The first Legion of Nothing book The Legion of Nothing: Rebirth will be published this month. Sadly, that means I’ve got to promote it. 1889 Labs, the small press that’s publishing it has a list of book reviewers that they’re undoubtedly going to give “Advanced Review Copies” (henceforth, ARC’s) to.
My plan is to add to that by giving ARC’s to comic book blogs (or sites) in the hopes that it might be reviewed there too. Actually, for that matter, I’m thinking I might contact a few sites that are generally oriented toward geeky things.
I’m aware of a few (the ones I personally read), but I know I’m not aware of every place that might review or promote the book.
Do you have suggestions?
Oh, and just for the record, here are some links related to this:
Legion of Nothing on Goodreads
Legion of Nothing: Rebirth on 1889 Labs site
My author profile at 1889 Labs (photo soon to come when I find one that doesn’t suck)
http://superheronovels.com/ for SURE – it’s a great little site that gives some thoughtful, informed criticism of superhero prose novels (which… yeah, just what it says on the tin).
I tried to get some love for Flyover City! there, but it’s a no-go until (and if) it goes to print (not an unreasonable request, and he was perfectly nice about it)
really sharp cover art for LoN on their site, btw!
For sites oriented towards geeky things, there’s Penny-Arcade. I have no clue how they’d react to it, since I don’t see too much geekification over superheroes in the mainstream geekdom, at least compared to D&D, videogames, World of Warcraft, or Sailor Moon.
I live in the middle of nowhere as far as conventions go, but it looks like it’ll be a good time to find out about the fantasy/sci fi/comic book cons. Find out any big names or big sites associated with them that might also be reviewers.
Maybe some of your faithful followers should go viral…ah, but that’s more to build interest rather than reviews. Guess we’ll save the faked news reports about The Rocket seen flying over Michigan for a little while on.
if you could find a mailing address for Nerdist.com they do alot of nerd stuff.
you could send one to Scott Johnson at Frogpants.com. he dos alot of gaming and geeky podcasts. he dos a internet morning show called The Morning Stream.
trying to think out of the box. but thats all i got.
Wow can’t wait to pick up a copy,
all I can think of to help is Reddit, but I am not sure where the best place would be.
“Guess we’ll save the faked news reports about The Rocket seen flying over Michigan for a little while on.”
– Do you think he could fly over here to London? Or not enough fuel? Ah hell, he can bring that space ship. I’d love to get a looksee.
And yeah, really can’t wait to pick up my copy. It has its designated place on my bookshelf already (actually, it has its own bookshelf, all waiting for the rest of them to be published too!)
As for where to get good reviews…um, to be honest, I don’t read review sites. But minor newspapers could be a good try, my local does a 4 page book review section in its saturday paper, as does some of the bigger english newspapers as well. Worth a try.
Ted: Thanks. Strangely, I searched for a novel on Google, and found myself on http://superheronovels.com/ just today. I’ll definitely submit something there.
PG: Penny Arcade might be worth a shot. If either Gabe or Tycho like it enough to write about, that would result in thousands of people checking it out.
Rainnite: I’d heard of Nerdist, but hadn’t ever checked it out. Never heard of Frogpants though. Time put that on my list.
Lanky: I’m not sure where to put it on Reddit either, but I know it can help. One of my friends got bothered by utility workers after he took a picture of water tower. It got a lot of attention on Reddit, and other places (http://jim.puddingbowl.org/archive/2010/09/kentwood-water-tower-followup/)
SilasCova: The local paper is worth a shot. My publisher’s put together a press kit, so there’s my opportunity to use it, I guess.
Gecko has a really good idea, though it indeed wouldn’t really draw reviewers… Some ‘Rocket sighting’ videos might be fun to put up!
Hey Jim,
I’d give an ARC to the peeps over @ ThinkGeek.com peeps. I’d also send a copy over to the writers of the Big Bang theory ( product placement if you could get it on their coffee table or something during the show that would be cool ). A copy to the Colbert show as well perhaps since I know he does book reviews every so often.
Daniel
First: Woohoo for publishing and an extra woohoo for choosing 1889 Labs (it was their influence and connections that led me to discover all the wonders of reading ebooks & online).
Some great suggestions already, what about io9 too? They have a book review section, and often cover online writing outside of that, in addition to their love of superheroes.
Plugging it on Novelr. Not sure if it’ll help, but I love LoN too much.
Awesome! Print copy 😛
Also, are there going to be extras in the book? Like bonus content?
Might be worth a word or two with the authors of http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ and http://www.pvponlive.com/
since they both do/have done similar, and I know they both like to help other writers out.
http://www.shortpacked.com comes to mind. He does a lot of comics based jokes and has a decent following. True, mostly for transformers stuff, but I don’t think he would have a problem looking at a book. Also, http://www.nuklearpower.com actually writes comics and novels, so that might also help.
It is great to see a book in the works! I love to read a good story, period, but my first love will always be a book.
Pinkhair: I’d love to see a “Rocket sighting” video.
Daniel/WA_side/Roger/Charles: I’ll check those suggestions out, and thanks.
Eli: Thanks. Especially early on, I know I got new people checking things out as a result of Novelr. If I ultimately get sales out of it as well, that would be great.
Adam: Alas, the “extras” are only editing, and having less typos. In some ways what I’m doing with the print/ebook version is more focused on attracting potential new readers than pushing people here to buy stuff.
What the book contains is “The Beginning” up through “1953”. According to the people at 1889 Labs, books larger than 90,000 tend to be too expensive, and with the book hitting 89,000, there’s not room enough for extras in any case.
Oh… And in case no one’s seen it, here’s a link to the print copy giveaway:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/28765-the-legion-of-nothing-rebirth
Mwahahaha….
The answer, then, is a shorter book of filler content that can be sold more cheaply to accompany your book.
The Legion of Nothing Commentaries!
..eh, or not, whatever.
http://escapepod.org/
ComicVine (www.comicvine.com) and denofgeek (www.denofgeek.com) are both geek-oriented sites. They review a lot of things–not just comics.
Have you tried to advertise on TV Tropes? There’s already a page for LoN of course.
I did–kind of. I added that it was also a book, and put up the cover as an image. More than that seemed inappropriate.
No man, I mean, get an ad. I know their adserver tries to place ads on certain pages.
Place it on all the ones relating to superheroes.
That’s a thought. I should check out prices for that.
Dude, go to kickstarter. We’ll spring for it. I’m ashamed that I haven’t donated yet, so I owe you.
And again, sorry about the job loss. But seeing that the ranks of Legionnaires is steadily swelling, that point might be moot.