For today’s Monday Marketing blog, I want to discuss using locations in your writing as a way of being creative in your marketing! 🙂
Is it shocking that I actually enjoy writing these Marketing posts? When I first started it was to help solidify my own marketing ideas as well as help others, as I know so many writers either hate marketing, don’t know where to start or just try and avoid it.
I wanted to show that there are lots of ways to market your book and they can actually be fun. So, depending on the type of stories you write, you may have opened yourself up to some interesting and creative options for marketing.
Set the Scene
So maybe you write historical fiction and you set your characters in an Elizabethan manor house complete with sprawling lawns and sweeping driveways.
You can use this in your marketing.
Maybe you can visit a real manor house and share photos of the tour on your Instagram for your readers to see. Maybe you could create a Pinterest board featuring images of the fashion from that time.
These can really help connect your readers to these locations they usually only see in their minds’ eye while reading. Help them step into the reality of it.
For Locations that aren’t real
Maybe you’re a fantasy writer who sets their story in a completely created world like I do. Depending on your story and it’s locations, you may still be able to use “locations” anyway.
For example, in my series The Blessed, I have Five Kings that all reign over different areas in the land. I even have a Castle that rides the clouds, moving over the lands below.
So, there are no cloud castles in this reality (more’s the pity), but my world still has the image of castles that I prefer. These are with turrets and ramparts, portcullis and baileys etc.
So while I can’t use actual shots of a location connected with my novel, I can still tailor my marketing.
Maybe I could share a blog post on some history about what castle life is like. How they look, the structure within, what different parts of the castle are for.
Since the UK is practically littered with castles, seriously, we have so many! I could visit some, showing details that would relate to my own locations such as archery windows and giant dining halls.
Evoking Emotion
We are mostly visual creatures and so we are drawn more to photographs, videos and artwork.
Use this to evoke emotions within your readers. Do you write a gritty urban mystery? Thrust your reader into that world with shots of the city. If you write about a fictional city then snap photos of “aspects”.
Does your city have crowded streets? Does it have towering skyscrapers or stretches of woods carved into the urban sprawl?
Photograph the graffiti, the messy alleyways, the busy streets, the local hangouts. Places that don’t “identify” the city as it’s a real place but as pieces that fit into your novel.
Turn these photos into postcards or bookmarks to be author swag. Create a Facebook album where people can see photos that you connect to different aspects of your novel.
Does your MC stare down at the busy streets from her apartment window? Does your MC eat his lunch on a graffiti-scribbled bench?
There will always be things you can find that build the image of your novel, that evokes the emotion whether that’s a sense of urgency, busy-ness, peace and tranquillity, loneliness or whatever.
Take your Readers on a Journey
Maybe you feel your novel just doesn’t have anything you can connect to. Maybe you write sci-fi where your characters are in the deepest regions of space.
No, you can’t take a tour in space (unless you’re an astronaut writer) but you can share the constellations, you can visit and review dark-sites if you have the right equipment you can take photos of the skies.
You can use any upcoming events such as meteor showers, lunar eclipses, shuttle launches etc as things to discuss in your blog or maybe even to correspond with the launch of your book if you’re really organised. 😀
You could visit observatories or space and technology museums. Write a review on them, share your photos, interview the staff, Hell, reach out to NASA and see if you can interview someone! You don’t know if you don’t ask 😉
Get the Reader involved
Build that extra connection. Create a challenge for your readers to share their own photos.
Does your book centre around a ruined city? Have readers tag you into their photos of ruins or places closed and boarded.
Your MC live in a busy city? Create a group Pinterest board and have people share their photos that represent the feel of city life.
Encourage connections, encourage interaction. Did you visit a history museum that connected to your novel? Ask your readers about their own favourite museums (doesn’t matter if it’s not connected to history or what you write). Your visit is the catalyst to start a dialogue that helps you reach out to others.
What location within your novel could be used in Marketing?
Happy writing
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Author Ari Meghlen Official Website 
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Pingback: How to make use of locations in your marketing | Dragons Rule OK.
Thanks for the link 😊
Thanks for linking 🙂
Thanks so much for linking to my article 🙂
Science Fiction writers can make use of NASA archives now. They’ve opened them up and made the images copyright free!
oooh good idea! Never thought of that 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Reblogged this on Phoenix Rainez and commented:
Inspirational post. Given me some great ideas
Thank you so much for reblogging 🙂
You’re very welcome
Reblogged this on Writing for the Whole Darn Universe.
Thank you kindly for the reblog 🙂
Great article. I love the specific idea and how to use them. Thanks!
Thanks so much for reading and I’m so pleased you for it useful 🙂
Reblogged for November 30th on Dragons Rule OK.
Thanks for setting up the reblog 🙂
What brilliant ideas. I’ve never thought of using locations, real or imaginary for my marketing. I write both historical and fantasy and as I enjoy painting, I could paint some of the locations in my fantasy world. My first historical novel (only one as yet. Next on the way) is set around York in the main but also features Roman London and parts of the Continent at the beginning. I could do things with that.
Thank you so much for these ideas.
Thanks for reading and so glad you found this helpful. 🙂 Ooh for historical fiction, using locations is wonderful for marketing.
Pingback: How to make use of locations in your marketing – by Ari Meghlen… | Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
Thanks for linking 🙂
Love the ideas, but the novella I just released is set in a moustache, what do I do with that? Post pictures of moustaches? Actually that sounds like a good idea, might even post pictures of me with different moustaches! Thanks.
lol what an interesting concept. You could write a post about the different types of mustaches.
We are right on the cusp of “Movember” where people don’t shave and grow mustaches through November to raise awareness for men’s health issues so you could do a piece about that.
See, there is always something that could be done 🙂
The novella was originally a short story to help get sponsorship for Movember but it spiralled out of control and is now a book in its own right. I could do something on types of moustaches, thanks for the help.
That is great! 😀 You could also do an article on those Moustache contests that happen 😉
I never thought about locations and marketing going hand in hand. I usually write where I’m from. Sometimes I make a small town up but it’s always nearby. It’s my comfort zone. Now you got me thinking.
I think it can be easier if it’s from a local place, because then you can invite your readers (metaphorically) to your favourite cafe, share a photo of a local park where you got a spark of an idea, capture the sights and sounds of the place so they can immerse themselves in it 🙂
Ari! These marketing posts are fabulous! I am not a writer but I find all this so interesting and inspiring. I have given a link to your blog to my younger daughter who is currently world-building for a fantasy graphic novel she is planning.
Aww thank you Clare, I really appreciate your kind words. I always get these weird feelings of whether I should post marketing posts, after all, I’m not even published! lol
Though I do run my own business and have worked with Marketing teams in other companies so I like to think what I am sharing is useful.
It’s lovely that your daughter is writing and I wish her all the best for creation. I hope she enjoys my blog should she choose to visit 🙂
Thank you, Ari.
Excellent ideas!
Apologies for the delay in replying to your comment.
Thank you, Ivia. Glad you liked it 🙂