One of my favorite authors is a fantasy writer named Brent Weeks. His first books The Night Angel Trilogy were the first I’d ever read in the fantasy genre. Prior to this, I had a misplaced belief that most fantasy readers spent a lot of time living in their mother’s basement. However, these books opened a whole new world for me and I have since enjoyed dozens of fantasy books.
Last year Brent released his latest title, the first in a new series. I preordered it as soon as it was available and, once it was released, neglected my family and responsibilities to read it cover to cover. I loved it. Can’t wait for the next one.
Now let me ask you something. Why did I read that book? Was it for the author? Was I focused on supporting him in some way? Was it my obligation? Did I feel like I needed to support the struggling publishing industry with my money?
Of course not. I bought and read the book because I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Sure, I like the author and am thankful that the publisher brought his work to the world, but that wasn’t enough for me to pull out my wallet. I read books because I love them.
The funny thing is, I only knew about Brent Week’s new book because he told me about it on his blog. Otherwise, I would never have known that I could preorder it.
This “marketing” tactic of Brent’s with his blog and writing publicly about his work wasn’t some smarmy thing he did to trick me into buying something I didn’t want. Instead, he gave me a way to easily find out about something that would make my life better.
August 22, 2012
