for movies or groceries. They are marketing ideas for the written word

A teaser promo, a food festival and a moneyback offer if disappointed. Nope, these aren't ads for movies or groceries. They are marketing ideas for the written word

The hero brandishes his trishul against a cloudy grey sky -- this promo is classic. It reveals little, makes you wonder more. "Would like to watch the full length film", reads a response on youtube. Only, The Immortals of Meluha is not a film, it's Amish Tripathi's debut novel. It isn't an ad-hoc home video either. The score is by star percussionist Taufiq Qureshi and it's shot by ad filmmaker Atul Manjrekar.u00a0

It isn't the firstu00a0 --u00a0 Tuhin A Sinha had shot one in 2006 for That Thing Called Love, with professional actors. He wanted to promote his book and hoped it would get picked up for a movie. The film hasn't happened but the novel sold a neat 50,000 copies.u00a0

Web it up

Book discussions and readings are passu00e9. Book promotion is now serious business, and a favourite mode is 'viral' or Internet marketing.u00a0

"Books are anyway a slow burn product, so you've got to find a way to generate interest and sustain it," says Amish, who heads the marketing and products division at an insurance firm. Soon, Amish will mail the link to The Immortals' promo to 10 lakh people, providing an alternative to youtube which is blocked in most offices.
Abhijeet Powdwal who scripted the promo, says, "The book feels like a film and we wanted to bring it alive. It had to be in motion."u00a0 Westland Books' Piggies On The Railway by Smita Jain, will also have an animated promo online. Amrita Talwar, senior publicist, Westland, says that social networking websites will be exploited as well.

They aren't the only net-philes. In October 2009, Sidin Vadukut piqued interest in his Dork:The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese, with a self Q & A on his blog. Soon, he was Tweeting and Facebooking about his debut novel, having sent out mailers with office rules about a non-existent company on fake letterheads, to friends and acquaintances.u00a0u00a0

Out of the box

That's where physical marketing comes inu2026 better if it's out-of-the-box. Taking up wife Preeti Vyas' suggestion, Amish got bookstore cash counters to stock free 32-page samplers of The Immortals of Meluha. "It was the best spot. A book lover would obviously buy books and if he was given a free sampler on his way out, he would read it." As a result, bookstores ordered more copies taking customer curiosity into account. "My publisher, Tara, had to reprint within a week."
u00a0
Lathika George's The Suriani Kitchen has inspired a Syrian Christian Festival at The Park Hotel, Delhi. While Lathika will supervise a live cooking station on the day of the book launch, guests at Agni at The Park will be served Syrian Christian cuisine between March 25 and 27.u00a0

Back to Dork, at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Sidin distributed visiting cards of Robin Varghese, the hero of his trilogy, to all and sundry. The result: Dork sold 13,000 copies in the first four weeks.

Why's your book special?

It pays to pitch books differently. Penguin recently came up with a series called 'Metro Reads', all written to be read in a hurry while commuting to work, over a coffee, on a flight or a long train journey. Love Over Coffee, Where Girls Dare and Dreams in Prussian Blue were all promoted as simply written books with relatable themes. Another round of Metro Reads is coming up in June this year.

Dellhi-based publisher Hachette has come up with a Publisher's Promise campaign. The promise is: 'enjoy the book or get your money back.' The book in question is Krishan Partap Singh's Delhi Darbar, the first in a trilogy.

As Thomas Abraham, MD, Hachette India, puts it, "If readers are at the crossroads of a buying decision, this should provide that impetus to buy knowing that in the worst case you could return it." The trade response has been great so far, Thomas adds, "We've subscribed for over 10,000 copies."

Literary agent Mita Kapur of Siyahi says every marketing campaign should have an inventive spin on the book.

"The content of the book should be taken into account. Every book deserves special treatment." That said, she believes that a good book will sell by word-of-mouth regardless of marketing. An example is Devdutt Pattanaik's 7 Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art. Word-of-mouth could go online too, right? Like actor-filmmaker Anant Mahadevan's comment about The Immortals of Meluha on Facebook, where he talks of how he is itching to make a movie on it. But that's a different story.

The Shiva trilogy
The Immortals of Meluha revolves around Lord Shiva, who is portrayed as a human, a Tibetan who immigrated to Meluha in Kashmir. Here, he is believed to be a god and the saviour of Meluha. The other two books in the trilogy are The Secret of The Nagas and The Oath of The Vayuputras.

Watch the video trailer for The Immortals of Meluha