Recently, after
a long, hard day at the office I went to a movie theater some 20 minutes from
work. I had looked forward to seeing
this escapist movie all day. However,
when I got to the theater’s box office, the worker, who looked exhausted from
doing nothing, told me the 8:00 p.m. showing of the film was cancelled.
“Cancelled? Why?,” I asked, with shock and disgust in my
voice.
“The
rain. We cancelled the 8 o’clock. Next
one is at 10:30,” she informed me, her eyes gazing away, her voice trailing off
as if she’d run a marathon.
“Are
you kidding me?” was all I could utter in amazement. I walked away an unhappy
man.
I
never heard of such a thing. Here’s an
idea – people go to the movies because of the rain.
To
be clear, it did rain most of the day.
Nothing unusual for NYC. It’s not
like the street flooded and there was a super storm with high winds. Just rain.
Water. And for this, they
cancelled the movie. They didn’t even change
their info online, so I was working blind here. The theater remained open -- it just wasn't showing the movie. Odd.
Ok,
so aside from wanting to vet about an idiotic approach to business, I think
there’s a lesson to share for authors and book publishers. You must meet a consumer’s needs, desires,
and expectations.
No
bait and switch, please. Advertise and
promote your book as is, nothing more, or people will feel cheated.
Don’t
miss out on your commitments or appearances – people will never forget that you
didn’t show up or fell short of delivering what was promised.
Do
not lie or mislead the media – they will never cover you again if you bullshit
them.
I
know, I know, it sounds contradictory to what you’d expect a book marketer and
promoter would say, but it is true. You
can’t sneak away from what you need to do – and you can’t dilute or overstate
your message. As a published author, you
are responsible for comporting yourself with dignity and class.
I’m
so angry that I’m not able to rely on what usually is a reliable thing – to go
to the movies, on schedule, to escape life for a few hours, turn off the phone,
shun the burdens of the world, and ignore the ills of the world. I was deprived of something that should be consistent
100% of the time. Trust me, there was no
blizzard that day. Businesses didn’t close.
Kids had school. The subways ran, albeit
on delay. Restaurants were open. It was business as usual – except at this
movie theater. Authors, learn from this.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
Great book -- or
great marketing?
How do you find
more book reviewers?
When writers can’t
find time to write and market their books
Authors really need
to be SUPREME in their book marketing
How to use the
right words to market your book
Best Book On Fake
News Shows Us How To Defeat The Lies
Valuable Info On
Book Marketing Landscape For First-Time Authors
Scores of
Best-Selling Book PR Tips from Book Expo PR Panel
How should authors
sell themselves?
Enjoy New 2018
Author Book Marketing & PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative
opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone
and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America
and participated in a PR panel at the Sarah Lawrence College Writers Institute
Conference.
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