When I was a kid, I paid close attention to my father, who goes down as one of history’s greatest self promoters. As the owner of a small executive search firm, my dad was constantly on the search for media opportunities. So he’d do every possible thing—mass mailings, dictated business-advice tapes, a column in the local newspaper—to generate pub.
The end result? A feature in Inc. Magazine and a profile in Newsweek, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc … etc. His belief was that, with the right prodding, success was there for the taking.
This is a long way of saying that today, midway through the Rays-Cardinals game in Jupiter, Florida, I left the stadium to place fliers for my new book in the windows of cars.
I’ve done this for all four of my books, and while it’s certainly something Stephen King and John Feinstein surely have never lowered themselves to, I dig the idea of organic marketing. Hence, I went from car to car to car for roughly an hour, lifting up a windshield wiper and plopping down the postcard. I kept looking out for my journalistic peers, hoping nobody would spot me in the act. But later I thought about it: Why be ashamed of working for your own product? Of not hiring some kid to do a task I can ably do sans help?
This book might sell 100 copies, it might sell 100,000 copies (please, dear God). But having worked so hard on the darn thing, I might as well give it my all …
