![\"\"](\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/resources\/images\/MK-AJ187_ADVERT_20070327192022.gif\")
What’s\u00a0a\u00a0publisher to do when the content of a new book is so racy and offensive that newspapers and\u00a0magazines won’t touch it?<\/p>\nWhat’s\u00a0a\u00a0publisher to do when the content of a new book is so racy and offensive that newspapers and\u00a0magazines won’t touch it?<\/p>\n
Build the buzz online by spending only $10,000 to\u00a0create three short,\u00a0risque, sexist\u00a0videos about the risque, sexist book. Then post\u00a0them at sites such as YouTube<\/a> and watch\u00a0as word spreads to other popular social networking sites like MySpace.<\/a><\/p>\n That’s exactly what\u00a0Harper Perennial<\/a> is doing to promote the steamy\u00a0book “The Average American Male,”<\/a> a salacious tale\u00a0of how men daydream about\u00a0women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal article about the promotion didn’t link to the videos, so\u00a0I had to go over to YouTube and spend 10 minutes searching for them.\u00a0If you don’t want to be offended, skip to the next paragraph. If you’re curious, take a look:\u00a0What Guys Really Think About Saying I Love You,<\/a> \u00a0What Men Really Think (on Dates)<\/a>\u00a0and What Men Really Think (About Marriage).<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The videos have become\u00a0a web sensation, with more than 1 million verified views in the past two weeks. Since its March 13 publication date, the book has gone back to press three times, raising the total in print from\u00a0from 20,000 to 30,000.<\/p>\n The campaign is a super example of how a company with a tiny advertising budget is able to reach huge audiences quickly and cheaply. The WSJ says\u00a0the campaign is particularly significant for book publishers, which prefer to rely on word-of-mouth chatter to drive sales more than conventional advertising.<\/p>\n Thanks to self-publishing guru Dan Poynter whose excellent Your Publishing Poynters Newsletter included a one-line mention and a link to the WSJ article.\u00a0<\/p>\n The promotion is\u00a0just one more example of how the old rules of publicity—measuring success with a thick\u00a0pile of newspaper clippings—just don’t apply anymore.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What’s\u00a0a\u00a0publisher to do when the content of a new book is so racy and offensive that newspapers and\u00a0magazines won’t touch it? Build the buzz online by spending only $10,000 to\u00a0create three short,\u00a0risque, sexist\u00a0videos about the risque, sexist book. Then post\u00a0them at sites such as YouTube and watch\u00a0as word spreads to other popular social networking sites\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":7,"wds_primary_category":612,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[608,216,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-25128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-online-marketing","7":"tag-authors-publishers","8":"tag-video-marketing","9":"tag-youtube","10":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40720,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25128\/revisions\/40720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}