Marketing to Niche Groups

[Love Is Murder Conference]

On Monday night at the Schaumburg Twp. Library, we had the pleasure of hosting YA author John Green. John won the Michael L. Printz Award for his first book in 2005 then a Printz Honor for his second in 2006. John is very funny and clearly loves teens. Groups of teens came to the program, but not because of his books or awards, which is why several librarians were there. John and his brother Hank have a Video Blog called Brotherhood 2.0 at www.brotherhood2.com. Every day one of them has to post for an entire year. The teens were huge fans of this website, which has several hundred thousand hits a week (adults love it too). John told me that is the best marketing he could ever have done for his books.

But he didn't do it for his books - he did it for fun with his brother. However, it ended up reaching teens were they are. Teens want to feel personal connections and they love technology. They also like chances to meet other teens. Yes, this is why some teens run into trouble with inappropriate people on the internet, but in this case it is drawing many many teens to a wonderful person and his books.

John mentioned that he has an idea for an adult mystery, and has been reading several good ones. (I suggested he attend a certain mystery conference...) I was thinking, then. Mystery fans are certainly a niche, just as teens can be. What makes us unique?

Over the weekend, I was in "The World's Largest Corn Maze" with my family. While my brother and husband poured over the map on the best way to find all the markers, I was thinking how easy it would be to kill someone in there and stash a body. In fiction, of course. Unless I'm the only mystery writer who thinks like this, and from meeting lots of you I don't think I am, I'd say mystery writers are interested in secrets and intrigue. So if someone had secrets and games on their websites, perhaps other mystery writers would like it. Does anyone have other ideas to attract mystery fans?

Don't be shy - comment away...

[Naomi Hirahara]

Actually Sue Ann Jaffarian's fourth Odelia Grey mystery will be in a corn maze! She's been doing research throughout the country.

And John Green is great. He's a rock star in the YA market. His and his brother's digital diary is hilarious.

I do think that doing outreach to teens is very different than attempting to attract mystery readers. We know that teens, for example, are technologically savvy and may have some time on their hands. What about mystery readers? They span different generations, although probably a large proportion are women over fifty. Will they be spending a lot of time on the Internet combing mystery sites? Do they read mysteries for the puzzle or the characters? I think it's very difficult to pull a John Green in our genre, but I'll be checking back here to see if others have some ideas.