Good evening everyone.
Well, for starters, the title of my discussion might appear a bit vague. But there is a reason why I chose it. To briefly tell you about myself, I am Shobhit Agarwal, an aspiring engineer turned writer. My debut book – ‘Ordered Cheese Delivered Chalk – My Kota Safari’ released last month (and is available across all major online bookstores, for anyone who is interested)
While I finished writing the book in 2 months, it took me some 10 months to finally get it published and have a hardcopy in my hands. But my issue here isn’t with the publication bit of the book. My point of contention is the marketing bit of the book.
Just to brief you about the book – it is about a young teenager and his (mis)adventures in the city of Kota, Rajasthan, as he enrols himself in India’s most famous IIT-JEE coaching centre, Bansal Classes. So the domain of my book is well-defined – a fun, light-hearted fiction. My target audience is realised – 70000 teenagers between 16-22 residing in Kota as well as lakhs of students who have passed out or are in the process of embarking there own IIT-JEE preparation days.
My book released on September 10th. The response so far as been all positive. Yet, somehow, I feel that my book hasn’t reached its audience. I am no Chetan Bhagat or Durjoy Datta, whose books become best-sellers through pre-orders itself. I am very well aware that only if the content of the book is good, will it survive the readers litmus test.
The release of the book was a very low key affair, in fact it won’t even fit in that category as students in my college itself weren’t aware about the release date in spite of the fact that the whole college was decorated with posters about my book. My publisher is kind of a small timer, without any specific marketing strategy (I realised this only after my book released).
Thanks to one of my teachers in Kota, who has some 5000 people in his facebook friend list and another 8000 subscribers, who posted a personal message I had sent him (regarding sending him a complimentary copy of the book and for his blessings) on his facebook timeline, a small buzz about the book was generated. Since one created such an impact, I thought why not try the same thing with other teachers as well. I sent similar messages to another 4 of my teachers at Kota. Sadly, none of them even replied to that message, forget about posting it on their timelines.
Moreover, my book is a dedication to Bansal Classes (very clearly mentioned in the acknowledgement and dedication pages). Yet, there has been no response to my mails and messages from the institute to spread a small word about the book. Just a single post from them about the book will help in providing me the kind of marketing that no (cheap) money can buy.
I checked out a couple of book promoting sites, but none of them seemed worthy enough for consideration, and were charging exorbitant amounts for, to put it in simplest terms, posting about the book on their facebook page. Add to it, the availability of my book only at the online stores and not the real time stores like crossword or landmark have further compounded to the misery. People still think that in order to buy stuff online, you need to have a credit or debit card.
I am kind of in a crossroad here because I know the quality of the book is good (based solely on the feedback I have received), yet I am unable to make any significant incision in the targeted sector. I am doing my bit to publicise the book – I have become content creator for a page at facebook dedicated exclusively to Kota (has 13k likes), which has helped to market the book to some extent. Still, I am searching for a sure-shot formula in building a brand for my book. One of my friends, Shivang Chawla, recommended me rodinhoods.com, so here I am. Need suggestions?
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Facebook link – https://www.facebook.com/OrderedCheeseDeliveredChalk
Link to my blog – https://shobhitagarwal.wordpress.com/
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