I happened upon this headline demonstrating innovation in book marketing while searching for something completely different. The headline was so striking that I had to drop what I was doing and check it out.

Here is that headline: Corby entrepreneur and new author offers prizes hidden in between paperbacks’ pages

The innovation in book marketing

Like the golden ticket in a certain book about Willy Wonka, ten lucky winners will find a prize hidden in the pages of the new book. That is one way to get some free publicity. Enough media coverage, in fact, for me to stumble onto the story while doing something else.

It will probably not surprise you that this author is no stranger to entrepreneurial enterprises. Lazar Vuković’s new book is “Make It Happen!” and this, says the article, is a soon-to-be-published book about getting ahead in business.

When it comes to innovative book promotions the first rule is probably, “whatever it takes to get noticed”. With a sub-clause of, “ideally something no one has done before”. I think this giveaway counts. Even before the book is out, Vuković is giving the press something to talk about. Giving the press something to talk about is 90% of the battle when it comes to getting free publicity.

If this worked for Vuković, the chances are it will work for the first few people who try it next. Adding a free prize ticket inside some of your books is likely to keep working for as long as it seems novel to the press.

The first few authors on this bandwagon will likely do very well. However, at some point, authors will have to start raising the bar with ever more exciting prizes to get the same result. Like most things in marketing, novelty is effective but rapidly suffers from the rule of diminishing returns.