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Another Industry Editorial
Nov. 6th, 2006 02:27 pmI won't print this one in full, as I assume it's a few years old by now. This is an editorial by Sue Corbett, a children's writer and reviewer, on how to do your own book tour to promote your book. She has some fun ideas, but one about marketing struck me particularly:
"The first thing I did was unconscious. When I needed names for minor characters in my book, I used friends' names.... I named my main character's friends after colleagues. Each of these people, after complaining that they should have gotten more lines and a bigger role (one wondered why he didn't have a romantic interest) not only bought the book, but told their parents and friends, bought copies as gifts, etc."
I'm entirely amused by this, if only because I've used this technique myself, though not quite so blatantly. One of my main characters is named after a writer friend of mine who blogs about strong women, feminism, and other issues, so when I needed a strong female character, I borrowed her name. (Nevermind that this character ended up to be much different from the character I first imagined.) Another character is named after my sister, with the letters switched around so that it's not obvious, but she and I both know it. One of the minor characters is vaguely named after my sister-in-law. I named two minor characters after my chiropractor's daughters on a whim, because I needed two girls about their age. I was mortified to find out that I'd spelled one of their names incorrectly, and the character, forever after, will have a misspelled name. Other things I use when I need names for minor characters: actors or writers I particularly admire. That, likely, does not help me sell books as much as using colleagues would.
I'd love to hear if other people do this, since it wasn't something I'd even done intentionally, and certainly not as a marketing technique.
The full article is at the Lee and Low Web site.
"The first thing I did was unconscious. When I needed names for minor characters in my book, I used friends' names.... I named my main character's friends after colleagues. Each of these people, after complaining that they should have gotten more lines and a bigger role (one wondered why he didn't have a romantic interest) not only bought the book, but told their parents and friends, bought copies as gifts, etc."
I'm entirely amused by this, if only because I've used this technique myself, though not quite so blatantly. One of my main characters is named after a writer friend of mine who blogs about strong women, feminism, and other issues, so when I needed a strong female character, I borrowed her name. (Nevermind that this character ended up to be much different from the character I first imagined.) Another character is named after my sister, with the letters switched around so that it's not obvious, but she and I both know it. One of the minor characters is vaguely named after my sister-in-law. I named two minor characters after my chiropractor's daughters on a whim, because I needed two girls about their age. I was mortified to find out that I'd spelled one of their names incorrectly, and the character, forever after, will have a misspelled name. Other things I use when I need names for minor characters: actors or writers I particularly admire. That, likely, does not help me sell books as much as using colleagues would.
I'd love to hear if other people do this, since it wasn't something I'd even done intentionally, and certainly not as a marketing technique.
The full article is at the Lee and Low Web site.
