'MY' WORDCON 2-PART 2. BEYOND GOOD CONTENTS

The interview with Simon McKeown and the following conferences leave me with something to think about.

With a small use of technology, it is still possible to realise a book. But there are other essential aspects that Simon has not dedicated himself to. A book needs something more beyond a good story and—like in this case—good illustrations. A book needs aesthetic and marketing. It’s not only the inside of a graphic novel, but it is also and especially the cover that has to appeal to the reader. The cover is a window shop: it needs to attract, invite people to come inside.

It might be hard or soft cover with or without dust jacket, in gloss or in matte surface; in the variety of possible choices, the cover must distinguish itself from the pages.

The only element that differentiates pages from the cover in The True History of the Whipstick Sound is the colour: white for the pages and light yellow for the cover. Strangely enough, the pages are thicker than the cover paper. A choice that makes the book not to distinguish itself much from a school journal and that it might compromise the sale. If it is not supported by a strategic plan of marketing, the book risks remaining invisible. And actually, this is what is happening.

“How do people get to know about your book?” he was asked.

“They probably don’t,” he admitted.

His intention though, is not to sell it yet; he wants to realise three or four books of a series before thinking about a marketing campaign. The True History of the Whipstick Sound is his second graphic novel. The first one, A Short Lifetime on Rooftops, follows the same design.

The next conferences at WordCon 2 show good tips for marketing. André Elhay for example, proposes a case study of marketing applied to a video documentary about elderly people, athletics from the Senior Olympic Games. The film, Age of Champions has produced US $1.5 million. How? The producers focused on a niche target—elderly people, senior health organisations and universities. Keeping their audience in mind, they produced and sold merchandisings, such as DVD, bands and an educational kit. They also created a screening kit.

The latter has been extremely successful. It came with DVD, posters, post cards and so on. They attended conferences charging their speeches at $ 3,000. It included broadcasting the movie, delivering a speech of around 30 minutes and answering questions from the audiences. They collected more than 125 speaking events and generated over $ 450,000 in speaking fees and follow-up sales.

All of these tips might be translated in the writing world. It is possible to generate bookmarks, DVDs with an interview with the author or an educational tool about how to write a book of a specific genre, and so on. All of the above are tips that Simon McKeown has not considered yet, but that he should keep in mind once he will decide to present his work properly to the public.