Novelist Roderick MacLean thinks he’s stumbled on a great untapped marketing scheme for his novel Tropic/of/Cubicle. He’s buying Google AdWords for the names of popular authors.
Using AdWords, I set up an ad campaign based entirely on the names of popular or critically acclaimed contemporary authors, such as Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon. For more than a week, when anyone has searched for “Michael Chabon,� among other authors, my ad (pictured above left) has appeared in the “Sponsored Links� column on the right side of Google’s search returns page. Those searchers who have clicked through to my site probably wouldn’t have run across my book otherwise, and, as they have all shown interest in a contemporary literary author, the connection seems well targeted.
Of course, as MacLean points out, this is only economical as long as nobody else is doing it.
Found at Galleycat via Bookslut
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